This female corn snake likes to "explore" she is always popping the lid of some exotic worms and although she doesn't eat them, certainly disturbs them.
I like to think that the upper stories of my house are reptile proof, so they have a lot of freedom. Do not be mistaken, reptiles never become pets they just tolerate you. However speedy did escape and was lost for a week. I got her back because she found me. 48 hours later, whilst she was back in detention I was feeding a royal python, which she lives happily with and uncharacteristically stole the chicken. She is only 4 ft long and normally eats mice, or small rats. The python was a shocked as I was and looks on I suppose thinking......what the F****?
I know that I haven't updated this in a while, so here are some vids that I made to help other vermicomposters.
A fellow South African and vermicomposter, Peter, from Natal, very kindly despatched some of his specimens to me.
The capsules contained a few live baby worms and cocoons
The baby worms did not survive the journey.
Here are the cocoons
The cocoons look viable and there are visible worms inside.
They would not survive in the Irish climate, or most of the northern hemisphere.
These lads have been put into fresh vermicompost and fresh bedding and put into the dark at 26 Celsius. ( in a steel cage guarded by a Bengal Tiger)
Peter sent me Eudrilus eugeniae and Perionyx excavatus.
As far as I can ascertain, there are no known specimens on this Island, nor is it possible to get any from commercial sources, or worm research facilities. Not surprisingly because they would be useless here. But, because I have never seen any, a little domestic research is warranted.
These are tomato seedlings that I transplanted about a month ago.
As a non scientific trial, I put about 100ml of Bokashi leachate in the left hand corner, just to see what would happen.
the plant at the left has stunted growth. It has the same stem thickness as the others, just isn't reaching for the stars.
Charlie eats Dendrobaena worms, but they are not a balanced meal. He should eat lots of greens and stuff, but like all teenagers he is fussy.
His favourite food is the larvae of the Darkling beetle ( Zophobas Morio) But these are the equivalent of saurian mars bars!
Cute little things and very feisty, they bite if you are not careful.
The pupae of the larvae are particularly ugly and the closest thing to Alien, of the film variety, I have ever seen.
Wow, 6 weeks and time flies!
A lot has happened and not many photos, but here goes.
After the "attack of the mites"... although the squirms didn't seem to mind, I stopped feeding them. For me it was too wet and I really did not want anything doing a "wheels up"
I think it did a lot of good. The tray dried out quite a lot, the mites and food disappeared and they started to eat the bedding.
After nearly a month they had really turned the bedding into something looking more like compost, eaten all the paper and coir with really only chunks of wood left. They even ate the pear the avo and stripped the mango down to its seed.
As a reward they got transferred from the Hotel to the Resort. More on that later.
Mushroom compost
This was a disaster. I had been supplied with spent mushroom compost, which was essentially depleted nitrogen and high carbon. Sterile and devoid of all life.
Without the gory details, a small population (20 worms) were all dead within 12 hours. The smaller ones went first and a large Dendrabaena survived for 10 to 12 hrs. Very sad and under further investigation.
DENDRA BED
So I was now the happy owner of 800 Dendrobaenas which went into their own floor of the hotel.
It has been interesting to have one species separate and I have learned quite a lot about them.
Clearly they are bigger and fatter and apparently very shy...not true though. In a mixed population the Wrigglers are always noticeable and grab the attention, it is just that the dendras like to lurk and like different things.
They like it colder and wetter, so bottom of bin and out of sight is OK for them. They just love paper and cardboard, in preference to greens I think. (see photos below). Also tea bags. 15 stripped T bags disappeared overnight, gone.
But..... they do eat all the green stuff as well, just I think they do it when no one is looking..LOL.
The bedding is totally different with them in it. Although very wet, it is very porous. They make big holes and lots of them. The whole thing is like a giant sponge almost. The volume of the original bedding must have increased by 50% and that is not through food, just because of a decrease in density.
This is the underside of 3 sheets of tabloid newspaper put in 2 days ago.
They have already started on the second page and I can guarantee it will be history in a week
They do like to lurk just below the surface and because of the way the bedding is, the noise when you open the lid is quite astonishing. Nearest that I can describe it is like rice crispies.
This is a sad bit. This population of Dendras has lost over a dozen worms to strangulation. These have appeared in the last 2 days. It would be nice to find out what causes it.
Just in case anyone doesn't know, these are cocoons
If you look closely you can see the actual worms inside.
And this is what one looks like hatching
THE RESORT
It became clear that it was going to be difficult for me to satisfy all my needs of waste disposal, superior compost generation, lizard feeding, fishing and having a passing interest in worm culture, with what I had. So I decided to separate the activities.
I obtained a wooden worm bin and put that outside. Set it up with a Kg of Dendrobaenas (that's what the Dragons eat) 5 weeks ago.
To that got added the original population from the Exec bin.
The Squirms are deliriously happy and think it is a resort, I think it is a factory.....Two satisfied customers.
It settled down very quickly, mainly because I had a lot of mature compost and bedding.
After adding the original bunch and ferreting around a few days later, the demarcation of the species became very apparent. The whole base was full of saturated cardboard and paper and whilst the reds were racing around the surface, the dendras were hogging the depths.
Thinking a bit ahead and considering it was 10 degrees in there, I built a heater for it for the winter.
This is actually a 3 litre cold drink bottle. It has a 25 W aquarium heater in it, which I set to 20C. In a couple of days the bed was at 18C
Why?...........
Aquarium heaters are very safe, accurate and reliable, but they are designed for moving water as the surface gets very hot. So putting something like that into the bin was a no no.
A 2L coke bottle would have been just as good, but only the 3L had an opening big enough to accept the heater.
Drill hole in cap same size as the cable. Feed through, put plug back on. Silcone around the hole and bob is your aunt.
Water has a high heat capacity, the bottle stays at 20C and doesn't harm the worms. The excess heat just gets absorbed by the bedding.
25W is the square root of nothing, so may not be up to the job in winter, but the principle will be on trial for a while.
HERE ARE A COUPLE OF VIDEOS OF THE WOODEN BIN. MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT ONE (BIN AND VIDEO THAT IS) NOT DONE WITH A VIDEO CAMERA, BUT A 35MM .
