Angels of the Earth and Other Quotations

Here are some quotations on earthworms.

"Intestines of the soil" - Aristotle (384 to 322B.C.

"When we behold a wide, turf-covered expanse, we should remember that its smoothness, on which so much of its beauty depends, is mainly due to all the inequalities having been slowly levelled by worms. It is a marvellous reflection that the whole of the superficial mould over any such expanse has passed, and will again pass, every few years through the bodies of worms. The plough is one of the most ancient and most valuable of man's inventions; but long before he existed the land was in fact regularly ploughed, and still continues to be thus ploughed by earth-worms. It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures." - Charles Darwin, The Formation of Vegetable Mould

Buying Worms For Home Vermicomposting

Here are some things that first time buyers of worms have to consider for their home vermicomposting project.

Worm bedding. The bedding is the temporary home of the worms that also serves as their food. It should be prepared at least two weeks prior to actual purchase from a worm supplier. For more information on worm bedding, check out the following:

Composting Kitchen and Garden Waste

Pre-composting High-protein Food Wastes

Vermicomposting Using Rice Sacks As Worm Bin

The simplest way to make a worm bed is to layer different kinds of biodegradable household wastes with carbon rich materials (shredded paper, dried tree leaves, etc.) in an ordinary rice sack until three-fourths of the sack is filled up. If you're using a laminated rice sack, punch pinholes to allow water and air to flow freely. Cover the layer of biodegradable waste with soil or dried tree leaves.  This will prevent bad odors from developing.  Water to moisten the bedding. DO NOT drench the bedding!

When the the sack is three-fourths full, allow the materials to decompose for two weeks before buying worms. After two weeks, the bedding should have lost at least one-fourth of its original volume.

Check the sack for heat by deeply inserting a barbecue stick into the center of the bedding. Leave the stick for 15 minutes before pulling it out. Hold the tip of the stick. If the stick feels warm, allow the bedding one more week to cool off. Repeat this procedure before purchasing worms. Buy worms when the tip of the stick feels cool (ambient temperature) when touched.

Water the bedding to reach 80 - 90% moisture content before introducing earthworms into the bedding. Stop immediately when water starts seeping at the bottom of the sack.

Where to buy worms. Buy worms from the nearest worm supplier in your community to lessen risk of worms dying during transport.  Buying earthworms from the nearest supplier also lessens the stress on the worms that leads to biomass loss. Also, buy earthworms from someone who is willing to teach you on how to propagate the worms.

Amount of worms to buy. Buy one-fourth kilo of African Nightcrawlers to start your backyard vermiculture project. Starting small saves on cost while learning to take care of earthworms.

Once you have successfully raised earthworms, purchasing additional earthworms should pose no problem.

Kind of worms to buy. The African Nightcrawler earthworm is suited to tropical conditions. Sourcing for this type of worm in the Philippines is not usually difficult since this is commonly raised by farmers and hobbyists.

Introducing worms to their bedding.  After buying your earthworms, it is best to immediately introduce them to the prepared bedding.  I scatter the worms around the sides of the bedding since this is the place that has the lowest temperature.  

Check your worms the next day for signs of "migration".  If the worms have stayed within the confines of their bedding, this is a good sign.  If not, the bedding is still probably too hot for them.  I have noticed that worms "escape" beddings that are not yet finished with the heating stage of composting.  One way to deal with this is to collect the escaping worms and provide them with a cooler environment, like newspaper bedding with some soil in it. Place the newspaper bedding beside the original bedding prepared.  The earthworms will eventually go to their original bedding after the temperature has gone down to less than thirty degrees centigrade.

The list above covers most of the issues first-time buyers of worms have to face. 

After buying your initial stock of African Nightcrawler earthworms, other issues on worm management will surface. I suggest that you read an earlier post on vermiculture chores

If you're looking for an earthworm supplier in Metro Manila, please go here.

An Update On My Home Vermicomposting Project: Raising Earthworms as Pets to Help Mother Earth

I started raising African Nightcrawler (ANC) earthworms February of this year. The worms I bought then weighed one kilo that were placed in two [half-full] sacks of pre-composted kitchen and garden waste.

It took me about three months to get the hang of it. I had to deal with worms escaping from their bins, scorching heat due to el nino, and worm food recipe.

Having started with two sacks of substrate, I now have 15 sacks of substrate. Each sack contains at least one-half kilo of African Nightcrawlers(ANC).

