Set it up as below. The first night a lot tried to escape, but a light stopped that and pretty calm the rest of the time.
Day 3, I put some of their supplied food in. There had been some worms on the surface, so I thought I would give it a try. Just a handful spread on the RHS half a cm thick. I also put a soaked tabloid newspaper on the surface...fits nicely! After a day the edges of the food had started disappearing, after 2 days there were holes in the middle.
A good sign for the first week.
Week 2
Well there are always worms on the surface, so I tried lots of different tit bits..all mouldy of course.
Beetroot....OK
Banana.. whole one, black, rotten......didn't last long. (The skin had completely gone after week 3)
Cheese..Stilton with apricot, semi mouldy....so so.
lettuce....OK..(moved around overnight a lot!)
Peppers, red and yellow....very nice! second only to banana.
Pumpkin (cooked)...... tasty
These are all subjective opinions and I wish my camera had been working....Will promise to do better!!.
At the end of the week a colleague from work brought me a couple of handfuls of well rotted horse manure from the stables next door. My desire for lots of bugs made this a ' no brainer'
I put half of it in in one corner and 24 hrs later I think they were fighting over it.
Week 3
Most stuff was disappearing so I added more of what I had...pepper and avocado.
There were also more cocoons than I had seen before..over half a dozen.
The newspaper was also being chewed up.
A day later the peppers and avocado had gone mouldy!
I discovered a rotten mango so that got thrown in.
I neglected to comment on a deformed 2 tailed worm that I noticed a couple of weeks ago, that didn't run away as normal when the paper was lifted up. That was until I realised what was going on!!
There were some other discoveries this week
Uncommonly, when I lifted the newspaper up, although getting chewed and tatty, It fell open somewhere in the middle to reveal dozens of juvenile worms and a large Tiger worm, all nestled in the middle of the tabloid and in no hurry to run away.
A nursery is all I could describe it as.....clearly it wasn't but it is a nice thought.
They stayed there for a couple of days and moved on
George Pilkington gives his worms Horse Manure as a treat, I think it is the equivalent of worm Viagra!
SHOCK HORROR!
The peppers were being eaten but the mouldy avocado was not touched nor the mouldy mango.....mmmm dangerous mould?
Then....mouldy worms!!
Oh NO! I killed them!!
My eyesight is not good for small things, so...macro on the camera.
An explosion of mites, apparently this can happen under the right conditions. White ones are dominating , there are red ones as well.
By the end of the week the mites were worrying me, the worms were not touching the avo or the mango at all. I always saw worms on the surface and there were always a few if I poked around, but to satisfy my own curiosity I put on gloves and had a complete 'furtle'. through the whole of the box and right down to the paper on the bottom.
Although I hated disturbing them, I really needed to know what was there.
In their hundreds..all hiding away! Masses of them. Also the bedding was consistent all the way to the bottom.
put it back together with the stuff back on the top and resolved to let them settle down again.
It weighs 14kg now.
Week 4
Things have settled down after my assault last week.
I put in a soft pear on its last legs.
The temperature inside the tray has been nearly up to 20C from the sun in my kitchen, so I resolved this week to put it outside in the sun, to see what would happen.
It got up to 25C, which I think is OK, however..that night........................
The "teenagers" were having a Lionel Richie discotheque.... (Dancing on the ceiling)
there were dozens of juvenile, not babies, all over the sides and the roof. It was damp and at 20C.
They were not trying to escape and they were all the same size. whether they were exploring or playing in the moisture I don't know, but they tended to do it every night, as evidenced from all the castings on the sides and roof (lid).
By the end of the week I couldn't catch them at it anymore.
SUNSHINE AND SENTRY DUTY
Charlie is such a good lad. He takes a very special interest in the worms and makes sure that none escape........Well I haven't lost any yet! But he isn't very hungry lately?.......mmmm
HEY..I'M WATCHING YOU
Only joking!
Charlie eats these
These are Morio Worms, they bite and are subject to another breeding programme I have.
A bit cleaner than Vermicomposting but orders of magnitude more difficult........Stop waffling Larry!
At the beginning of the week I put in half a cabbage, which had been in the fridge for 2 weeks...yuk. I boiled it put it in whole!
Not 12 hours and it was crawling with worms.
Not 12 hours and it was crawling with worms.
6 days and gone!
The pear has not been touched? ....strange.
I got sick of looking at soggy Avo shells and mites, so yesterday I chucked in the remains of the horse manure, into the halves and the rest onto the bed.
True to form,they have nearly demolished the manure on the bed, I await with baited breath for them to attack the Avo. ( and maybe the pear!)
Bottom left is used bran from the morio worms.
Somewhere in the digital labrynth of this PC are some interesting photos I took. Post them when I find them.
No comments:
Post a Comment