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pjames_gw

Do we overthink our wormkeeping?

pjames
13 years ago

Worms have evolved into a great machine we can use to convert stuff we do NOT want (food scraps and cellulose) into something we do want- great quality soil additives. As long as we do not mess up their ecology too badly, they will do that job easily and efficiently.

Years ago I learned that it is easy to keep almost any animal alive. But you have to satisfy certain requirements to get them to breed. Some animals have stringent requirements while others seem to reproduce despite efforts to mess them up. Worms, especially EF's and EH's fall into this latter category.

I think we tend to overthink what they need. We want their bedding to be 'just right' -plenty of airy space to crawl through and chow down on the tastiest morsels we can provide. And then we see the majority of worms hanging out in the densest, wettest part of our bins packed full with their own feces. So who is fooling who?

Personally, I follow my own asthetics to some degree. I hate the large populations of mites that seem to congregate in my bins. I avoid 'smelly' conditions whether it be the anerobic conditions we know we need to prevent or even the smells of manure. But then I keep my bins inside. I also try to control pests or, failing that, keep my wife from observing those pests so she does not make me move my worms out.

I keep several composting bins outside where I compost what others consider 'questionable' or 'forbidden' items. Some of that outside compost may get processed through my worms for one purpose- to change what is a good soil additive into one that is superb.

One person I saw recently referred to processing his junk mail and old documents through his worms as the 'ultimate in ID protection". I used a similar but cruder terminology-if an identify thief can get my information from worm sh... then they deserve it.

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