Starting couple of months ago, I have been collecting banana peels from the nearest public market because our kitchen and garden wastes are not enough to feed the worms.

I don't shred the banana peels anymore since I don't have a shredding machine. Manual shredding just takes too much time and effort.

I fill up each sack with banana peels weighing about 30 kilos and wait for two weeks before introducing one-fourth kilo of worms. I sort the vermicomposted substrate after sixty (60) days.

I have estimated my worm inventory at ten (10) kilos at the least. This includes escapees that meander in the garden. I use composted materials as mulch to feed escapee worms. Worm traps are set around the garden whenever there's a new sack.

I have been selling excess worms since July. I fully recovered the Php1,000.00 initial cost of worms in that month alone. Not bad.

More importantly, almost 100% of our biodegradable household solid waste is vermicomposted. Apart from kitchen and garden wastes, paper waste is also added to the sacks.

Vermicomposting allows me to do my part in saving Mother Earth.

Help Mother Nature, Raise Earthworms as Pets

Climate change is not theory anymore. Immediately after Ondoy and Pepeng, El Niño swiftly made its presence felt.

The scorching summer heat, the hottest I have experienced so far, is a disturbing preview of things to come.

We need to take immediate corrective action. After all, it is our survival as a species that is at stake.

An effective way to help Mother Earth is to raise earthworms as pets!

We help Mother Earth in two ways when we raise earthworms as pets: first, we lessen our carbon footprint by lessening our need for landfills and the frequency of garbage collection; second, we return nutrients to earth when we use vermicompost to fertilize plants.

Go ahead, raise earthworms as pets and help Mother Earth!

Grievious Mistake Kills Earthworms

In an earnest desire to monitor growth rate of earthworm biomass using leaf mold as bedding, I hurriedly introduced 100 grams of adult African Nightcrawlers and 100 grams of juvenile earthworms into 4 kgs. of freshly pre-composted leaf substrate.

I failed to allow the leaf mold substrate to settle for 2 to 3 days and check if the bedding temperature would still rise.

This overlooked step cost me dearly. After the 2nd day, the bedding was noticeably smaller and it smelled of rotten eggs!

I spread out the smelly substrate on a white tarpaulin and checked for survivors. Unfortunately, there wasn't a single individual that survived.

Sorting Vermicompost!

I have sorted my first batch of vermicompost the past weekend. I found out that manually sorting vermicompost moderately exercises my body.

Having used rice sacks as worm bins, I stopped watering the bins one week before sorting. This was done to facilitate the sorting process.

Honestly, I was quite anxious that the worms might abandon the bedding or die due to lack of moisture. I was relieved to find that the lower part still had sufficient moisture. The worms just dug into the bed. There were few escapees and I just considered them as lost to the system.

I never approached household vermicomposting in a very business-like manner so I didn't record the starting weight of the worm mass and the bedding. I just wrote the start date, the day the worms were introduced into the bedding, and the end dates, which was 30 and 45 days after introduction of the worms. For the bedding, I estimated it to be between 12 to 15 inches high.

I remember introducing between 20 to 30 worms to each sack. I was glad to find out that I got more than the initial worms per sack especially if I am going to count the juveniles which were numerous.

The four sacks I sorted still had a lot of unconsumed leaves although the particles were a lot smaller compared to the initial size of the composted shredded leaves. I ended up with two sackfuls of bedding each about 15 inches high and one-fourth sack of vermicompost.

I didn't sort the worms anymore. I just put juveniles and adults together. I watered the bedding and placed the sacks between two gumamela plants.

On a piece of newsprint, I wrote the start date. This time, the end dates were 6 weeks for one sack and 8 weeks for the 2nd sack.

Well, I still have 8 sacks and one outdoor bed left for sorting within the month.

Hmmmm...maybe I can start retailing African Nighcrawlers.
Earthworms for sale, anyone?

Definition of Vermiculture and Vermicomposting

The definitions were taken from "Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture By Glenn Munroe, Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada".

"Vermiculture is the culture of earthworms. The goal is to continually increase the number of worms in order to obtain a sustainable harvest. The worms are either used to expand a vermicomposting operation or sold to customers who use them for the same or other purposes [e.g. fish bait].

Vermicomposting is the process by which worms are used to convert organic materials (usually wastes) into a humus-like material known as vermicompost. The goal is to process the material as quickly and efficiently as possible.

