blondeviolin Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 We were directed to layer wet sand, soil, and oatmeal so we could watch our earthworms churn the layers. We layered them in mason jars recycled from spaghetti sauce (though cleanly rinsed and then they were run through a cycle in the dishwasher and then rinsed again). We bought Canadian nightcrawlers from a bait and tackle shop. They were very lively. We dropped them in and covered them up and placed them in the garage. The next day, they were all huddled on top and weren't moving. We had had a cold snap, so I figured they went dormant and moved them to a closet. We checked them two days later and the jars were still moist and worms were on top and some in the soil. So I thought we were making progress. Today, the oatmeal is starting to mold, there are red spots throughout the sides of the jars and some of our worms have huge bulging areas around them. I'm thinking the red spots are where a few worms actually exploded. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted October 11, 2012 Author Share Posted October 11, 2012 And, here are some pictures if it helps. The layered jar. You can see the red-ish spot in the middle. This worm on top is a good example of the bulging I'm talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkacademy Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 I am not really sure but I think I would let them go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theYoungerMrsWarde Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 :eek: I have no idea. I know eating dry cornmeal will make an ant explode. Maybe it's something like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allymom Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Same thing happened for us when we did that same experiment 2 years ago. The best I could figure from researching the subject was that it was too warm in our house. If you did the experiment thru MFW, you can find an old thread on this experiment on their forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted October 11, 2012 Author Share Posted October 11, 2012 (edited) Same thing happened for us when we did that same experiment 2 years ago. The best I could figure from researching the subject was that it was too warm in our house. If you did the experiment thru MFW, you can find an old thread on this experiment on their forum. Too warm? That's interesting... We had had a cold snap and were being stubborn about AC. It was only 66 in our house most of the weekend. :confused: Now I wanna try and find a local worm expert... Edited October 11, 2012 by blondeviolin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegirlwhopaintedtrees Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 We did this experiment via RSO Life and our worms died and oatmeal got moldy. Our worms didn't bulge like that. In fact, they did burrow, but I think we made the layers too wet. Please post the reason if you find out:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AEC Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 I haven't done this particular experiment, but we've had a worm composting bin outside and running for 6 months now with great results. They pretty quickly turn veggie scraps into 'dirt' and mix it all up. We have a plexiglass front on our composting bin and it's easy to see what they've done. I don't see why a similar approach couldn't be tried on a small scale, honestly. To get it started, we did: line the bottom with shredded newspaper. on top of that, toss in various (vegetable) food scraps - they don't like garlic or citrus all that much, and hard things like avocado peels take forever to get 'processed', but fruit cores, carrot peelings, tomato tops, etc...that's all good! cover it up with more shredded newspaper (keeps the flys from laying eggs on the veggie scraps, holds moisture nicely and balances out the levels of carbon vs nitrogen in the system). Add a bit of water to get the top moist, but not soaked. Then let them go. Daily, as we produce more food scraps we simply lift up the top layer of shredded newspaper and toss them in. Once a week we start a new layer. We use 'red worms' as they produce nice castings. I don't know how well nightcrawlers would do, honestly, but standard composting worms would be available from pretty much any gardening store I'd think. Our worm compost bin is a 'fall through' type...there's a mesh grate at the bottom of the box and 'done' castings (dirt) fall out...but I know this also works on sealed bottom containers. Note - worms do breath. If you put a lid on it you need air holes. You might have better luck with something like that?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelmama1209 Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 I haven't done this particular experiment, but we've had a worm composting bin outside and running for 6 months now with great results. They pretty quickly turn veggie scraps into 'dirt' and mix it all up. We have a plexiglass front on our composting bin and it's easy to see what they've done. I don't see why a similar approach couldn't be tried on a small scale, honestly. To get it started, we did: line the bottom with shredded newspaper. on top of that, toss in various (vegetable) food scraps - they don't like garlic or citrus all that much, and hard things like avocado peels take forever to get 'processed', but fruit cores, carrot peelings, tomato tops, etc...that's all good! cover it up with more shredded newspaper (keeps the flys from laying eggs on the veggie scraps, holds moisture nicely and balances out the levels of carbon vs nitrogen in the system). Add a bit of water to get the top moist, but not soaked. Then let them go. Daily, as we produce more food scraps we simply lift up the top layer of shredded newspaper and toss them in. Once a week we start a new layer. We use 'red worms' as they produce nice castings. I don't know how well nightcrawlers would do, honestly, but standard composting worms would be available from pretty much any gardening store I'd think. Our worm compost bin is a 'fall through' type...there's a mesh grate at the bottom of the box and 'done' castings (dirt) fall out...but I know this also works on sealed bottom containers. Note - worms do breath. If you put a lid on it you need air holes. You might have better luck with something like that?? we will be starting a worm bin before christmas. can you please post instructions/links to your bin? i love the fall through idea and i would love for my kids to be able to see what's actually happening. thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Nightcrawlers aren't the same as composting worms, and have slightly different habitat needs. What you want are "Red wigglers". Some bait shops carry them (mine does) and most garden supply shops will have them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AEC Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 we will be starting a worm bin before christmas. can you please post instructions/links to your bin? i love the fall through idea and i would love for my kids to be able to see what's actually happening. thanks! sure. We've had two bins - one that we built (and left when we moved previously) and the current one, which was given to us by a friend when THEY moved. I'll post photos of that later. I think they bought it, though I have no idea from where. Building one wasn't hard, though. General idea: it's a wooden box. Ours is roughly 20"w x 12"d x 24"h. There's 4 of us, we eat a lot of produce, and that's enough for all our veggie scraps + egg shells. The top is a hinged lid. The bottom is just metal mesh (like chicken wire, withholes about 1/2" in size). The front of the box is actually just a plexiglass sheet so you can see what's going on inside, though it has a door that covers that as the worms don't really like sunlight. That's not necessary, obviously, but it's fun. :001_smile: The box is on legs and underneath the bottom we've got a little plastic tub. Worm castings fall out the bottom and collect in the tub. That makes it really easy to manage - you just keep putting new stuff on top and the worms do the rest. We live in a 'meditranian' climate so it's never too cold here, but ours just sits outside in the backyard year round. Inside a garage should be fine, too. It doesn't sink and there's no flies, etc. I'll update w/ photos later today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houseofkids&pets Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 I am so happy to hear that it is not just me who failed at this experiment!! We used RSO last year and, like a pp mentioned, our worms died and the oatmeal got moldy. Ds was heartbroken:sad:. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted October 13, 2012 Author Share Posted October 13, 2012 Nightcrawlers aren't the same as composting worms, and have slightly different habitat needs. What you want are "Red wigglers". Some bait shops carry them (mine does) and most garden supply shops will have them. Hum. The instructions just said earthworms. I'll email RSO and see what they say. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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