African Nightcrawler Earthworm Supplier

I posted this advertisement on sulit July 2010.

African Nightcrawler earthworms for sale at Php300/one-fourth kilogram or Php1,000/kilogram (pick-up price)

Pick-up price at Php300 per one-fourth kilogram; Php 1,000/kg.

Minimum Order:  250grams;

Location:  Concepcion Dos, Marikina City

Please email biolant@gmail.com

Website: African Nightcrawler Earthworm Supplier

Since then, I have sold an average of two kilograms of worms per month. I also declined two bulk orders (more than 14 kilos per order) within the period. The vermi-compost produced were incorporated in the garden and plant containers.

My customers were mostly highly educated professionals concerned with the environment. These guys bought worms just to do their part in reducing garbage.

It seems that there is really a demand considering that I haven't been really serious in marketing earthworms. Most buyers of earthworms are farmers and avid urban gardeners. LGU's and government agencies buy in bulk for dispersal to marginal farmers. Schools and urban communities are largely an untapped market based on anecdotal evidence from farmer-businessmen raising earthworms for sale.

I am thinking of a couple of business models to expand production and lower selling price. The models that I am studying include organic herb production in an urban setting. I hope to start by the last quarter of this year.

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.

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?