Bag O Worms

You will be able to tell whether worms have perished during transport since they will emit a terrible odour. They most certainly have not passed away if there was no stench.

We are positive that we put the right number of worms in each bag. To make sure that we never undersupply the number of worms, we have stringent quality procedures and tests.

I will thus presume that the worms are still present in your pack, perhaps they are just hard to spot. 90% of the worms will be much smaller than the huge worms that are visible. The worms range in size from roughly 10mm to 100mm, which is a significant range. For transportation, we also pack the worms on the drier side, but this can cause the bedding to adhere to the worms and make them difficult to view.

I'd advise you to continue setting up your worm farm, add these worms, and then keep an eye on it over the following few weeks to observe how they're handling the food. The food will begin to be consumed by the worms from underneath, so you may need to pick the food up gently every few days to monitor how many there are.

Worms should not be added to potted plants, in my opinion.

Worms need to be fed frequently, but doing so in a potted plant is challenging. The worms will probably eventually consume all of your potting medium before dying or leaving. When watered, the potting medium will then lose its loose porosity structure and become overly compact.

The better choice for you would be to purchase or build a standalone worm farm and add worms to it. When you receive castings from your worm farm, you can either add them directly to your houseplants or liquefy them to make a worm cast tea before watering them.

I assume you mean the leachate that drains from the bottom of a worm farm like Can O Worms or Worm Café when you say "worm wee," "worm juice," "worm tea," or "liquid."

Because the quality of leachate depends on the longevity of the worm farm and the calibre of the worm food, leachate is a very changeable product. Leachate should be eliminated in the first stages of setting up a worm farm because it is essentially decaying vegetable liquid and could be detrimental to plants. Additionally, decaying vegetable liquid that is kept in the collection tray for an extended period of time may turn anaerobic, or devoid of oxygen, which may encourage the growth of pathogens or bag bugs. More than 90% of all pathogens live anaerobic conditions.

The water in wet vegetables like tomatoes, lettuce, watermelon, etc. produces the majority of the leachate in a worm farm. To get more leachate, some individuals add water to worm farms. Worms don't "pee," thus they don't create their own liquid. Leachate is diluted worm cast liquid as the worm farm ages (3-6 months) and the worms produce more worm cast. The liquid from worm casts that has been diluted can be very helpful to plants.

You can easily determine the quality of your leachate by giving it a sniff. It is terrible for plants when there is a bad stench. The leachate is presumably safe for plants to use because it has a wonderful earthy aroma.

If leachate is to be bottled, the bottle should never have a lid on it. To preserve the beneficial microorganisms, it must remain aerated. The helpful microorganisms perish if the leachate is contained in a bottle because the air is swiftly devoured by the biology, within 24 to 48 hours. What is left are anaerobes, or microorganisms that cannot breathe, and these anaerobes typically are pathogenic or "bad" bugs. Additionally, they emit sulphur compounds that give the leachate an unpleasant odour.

If your leachate has been sealed in a bottle and still does not smell bad after more than 48 hours, it usually means that it has rather low levels of beneficial microorganisms to start off with and is therefore a very weak product. It can still be ok for plants, but would have to be used in much higher concentrations.

Before putting on plants, a high-quality worm cast leachate can be diluted 10:1 with water. It might not be necessary to dilute a mild worm leachate at all.

Grab a handful of fully converted worm cast and dissolve it in a bucket or watering can full of water. This is my preferred way for creating ready to use liquid worm cast.

We conducted our own research on the effects of common worm treatments like ivermectin and praziquantel on earthworms in manure, and the results were positive. These anti-worm drugs target parasitic worms, which are entirely unrelated to earthworms in terms of animal family.

Our findings are consistent with those of a US-based veterinarian named Erin May, who fed the drugs directly to her compost worms without any negative consequences.

The aforementioned remark on worming treatment will have one significant caveat added. Only contemporary anti-worm drugs, those that are now allowed for sale, were tested. However, we are aware that some horse owners continue to use older, outlawed worming drugs, such as DDT, Dieldrin, and a host of other things that were outlawed in the 1990s. Earthworms and almost anything else that comes into contact with these antiquated chemicals will die.

Just test a tiny amount (a handful or two) on discrete areas of your beds if you are unsure which medications have been used in your manure. It is okay to use if the worms get into it within a couple of days and there are no evidence of dead worms. To enable the worms to dive right in, wet the dung down first.

They are frequently referred to as vinegar flies if they are little flies flying around inside your worm bed. The stench of decomposing plant debris attracts them.

Getting rid of the stench of the rotting vegetables is the greatest technique to get rid of them. There are several ways to accomplish this.

The worm food can be placed in your worm farm after being wrapped in a newspaper or brown paper bag. The worms will enter the bag via the bottom of the moist paper, chew their way through it, and then eat the contents without emitting any odours.

Alternatively, you might hide your worm food in various spots close to your worm farm. Once more, this will get rid of the smell of rotting vegetables.

Additionally, it's a good idea to use a worm blanket or just to layer shredded cardboard or paper thickly on top of the worm bedding before adding worm food underneath. Additionally, it balances the carbon to nitrogen ratio.

Both the bokashi compost and the bokashi starter culture should NOT be used in worm farms. Because of its high acidity, it will kill more worms. Worm composting and bokashi are two completely distinct processes that CANNOT be combined. Worm composting is an aerobic process, whereas bokashi is anaerobic or done without air.

Please dispose of the Bokashi compost by burying it in the ground in accordance with the directions that came with your Bokashi kit. It will eventually decompose into soil thanks to soil microorganisms. For me, there is no benefit to utilising a Bokashi kit. Why process your kitchen trash with Bokashi before burying it when you can bury it straight away and save yourself the trouble and expense of first fermenting it with Bokashi?

Worms do all of the functions of bokashi, only more quickly, easily, and effectively. Worm casts are also a very beneficial by-product.