Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering what you would need to start getting things set up for the cheapest way to start up Earthworm breeding . Including :

Housing?
Feeding?
Watering?
Hints on making it work and work well?

Worms are one of the easiest feeders to raise, I think. Rubbermaid totes (I use two) with holes punched in bottom and along the sides. Bedding can be shredded newspaper (not the best) shredded cardboard (considered to be the best), coir, or shredded leaves. Make it about 5-6 inches deep. Food is any veggie or fruit that you would normally be ready to throw out (not too much citrus, and no onions). My current method is to chop the veggies in small pieces, put in baggies and keep in freezer til ready to use. Thaw the baggie out a bit, then empty contents in the bin. Either bury them somewhat in the bedding or add fresh bedding on top (this is to keep the smell down). Add more food when the food in the bin is about gone. I keep a piece of cardboard over the the top as it helps to keep the moister in. Once set up, the moisture from the food added should be plenty. The rule of thumb is the bedding should be moist enough to stick together but not wet enough to drip water when you squeeze it. Keep something under the bin to catch the drippings which is good fertilizer. When the bin is full, stop feeding, but the second bin on top of the filled one with new bedding and food; the worms will climb into the bin and leave all the good stuff in the bottom bin.

Oh, they like coffee grounds and tea leaves too, so add them to the bin. Regular little garbage disposals. Also, unless your feeding something that really needs earthworms, I'd suggest you go for Red Wigglers, they are much easier to keep. I think it is one pound of worms with eat 1/4 pound of food a day; and I think that means about 1,000 worms. I don't have that many, I just went to the bait shop and bought a couple dozen to get me started. Iggie eats one or two worms every couple days at best. I see some baby worms in my bin, so we are off to a good start. Don't forget the added benefit of the worm castings if you garden, I'm even going to try adding it to the soil in my lizard tank, which is planted, to provide extra fertilizer that won't be hazardus to Iggies health
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Linda ö¿ö

I posted a reply below to a question on feeding earthworms. The post can be found at forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=58332,64387. I have listed lots of foods that I put in my compost bin. My worms are healthy, reproducing (I have had it going for over a year now) and the food gets turned into nice black compost with added worm castings.

I give onions, tomatoes, anything but meat or dairy products, with the exception that I do add egg shells. I guess I wouldn't add a whole bag of onions in one feeding but I did chop up about 3 along with some dead oranges, several apples, carrots, and corn cobs. I didn't have any decline in worms and the little guys seem to be thriving.

I didn't have much luck with red wigglers but am currently raising ENCs (European Night Crawlers). They can withstand warmer temps than the Canadian Crawlers they sell in bait shops. If you aren't adding quite a few egg shells you will need to supplement with powdered garden lime. This helps them to break down and digest the veggies you are feeding them.

I also didn't punch holes in the tub, although most worm sites tell you to, and I have had no problems so far.

Give them a try, they aren't too tought,

Marcia

Where can you order the European crawlers?

I got mine from Kazari Worm farm. You will find some good info there too, like how to make a worm bin. When I had a question about some critters that were living in my compost they sent me to Happy D Ranch. Happy D has a lot of really good articles on keeping worms, and other critters that may live in the soil with your worms and how to get rid of or prevent the ones that are bad. You can find them at http://www.happydranch.com/index. click on the articles button.

There are other places that carry them but I was real pleased with the worms I got from Kazarie and since they referred me to Happy D I would think that they would be alright too. I didn’t care for the worms I got from wormman, although I have purchased other feeders there that were fine. The worms seemed to be outnumbered by some little white bugs in no time and I wound up dumping the whole thing and starting fresh.

Good luck,
Marcia

Links were broken...is the site down?

You know, when I could use html here I never had a problem with links! Make things easy and I mess up!

So, the link for Happy D is http://www.happydranch.com/index and the link for Kazari is http://kazarie.com. If my links don't work, just cut and paste them in the address line.

Marcia

Hm, he uses horse manure for raising her stock...I'm less than thrilled. That's a very high risk of parasite and bacterial contamination.

NM, he uses something else if they are intended as reptile feed.