Frequently Asked Questions on a wormery

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Will my worms eat.......?
 

Insert anything organic. The short and correct answer is 'No'.
 

The prime directive of this site is to teach you to force a parameter change in your mind. To realise that 'wormery' is the wrong name for the soil making ecosystem you are creating.
 

Your garbage will be eaten by the Microbes in your wormery. Your worms will feast upon them. Transferring the nutrients in the waste eventually into humus. Humus is the magic ingredient in soil.
 

The difficult and timely task of establishing that microbial life is generally the most difficult part of worm farming.
If you can source worms from an actual established Vermicomposting bin you will get that injection. You will not be starting from scratch. In our minds that is worth more than the worms. Sadly most bought worms come from a peat bedding. Fed on worm chow to fatten them. Those worms come essentially sterile. Bad news.
 

Anything organic will eventually be broken down by microbial life. In the Forgotten Corner we even process small amounts of meat in a worm system. Take time to read our curriculum and you will be a mater worm wrangler

With the assumption that this is your first purchase. Setting up a wormery from scratch we say with no doubt your best option is to buy established vermicast. It could contain adults, juveniles, cacoons or a mix of all three. But the most precious purchase is the microbial life already in that Vermicompost. It gets you ahead of the game. Stabalising a brand new wormery frim scratch takes months. An established successful vermicompostor may have spent years getting their Detrivore Army where it is.
When we supply to customers for new installations at least 20% of the bedding will come from our established wormfarms. Whenever we make a new bedding mix for our own operation at least 20% is from the previous lot. We think of it like Sour Dough Starter.
 

And we are fans of buying cacoons. Allowing them to hatch in the vermicompost they were laid in and adding additional beddimg to increase the volume of the wormery. Both the Microbes and the worms will invade and innoculate the fresh bedding. You will get vurtually no escapees.
 

Sadly, most composting worms suppliers are primarily fishing bait suppliers. Their process does not involve encouraging microbial life. They fatten the worms in peat or coir. That is what you will recieve with the worms. That is not Vermicompost.
Using new bedding to increase the volume of the wormery. Both the Microbes and the worms will invade and innoculate the fresh bedding. You will get virtually no escapees. This way of creating a new bin is effectively the splitting of a bin into two. Padding out the Vermicompost containing caccoons with new bedding. If you are struggling to obtain cacoons get in touch. We will see what spare we have.

We write about this in the fundamentals section but we understand its import. It is distressing to the new worm farmer.
 

Chances are that you have done nothing wrong. Especially if you have read our washing-up bowl series.
 

As far as we can ascertain no one truely knows why newly bought worms have the urge to roam. But what follows is our views based on reading what scientific data there is and our own observation and practice.
 

It appears that worms build a symbiotic relationship with the contents of their environment. Be it bedding, food or associated microbial life. When transferred to a new environment it shocks and stresses them. They go in search of the familiar.
This is why when building a new wormery make the core of it. At least 20% with vermicast the worms currently live in. Splitting a bin into two is always easier than starting a wormery from scratch. That is why buying composting worms in good vermicast is the best practice. Why this isnt currently offered by all suppliers mystifies us. And to be clear coconut coir or peat is not Vermicompost let alone bedding.
 

Additional factors that facilitate these discombobulated composting worms to migrate are condensation and darkness. Putting lids on wormeries gives the moisture the ability to evaporate and condense.. The oxygen rich moisture provides highways for them to explore. Stop the condensation and that helps reduce the wandering. And keeping lights shining down keeps their heads down until they settle in their new environment.