Worm Wee - Lawns

I'll keep a look out for that one!

I find on hot days the migrate to the lid and want out!!!!
The poor things They get so hot I figure the sustained temps of 40 plus and the radical composting going on makes things at those temps just too much for them I scrape them off the lid and back nto the farm, chuck in a heap of lime to settle the pH down and start filling the watering can with nice cold water and begin flushing the worm farm over and over till the soil or castings begin to cool. Then they are happy for a day or so again.

I was really chuffed by what I saw the other day. Some maggots got in but the mites that also populate the worm farm actually were subduing each maggot and killing them one by one. I was having a look every few hours and sure enough bit buy bit they were killing them! Now that is balance. I have also noticed how the worms come up to the surface where the mites are active and they get groomed by them. The mites also get into the moulds and keep out breaks under control when I chuck in bread or some pasta sauce or something that then goes mouldy. I get colonies of nematodes as well on the lid as well as smaller worm species clusters. I love seeing what happens in there. It's like a Sims game but real

Worms going to the top? You must live South of the river Fu.

A tip from the head honcho at the worm shed was to fill a 600ml buddy bottle of coke with water, freeze it and then put that in the farm on hot days.

I must admit it is sort of mesmerizing watching everything at work in the worm farm, as you said thousands of mites, hundreds of small white worms and other beasties doing their thing.

Great, sounds good, I think I will invest. Be fun for the kids at the very least.

IN relation to the topic about worms drowning, My worm farm has a catchment at the bottom. i dont leave the tap open. I let the worm wee accumulate and then collect it and dilute it and spread it over the garden.
My worm farm catchment has a tripod at the bottom that allows the worms to climb back up and into the bottom layer of the farm. Every now and then i have a look and there are 5 or 6 worms making their way back up.
You could make something in a home made farm fairly easily.

oh also, I too have hundreds, upon thousands of those small white worms in my worm farm, also in my compost bin.
i thought they were baby worms...

You must have the farm in a very cool spot . I just keep the tap open which drips into a bucket.

While we are talking about creepy crawlies in the worm farm, I have SLUGS in there.
How gross! What could be going wrong for me to have these things in there? I think they have crawled up the legs of the worm farm (the rectangle one from bunnings).
Any ideas?
Thanks for the idea of tap on with bucket under tap as I have noticed worms in the worm wee at different times.
Also does it matter what type of soil you chuck in, and how often would you do this?
Haven't had this for long so look forward to your suggestions.

Crap it will Melrich You will be giving them names in no time

I seem to be so successful with worms that we often get them inside the house in winter from the garden. They go up the walls and Mrs Manchu freaks and I laugh my bum off This only happens before big cold fronts or heavy rain. So there I am picking the off the wall and putting back outside Even when working in the garden I am digging first with my hands to get the worms out then the spade Just this weekend we dropped some big buckets in the ground as water gardens and we must have had at least 60 earth worms around 30cm long and a few bigger in a one m2 area!

We fill two to three trays every 6 months with worm castings and that is supposed to be pretty good. It can take much longer.

Soil?

You shouldn't really be putting any soil in the worm farm. You can put anything in that is organic and is dead, worms won't eat living things. As mentioned by Fu previously you can chuck meat in , however meat can attract flies and be a bit smelly. If I were you I would stick to shredded up wet paper or cardboard, vege/fruit scraps, crushed up egg shells, tea bags, coffee grounds and even a small amout of lawn clippings. It's all about variety. And remember not to load them up with too much as they will only eat as much as the population can handle, if you only have a 1000 worms and your putting scraps in everyday they might struggle.

As for the slugs, I'm thinking there is a hole in there somewhere or they have go in as a passenger on some vege scraps? Not sure that they are a problem, better to be in the worm farm than killing your plants. The only problem I've had is with ants, but got around this by keeping the farm moist at all times and buy putting the legs of the farm in ice cream containers full of water.

Some times they are but more often than not you are looking at something different.

If ants get in you can just keep agitating the castings and food every day or twice a day. They will get annoyed and move town.
Just use some thing like a garden stake or a hanging basket hook to do it
Vaseline on the legs also is another thing you can do ... You can put some on the legs of the worm farm too if you want