These two processes are similar but different. If your goal is to produce vermicompost, you will want to have your maximum worm population density all of the time. If your goal is to produce worms, you will want to keep the population density low enough that reproductive rates are optimized."

Thanks Mr. Munroe

Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture By Glenn Munroe, Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada

Using Rice Sacks as Earthworm Bin

I started my vermiculture project using an outdoor bed for African Nightcrawlers (ANC). Recently, I have been also trying out rice sacks [the regular ones, and not the laminated rice sacks] as container for worm bedding (also called substrate) and earthworms.

The bedding consists of pre-composted kitchen waste and tree leaves and a handful of soil.

Each sack contains bedding materials that has a minimum height of twelve inches (12"). The maximum height is eighteen inches (18") of bedding [that's about up to my knees]. For every six inches of bedding, sprinkle about 200 ml of water and spread a handful of soil over the bedding. Place the sacks in a shaded area, say, under a tree.

Do not introduce your earthworms yet.

Allow the bedding to settle for about two to three days before introducing the earthworms. Check the temperature of the bed before introducing the African Nightcrawlers into the rice sack bed. The bed should be cool. If the bed is hot or warm, allow it to cool for a couple of days more.

I just use about twenty adult earthworms per sack to maximize reproduction rate [vermiculture]. Each sack is watered three times a week using about one-fourth liter (1/4L) of chlorine-free water.

If you wish a faster vermicomposting process, use about 250 grams of African Nightcrawlers per sack [that's about two handfuls of adult African Nightcrawlers].

I use a clothespin to close the sack. The sack must be securely closed to prevent predators like frogs from eating the earthworms.

Don't add food anymore to encourage the worms to consume all the bedding.

The bed can be sorted 45 to 60 days after introduction of earthworms. Stop watering the bedding one week before harvest for easier separation of castings and earthworms.

I plan to harvest one sack each on the thirtieth (30th), forty-fifth (45th) and sixtieth (60th) day to determine best results for the rice sack vermiculture method.

Raising earthworms as pets: moisture, aeration, temperature and pH

Appropriate moisture. Earthworms breathe through their skin. The moisture in the bedding should range from 70% to 90%. In a tropical country like the Philippines, watering of the bedding should be frequent - 2x or 3x weekly -, especially during summertime. Excessive watering should be avoided.

Aeration. Worms need air to breathe. They don't need plenty of air as humans do but still, they need air. The bedding material should be porous and loose enough to facilitate airflow, moist but not wet since excessive water cuts off airflow thereby creating anaerobic conditions. This will quickly kill off the earthworms.

The bedding should not be compacted to ensure that worms can move from one place to another. The earthworms' movement encourages aeration of the bedding. Compaction of the bedding hinder the worms' movement.

Temperature. African Nightcrawlers can handle temperature ranging from 4 degrees celsius to 35 degrees Celsius. The bedding should protect them from extreme temperature.

In the Philippines, scorching summers are deadly to African Nightcrawlers. Earthworm bins should be placed indoors or under the shade of a tree. Surrounding your worm bin with potted plants also help lower the temperature in the bin.

pH Earthworms prefer a neutral pH but can live in a pH range of 5 to 9. Beddings tend become acidic over time depending on the food source. Adding calcium carbonate remedies acidic beds. High pH beds are rare.

The next post discusses pre-composting of high protein food wastes using Biolant BM concentrate.

SOURCE:"Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture", by Glenn Munroe, Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada

Raising earthworms as pets: proper bedding for African Nightcrawlers

In a previous post, I have discussed the benefits of raising the African Nightcrawler earthworms as household pets. This post is the second installment on raising ANC worms as pets.

Proper bedding. The bedding is any material that provides a livable environment for earthworms. It must have the following characteristics: water retentiveness, good bulking potential (porosity and looseness), and high carbon and low nitrogen (low protein) content.

The bedding must be able to retain water. The African Nightcrawler earthworm breathes through its skin and needs moisture to do so. An earthworm dies if its skin dries up.

The bedding must be porous and loose. Earthworms require air to breathe and a dense bedding severely limits air flow.

The bedding should have a high carbon and low nitrogen (low protein) content. The bedding is eaten by earthworms as it breaks down. High protein materials need to undergo a thermophilic decomposition before being fed to earthworms. High protein (high nitrogen) materials like meat and dairy products heat up considerably while decomposing. The heat generated is fatal to the African Nightcrawler.

