Worms prefer moist, not wet, conditions, needing moisture to breathe through their skin but avoiding being waterlogged; the ideal consistency for a worm farm is like a damp sponge, with enough moisture to keep them healthy but allowing for drainage and airflow to prevent drowning, making them prefer damp soil over dry or saturated environments.
Water makes up more than 75% of the earthworm's body weight, so moist soils are preferred to prevent dehydration. Earthworms acclimate quickly by moving to humid sites or by entering a resting state.
1. What do worms hate the most? Compost worms, such as tiger and red worms, are sensitive creatures that thrive in reasonably specific conditions. Dry conditions are one of the worst things as worms have very little capacity to withstand dehydration.
Keep your worm bin somewhere out of the sun indoors – under the sink works well. If outdoors, keep it in a sheltered spot in the shade. Worms will be happiest between 15 and 25°C, so you will need to move your worm bin to a shed, garage or bring it indoors over winter. Make sure the worms have enough oxygen.
Mealworm larvae and adults avoid very dry or very wet areas but do need some moisture to survive. Eggs are laid in batches in the litter and hatch in 4 to 5 days under typical room temperatures. The larval period, normally about 10 weeks, can be as short as 8 weeks.
The 5 common mistakes in worm composting are overfeeding, which causes smells and pests; incorrect moisture, making it too wet (anaerobic) or dry (dehydration); wrong food choices, avoiding meat/dairy/oils; poor ventilation/temperature, leading to suffocation or extreme heat; and ignoring bedding balance, failing to mix carbon ("browns") and nitrogen ("greens") for proper bedding. These errors create unhealthy environments, stressing or killing worms, and leading to system failure.
Mealworms thrive in a large container because providing more space will help dissipate heat and prevent overheating, which improves survival rate. Too many mealworms, stored in too small of a container, will cause the worms to suffocate, get crushed, or simply overheat and die.
Worms can eat these foods frequently: Apples, bananas, berries, broccoli, carrots, eggplant, lettuce, mushrooms, pears, squash, tomatoes, watermelon, avocados, banana peels, bell peppers, cantaloupe, corn, grapes, mango, peaches, potatoes, spinach, tofu, zucchini.
Fruit and vegetable scraps and peels. Potato peels are OK, but worms tend to avoid them (figure 14). Eggshells or other source of grit. These should be ground or pulverized.
Feed them a small handful of food waste at a time, and check them every day or two; when you see them writhing in the last batch of food you fed them, it's time to feed them another handful.
Worms like to eat most vegetable scraps (except raw potatoes and peelings) they love fruit especially melon, pineapple and apple peels (they don't like citrus), they enjoy herbs (but don't like strong flavours like chilli, onion and garlic). Worms will also eat soaked and ripped paper, hair, tea bags and crushed shell.
85% of the weight of a worm is water and they can loose 70% of their body weight without dying. First aid for a dehydrated worms involves putting them in a glass of water for a few hours, while you rectify the wormery conditions, then put them back in the wormery.
Once every week, pour about five litres of fresh water into the Top Working Tray, which will flood down through the lower trays, ensuring the entire worm farm remains very moist. The sudden 'flood' will not harm the worms. Adding water is especially important in the hotter months of the year.
In short, worms do not require activation (or any human intervention) to execute or spread their code around your system.
You should not put meat, dairy, oily foods, spicy items (like chili, onion, garlic), citrus, salty foods, or processed/cooked foods in a worm farm, as they cause odors, attract pests, and can harm worms; also avoid non-biodegradable items like plastic, treated wood, and pet feces (dog/cat). Stick to natural, unprocessed foods and appropriate bedding like paper and cardboard, adding small amounts of food at a time to prevent imbalance.
But food waste and paper waste often do not provide enough protein to get fat, chubby worms. Fat worms are important to bait sellers as well, so in order to add a little meat to their, uh, “bones,” you can supplement with a protein-rich mix of cornmeal, chicken mash, alfalfa, kelp meal, soybean hulls, and more.
Worms can live for 4 weeks without fresh food. Put damp newspaper in the worm farm and leave in a cool location. Empty the 'worm juice' before you go and leave the tap open with a container underneath it to collect the liquid.
Using pee: a how-to guide. Keep in mind that urine is very high in nitrogen. You may need to pee daily, but your plants don't need your daily pee. Choose plants that need lots of nitrogen, such as corn and squash, tomatoes and cucumbers during their fruit-bearing stage, and older plants that need a boost.
Worms are very sensitive to light, so they have cells that are light-sensitive throughout their skin, and even more at the ends. These cells sense both light and its intensity. They will always shy away from the light because they prefer to be in the dark.
If you notice that some your worms are dead, act quickly to save the remaining worms with these steps:
The remains of dead mealworms, beetles or pupa should be removed to prevent mold infestations. This can be done using a sieve or by hand (see below for more details). At every molt mealworms will leave behind a brown skin. Once every few weeks this should be removed by hand or using a cat litter poo scoop or a sieve.
Once worms are big enough, sift frass (waste) and bedding out once a month, dispose of in garden, wash and dry container, return worms and add new food.