My Worm Inn has springtails. The tub bin doesn't. Interesting in itself since everything else is more or less the same. Both bins are more homogenous than most bins because my shredder makes confetti and I break down the food in a processor,( or a blender if I'm adding egg shell). There aren't any big pieces of anything . . . mostly for esthetic reasons.
I think the worms would be happier with egg carton, corrugated cardboard, and coffee filters. I'll do one of those in the Spring, outside.
Consensus seems to be that springtails -- which , without magnification, look like white thread the size of the eye of a small embroidery needle -- are beneficial unless rampant or excess. Magnified sufficiently for recognition,, they have a lot of tiny legs and wiggle around. There is/are a variety of springtails,
From http://www1.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/springtails/
These insects are very small, commonly between 1/16th and 1/8th inch long. They have moderate length antennae and are usually slender, elongate insects, although there is a group of springtails that is round and stout. Most springtails are dark-colored, brown, grey or black although some species are white, and some are even iridescent and brightly colored.
The tiny white ones are (I think) folsomia candida.
Even so I am removing some. I have a piece of denim for moisture retention in the Worm Inn. Springtails gather on that. I rinsed them off, once a day in a rain barrel. They aggregated and float. Just for amusement, I put banana peels on the top of the bed. They gathered like iron to a magnet,
forming a fringe on the edge and a peel pattern of themselves underneath.
I envy the poster with a microscope that takes pictures.
My camera might if I knew how . I tried some Macro shots
but got nothing worth posting.
equinoxequinox
Mooshy
Related Professionals
Lakewood Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Willowick Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Centereach Landscape Contractors · Eureka Landscape Contractors · Gaithersburg Landscape Contractors · Maywood Landscape Contractors · Waipahu Landscape Contractors · Wells Landscape Contractors · Irvington Landscape Contractors · Suisun City Landscape Contractors · Clarksville General Contractors · Montebello General Contractors · Rocky Point General Contractors · Uniondale General Contractors · Williamstown General Contractors11otis
barbararose21101Original Author
pskvorc
barbararose21101Original Author
pskvorc