In urban settings, newspaper and brown carton boxes are the best primary bedding material to use. Apart from ease of sourcing, there is nothing in newsprint (or brown carton boxes) that is harmful to worms. DO NOT use glossy paper since it contains substances toxic to earthworms.

To make a newspaper bedding, shred newspaper (and/or carton boxes) to one-inch strips. Fluff the newspaper strips by working your hands into the bedding. Broadcast some soil over the paper strips. The soil provides grit to the worms' intestines and is a good source of microorganisms that break down food scraps. Spray with water until 50% - 80% moist but not wet.

Once the bedding is finished, you can introduce the worms and allow the worms to work its way into the bedding. For every kilogram of bedding, I add about ten (10) adult African Nightcrawler earthworms.

My next post is about earthworm food.

SOURCE:"Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture", by Glenn Munroe, Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada

Raising earthworms as pets: food source

Food source. African Nightcrawlers are voracious eaters of kitchen and garden wastes. A good rule of thumb is to add a cup of shredded fruit peelings and/or vegetable wastes everyday for every 20 worms OR add food scraps equivalent to the initial purchase weight of the worms.

High protein kitchen wastes like meat, fish, dairy, and oily foods need to be pre-composted before using as worm food. Worms breathe through their skin. If oil coats their skin, they wouldn't be able to breathe. Citrus and onion peels should also be pre-composted.

Pre-composting allows high protein materials to breakdown and give off heat without affecting the earthworms. Gases produced by high protein materials like ammonia are also fatal to earthworms.

Shredded, dried tree leaves and garden wastes can also be added to the bedding as worm food but it is better to pre-compost these with high protein materials.

I will discuss in another post a simple method of pre-composting food waste.

SOURCE:"Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture", by Glenn Munroe, Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada

Raising earthworms as pets: the African Nightcrawler (ANC)

Worms, specifically the African Nightcrawler Worms (Eudrilus eugeniae), as household pets have tremendous potential in making our environment healthier.

Vermicomposting(worm composting) is an ecologically sustainable way of converting biodegradable household wastes into fertilizer. The fertilizer, called vermicasts, has proven to be equal if not superior to synthetic fertilizers.

Nevertheless, the idea of worms as pets is quite difficult to accept because worms are unsightly creatures. The fact that worms feed on rotting materials including animal manure gives the impression that they are dirty and may be a source of diseases.

This impression has no basis at all.

Recent scientific studies have indicated that worm castings are free from pathogenic bacteria and suppresses soil microorganisms detrimental to plants. Some bio-remediation experiments use worms to find out their effectiveness in cleaning contaminated soils.

Worms need care as other pets do. Five basic requirements need to be met to successfully take care of worms: proper bedding, food source, appropriate moisture, aeration and protection from temperature extremes.

It seems difficult but once everything has been set-up, things become easier.

My next post discusses proper bedding for worms.

The reference used for the succeeding posts on "Raising earthworms as pets" is the "Manual of On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture", by Glenn Munroe, Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada

First vermiculture project

A friend from high school agreed to start a vermiculture project with me. This is our first time to take care of worms. The type of worms used is the African Night Crawler.

We prepared the vermiculture substrate from kitchen waste and garden waste.

Daily, we collected dried tree leaves that were chopped to small pieces (less than 5cm x 5cm) and placed in a sack for storage. In another sack, we layered the kitchen waste with the stored leaves. Chopped, dried leaves about 10cm thick were spread at the bottom of the sack. Kitchen waste was spread over it and sprayed with Biolant solution*. We added another layer of chopped leaves on top of the kitchen waste. We thoroughly covered the kitchen waste with chopped leaves.

The procedure was repeated until the sack was full. We covered the filled sack and allowed it to decompose for two more weeks.

After two weeks, we spread the substrate in an outdoor bin located under the shade of a tree, sprayed with Biolant solution up to 60% moisture content, and introduced half a kilo of worms. We covered the worm bin with chicken mesh and topped it with tarp.

The worm bin is watered every two days to maintain moisture.

We plan to harvest the worms in sixty days and use the castings for my friend's herb garden.

* To prepare biolant solution, add 2 Tablespoons(30mL) of biolant bm concentrate to 1 gallon (approx. 4 liters) of chlorine-free water.

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