Page 1 of 1

HELP - need to make a wormery today

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:05 pm
by Eco Girl
Hi I've acquired 2ks of meal worms and 3 pots of wax worms (long story). I can hear the little blighters thrashing around in their paper bags. They will die if I don't make a wormery today. How do I do it? I can't afford to buy one.

If I have to buy one, can I keep then for a few while in a plastic box or something until I can find the money?

What are wax worms?

Help would be appreciated.

Re: HELP - need to make a wormery today

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:47 pm
by Derry
im ganna say something like a bucket, for the worms & kitchen scraps to live happily together.. it needs to have holes or something at the bottom (i think it makes some liquid feed?) to allow for drainage/collection of the liquid

perhaps you could google them and get some ideas, cause im basically thinking of a compost bin and im not sure if theyre the same

Re: HELP - need to make a wormery today

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:50 pm
by boboff
Local Mechanic and get old tyres, put your compost in say two tyres stacked on each other, warm water, add worms, chuck composting material on top in a third tyre, done. When you need to add more tyres, do so. Once it's all going well and your up to your 5th tyre you should be able to remove the bottom 2 and possibly the third one which will hopefully have fresh compost in it. The worms only stay in the top 2 - 3 tyres.

I think..........

Re: HELP - need to make a wormery today

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 2:56 pm
by Annpan
I was going to suggest something similar... though I have never done it myself and removing the bottom tyre from a pile of 5 doesn't sound like the easiest thing in the world :?

I think as long as you can keep them in a dark moist-ish place - a bucket with a few holes drilled in would probably suffice if you are in dire straights. But google will have more results.

Re: HELP - need to make a wormery today

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 9:52 pm
by happy place
a simple wormery can be made from a plastic dust bin with some thing cut down to fit in side to keep the worms about 6-10 inches from the bottom (poss a 2nd lid) drill some dranage holes in this and fit a tap in the bottom secetion of the bin to enable the worm water to be drained out and diluted 10/1 before using as plant food. on top of this devider put the worm beddding supplied with the worms the just add your kitchen waste on top (try not to let the bin get to acidic as this will kill the worms) when the bin is full take the top 6inches of worm casts off as this will contain most of the worms to start the next bin of then tip the rest out and use as soil conitioner
hope this helps

Re: HELP - need to make a wormery today

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 6:55 am
by Muscroj
looks pretty simple, a bucket with a lid to keep the flies out, a tap at the bottom to drain the liquid and the ones I've just been looking at have some sort of mesh fitted a few inches from the bottom, think its to create a sump for the liquid.

Now you've got me thinking that I should have a wormery. Does anyone know the benefits over having a regular old compost heap? I've got a fab colony of bloodworms in my compost and I chuck all my uncooked food waste in there, would I be better re-homing a few of the worms & setting up a wormery. Does it compost quicker in a wormery?

Re: HELP - need to make a wormery today

Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:25 am
by happy place
in an ideal world you would allow the waste to compost down for a couple of weeks first turning it regularly to really get it going then feed it to the worms who would then make short work of turning it in to black gold