National Wildlife Federation/ San Diego County

Worms

A How To Primer on Worms and Worm Farming

Earthworms are engineering marvels. Although blind, they eat anything in sight, turning trash, garbage and old love letters into priceless compost.

They can make a "bad" soil good and a "good" soil even better. They change the structure of the soil by excreting castings that bind the particles of
sand, silt and clay into aggregates, and the texture of the soil by burrowing, tunneling, and aerating the soil making even the heaviest soil more workable and the sandiest soil "plant-friendly."

Naturalists agree that fertilizing with worm castings provides the best (and perhaps the only)food most plants will ever need. Worm aficionados call it nature's organic "insecticide."

Alas, unlike space travelers, worms will not go where no worm has gone before. They will not "venture" where the land has been stripped of its topsoil, cleared by bulldozers, compressed by
construction equipment, or rendered barren and impotent by herbicides, miticides, or fungicides.

While worms might not wiggle where no worm has wiggled before, they have no choice over how and where we catch-em and feed-em and harvest their
castings. Dixieline, and other similar stores, sells sterilized worm castings under the brand name "WormGlow." It's great for fertilizing and for making "worm tea." [Editorial note: four ounces of worm castings in a cheesecloth bag, left to soak in a gallon of water for 24 hours, will become a medium strength worm tea.]

But, if you want to introduce worms "where no worm has gone before," you will need to find "live"
castings with the chance of also getting a bonus of worm eggs and larvae. You can buy "live" worm castings from Williams Worm Farm in Lakeside. You can find them on-line, or get them free from a friend with a worm bin.

Better yet, raise your own.

All you need is a pound of earthworms and a box conveniently placed in a shady spot outside your kitchen door ( or an apartment balcony) where worms can be fed kitchen waste, junk mail, letters,
shredded cardboard, crushed eggshells, etc.

Don't waste money on a commercial worm bin. Make your own. A plastic file box and a shredded Union Tribune for bedding (or a North County Times), make a good, lightweight worm bin. Buy two file boxes
with tight fitting lids; worms need a dark environment. Drill lots of air holes on all four sides as well as exit and entrance holes on top and bottom of each box.

Remove the lid from the bottom box and fit one box inside the other. After the worms consume all the food and bedding in the upper box, they will migrate down through the worm holes to find the food and bedding you provided in the lower box. Simply harvest the castings in the upper box and rotate the boxes. Hopefully, the castings will contain worm eggs and larvae that can be introduced into a shady area with damp, friable soil. A more sophisticated worm bin might contain a spigot to drain off the liquid worm tea.

"Worms love to run away from home," cautions Connie Beck Crusha, noted naturalist and environmental guru (sic). "Put the worm box up on bricks so the worms can't escape, and keep the box very moist. Worms like it more moist than you would believe."

Vermiculturist Don Kuhn relates a great story about a couple who kept their worm bin under the kitchen sink, making it easier to feed them with kitchen scraps. All went well until they returned home to discover they forgot to feed the worms before they went away. They returned to find the worms has escaped and were all over the house looking for food.

Connie Beck Crusha lines her worm boxes with fiberglass window screen fabric. The only place worms can escape to is from one box to the other.

If you need any additional information about worms, e-mail mrmort@cox.net
Mort Brigadier
Adapted from my article, Ask Any Child (About Worms), in California Garden Magazine, page181, Nov-Dec, 2004, Vol 95, No.6.-