Earthworms play a significant role in maintaining a balanced ecosystem, particularly in stabilizing organic matter in the environment. The African night crawler (Eudrilus eugeniae), Indian blue (Perionyx Excavatus) and the red wiggler (Eisenia fetida) are known compost worms. They can efficiently convert most urban and agricultural organic waste into biofertilizer (Sinha et al. 2002, 2010)
Sourcing these worms can be challenging. Moreover, a limited understanding of the environmental requirements for maintaining and propagating these earthworms increases the risk of loss.
Being prepared is your first step to protecting your investment!
Our experience supplying compost worms and worm-farms over the past years, has shown that, most people are not prepared to receive their worms. In this article, we share some key considerations to help you prepare for receiving your cultures and protect your investment.
Site selection
Where are you placing your worm farm?
A cool, well-ventilated area is always best!
Worm bin temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius can trigger an exodus of earthworms from your bin.
It is important to avoid:
- Direct sunlight affecting your worm bin
- Rain flooding your bin
- Placing your bin close to motors such as A/C units, water pumps, etc.
- Poorly ventilated areas
- Smoke/exhaust
- Areas with poor sanitation for health and safety reasons
Worm bin preparation
How will you house your worms?
Worm bins should be secure and sturdy.
They should protect against predators and be resistant to crushing or cracking from external or internal forces.
They can be created using plastic, wood, metal, or concrete. Designs can be single or multi-tiered. A greater surface area-to-volume ratio can aid in moisture management. Opaque materials are ideal for promoting dark conditions. Holes at the base or a spigot for collecting leachate are not necessary.
Receptacles that can be used for housing worms
Pre-built and pre-started units:
Our commercial worm farm is created with wood and lined with plastic. It features a built-in sifter and reduces the need for excessive bending. These are suitable for intensive production systems.
Our starter kits are ideal for beginners or small operations, such as the home or office. Accessories included are a compost sifter and spray bottle. They are supplied with worms, worm food, and an instructional guide to help with management.
D.I.Y UNITS
Cut barrels:
Select food-grade or low-hazardous type barrels to reduce any negative effects on your cultures.
Handles can be installed to ease lifting.
Old Refrigerator:
Construction film can be used to help reduce corrosion and extend the useful life of these types of containers.
Old bathtub:
Worm farm installation at Bethany Estate. A bathtub was repurposed and lined with construction film for vermicomposting.
Food and bedding material
What will you feed your worms?
This seems obvious, but earthworms must have access to a diverse range of nutrients to proliferate. The type and volume of waste generated by each home or source will vary.
Brown (carbon-rich) waste such as cardboard packaging, receipts, envelopes, newspaper, and tissue paper rolls is needed in larger quantities. While green (low-carbon) waste such as vegetable scraps, livestock manure, and grass clippings comprise 25-30% of your worm food. Landscape waste, such as pruning and leaf litter, should be pre-composted to induce rotting before feeding worms.
Management
Do you have the time to care for worms?
Time, tools, logistical flow, storage, and expansion are all aspects of management that should be considered.
The scale or level of investment will determine the amount of time needed to manage the worm farm. The average household requires at least 2- 4 hrs. per week to attend to their worm farm. Regular gardening tools like a hand fork can be used to facilitate bin management (Table 1).
Garden tools that can aid in worm bin maintenance:
Item | Importance |
Hand shovel | Feeding |
Hand fork | Aeration |
Rubber gloves | Personal protection |
Sifter | Separating castings from unfinished material. |
Thermometer | Temperature monitoring |
Moisture meter | Measuring moisture level |
Spray can | Moisture regulation |
Access to the worm bin should minimize excessive bending and strenuous lifting
How many worms do you need?
Earthworms will vermi-convert at least 50% of their body mass per day in organic waste (Pandit, Ahmad, and Maheshwari 2011). One pound of African night crawlers has approximately 500 adult worms, while there are approximately 800-1000 red wigglers per pound. Under ideal management conditions, earthworm populations will at least double in size over an 8–12 week period (Martin and Eudoxie 2018). It is important, hence, to assess your weekly waste output to determine the number of worms you need. We encourage a quarter to half pound of worms as a low-risk investment into vermicomposting.
Earthworm populations will naturally expand as mentioned earlier. If there are no interventions to accommodate a growing stock in a restricted space, this will lead to losses. Excess worms can always be sold.
A one-time purchase of worms is enough to establish a formidable colony; nevertheless, preparation is crucial.
Extra reading material
Martin, Micah, and Gaius Eudoxie. 2018. “Feedstock Composition Influences Vermicomposting Performance of Dichogaster annae Relative to Eudrilus eugeniae and Perionyx excavatus.” Environmental Science and Pollution Research 25 (18): 17716–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-1853-1.
Pandit, Nitin Prakash, Nabeel Ahmad, and Kumar Sanjiv Maheshwari. 2011. “Vermicomposting Biotechnology: An Eco-Loving Approach for Recycling of Solid Organic Wastes into Valuable Biofertilizers.” Journal of Biofertilizers & Biopesticides 03 (01): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4172/2155-6202.1000113.
Sinha, Rajiv K., Sunita Agarwal, Krunal Chauhan, Vinod Chandran, and Brijal Kiranbhai Soni. 2010. “Vermiculture Technology: Reviving the Dreams of Sir Charles Darwin for Scientific Use of Earthworms in Sustainable Development Programs.” Technology and Investment 01 (03): 155–72. https://doi.org/10.4236/ti.2010.13019.
Sinha, Rajiv K., Sunil Herat, Sunita Agarwal, Ravi Asadi, and Emilio Carretero. 2002. “Vermiculture and Waste Management: Study of Action of Earthworms Eisenia Fetida, Eudrilus Eugeniae and Perionyx Excavatus on Biodegradation of Some Community Wastes in India and Australia.” The Environmentalist 22 (3): 261–68. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1016583929723.
Micah Martin
MPhil Soil Science,
BSc, General Agriculture, UWI.
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