Jake L.
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Verimicomposting

How many worms are needed?

Can live bait from fishing shops be used as worms for vermicomposting?

joshbuchan
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Location: Clevedon, UK

u use composting worms because they will not die once put into the compost bin, they are called red worms or eruopian Nightcrawlers, u might be able to find them in some bait shops but they have to be them onces, u cant use just any lug worm or rag worm cuz they will just die.
u could aquire some from a freind or buy some online but buying them online costs alot of money as I am trying to find some aswell. u will probly only need to get like 100 - 200 cuz they breed fast and will populate them selfs to how much waste u put in the bin.... 2 is better than nothing....

Jake L.
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I can get 500 Red Wigglers for $25 USD shipped. My family produces lots of fruit and vegetable scraps, about 2 pounds a day. Will 500 be enough for this?

I don't suppose so, but can meat be used in vermicomposting?

joshbuchan
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Location: Clevedon, UK

yea well go for it sounds like a steal!

cynthia_h
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Jake L. wrote: I don't suppose so, but can meat be used in vermicomposting?
Your suspicions are correct. Worms are strictly vegans. No dairy, no meat for them! They're not even real happy with bread; put that into a regular compost set-up, if you have one.

Cynthia

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applestar
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Things that can't go in regular compost pile nor in vermicompost -- such as meat -- supposedly *can* be put in Bokashi "compost." Santa is bringing me a Bokashi kit this Christmas :wink: If it works well, I'll get a second one for my birthday later on. 8) You can find on-line instructions for culturing your own Bokashi microbes refill in bran supplemented with molasses using some of the original as starter. I'm going to try this. (It's always fun to experiment :D )

The other option for meat is Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae. It sounds like a warm-season endeavor for most of us though.

Both of these topics have been discussed before on the forum so try the search function if you're interested. :wink:

Toil
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My first post!

I no longer buy the "worms are vegans" line. No only can break down dead insects and such, they can break down meat, cheese, whatever.

The problem is, these things are stinky when they rot, attract flies and rodents, and can be a source of pathogens like E. coli if they are raw.

We are meat eaters, the wife and I. And cheese eaters. And we eat tons of aliums and spicy food. We often make too much and don't get around to eating it.

I had heard of bokashi, and thought "that sounds great! I can keep 90% of my food waste out of the waste stream, not to mention hairballs from the shower drain." So I ordered a bucket, some EM-1, and got a big bag of bran from agway. About half way through filling up the bucket, it dawned on me that I had nowhere to put the pickled trash! Ack! I don't have property at home, and while the veggie plot alone at my communal (not community, well it is, but it's really communal - no plots) is 75 by 75, we have some members who are ethical vegans and I want to respect that.

So I asked myself, "do worms like bokashi?". I started by feeding a bit of bokashi bran, to see if they tolerate it. They do not tolerate it. They roll around in it like sex crazed wiggly things, and seem so engrossed that they react to light about half as fast. It went from barren at the surface, to a pile of spaghetti in 2 days. The bran did not last.

Next, I tried feeding a bit of finished bokashi "compost" (it really is compost if you check you etymology instead of gardening experts) to the worms, and I knew the top layer was loaded with garlic. Same reaction - accelerated eating and copulation, and more worms at the surface.

Last of all, I tried slices of cooked pork loin. Again, no stink, no avoidance by the worms, no problem. Except - bokashi seems to produce a lot more heat than raw foods. Maybe it's the protein? Right now I am using that heat to keep the bin rolling along despite the very low ambient temps. But in the spring, I will have to be careful to feed small amounts every day.

Oh, I use coco reconstituted in EM-1 for bedding. At first I liked it, then hated it, and now I am loving/hating it. On the one hand you can run a lot more trash through the bin with the same amount of bedding(a flow through bag) and just keep feeding it back up top. On the other hand, it doesnt break down, so you have coco in your castings. So from a recycling point of view it is better, but for compost production it sucks.

there.... my first post!



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