Six weeks later

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 .