Worms Etc Community Forum, Ask, share, & show all about worm composting and gardening.
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What should i do during the winter so they do not get too cold
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will my worms freeze
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Hey Stephen,
The worms may or not freeze. Deeper bigger worm bins are less likely to freeze. Your climate is of course a huge factor. Where are you located?
The nice thing is that even if they do freeze the egg capsules will not be harmed and will thaw in the spring and make new worms. -
my worm bin is a stain less steel and a half a foot deep and there is a light on a timer that is hanging over there from 7 pm to 8 am
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i am located in rome ga
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You should have no problems.
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ok but its been getting cold and hot and i feel like the weather would screw them up
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The temperature changing actually promotes worm reproduction and egg capsule production.
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Long-time, no-post greetings from the Worm Mommy in southwest Washington State. We had a surprise visit from Jack Frost this past week which gave us 4-5 inches of snow and then froze it solid. Last spring, I'd moved the worm box out to the detached garage from my house basement because it was attracting rodents. Yes, I had a lid on it, and no, it didn't smell--well, not to me. Obviously, the mice could smell it, and it led to a real problem that cost a lot of money for pest control to fix.
Anyway, the garage is not heated, and I'm sad to say the worms are mostly frozen. There are some still alive, barely. What to do? The soil that they're in was frozen--it's thawing a bit now. My brother's theory that the decomp process will keep things warm isn't true, here--it's just not a deep enough pile of decomposing stuff, I guess. He has a compost pile that's several years old and 3 or 4 feet deep; mine is only a few inches.
Did I see someone mention once that they have heating lamps to keep the shed warm where the worms are? I'm worried about the fire hazard, not to mention the expenditure of energy. I just don't want to bring the box back into the house and risk another invasion of rodents. I thought about carting it up to my Mom's place and keep them in her barn; it's only five minutes away. The barn isn't toasty, but with my brother up there most of the time with a fire going, it would be well above freezing.
Another thought: I will be putting insulation in my attic soon, and thought maybe I could use scrap pieces of insulation to wrap the worm boxes with? Good idea, not a good idea? -
All you need to do most likely is just to keep a 60 watt incandescent bulb going under them. You don't need to heat the whole thing just a section of it and the worms will move to it and survive. I have seen worms come out of a block of frozen solid soil and be fine. As long as they freeze slowly and thaw slowly they can seem to take a light freeze. The weird thing is that putting a container of them into the refrigerator overnight can kill them. It seems to be the sudden cold that kills them. Most bins are large enough that it takes a couple days to freeze and thaw sot he worms survive well.
Try the light bulb trick and see how they do. -
I have covered my outdoor bin with a thick layer of straw (18 inches)to help
insulate as it is getting below freezing here in Southern Ca. high desert.Should I water underneath the straw or on top of the straw? Is the straw intended also to become vermicompost? This is my first winter with the redworms,they did survive the desert heat.Thanks in advance for any info you have.
Chuck -
Sounds like you should be in good shape. The worms will provably eat the straw over the winter and will partly become vermicompost. I would just water through the straw. Water in the morning on warmer days seems to do best, but the worms will not need as much water during the winter anyhow.
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Thanks again Matthew.
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Once again, long time no write greetings from the Worm Mommy in Washington State. Since my last posting , I am happy to say that my worms survived, and then some. Whether it was a good idea or not, I bought some cheap comforters at Goodwill and wrapped the boxes in them. While it still got cold, it seemed to keep them from actually freezing. I also covered them over with a layer of last season's lawn clippings, a layer of fallen leaves, and then a layer of sheets of newspaper. This seemed to agree with them--they not only survived, they multiplied!
I now have two boxes: The One I started with that I made myself out of untreated wood, 3'Lx2'Wx1'D. The other is one of those vertical multi-tray worm composters I bought online.
The plain horizontal box is what I'd like to comment on today. In the original instructions, it was said to put the food on one side of the box and leave the other side alone so the worms have a place to go "rest." However, Throughout the winter, the worms are ALWAYS on the side with all the food. I'm guessing because that's where the decomp is happening and therefore heat. In an effort to have them move through ALL the dirt in the box, processing and enriching it, I switch sides--not often, but say every six weeks or so.
Also wondering if it's a good idea to stir it up every so often--again, not a lot, but once every second or third week. Right now, I feed them about once every other week or so, depending on the amount of scraps I have. I run everything through the food processor first.
Finally, for a horizontal plain box like that, when is it a good time to "harvest"? The side where the food (and therefore, the worms) have been for the last month or so is damp, almost black, with bits and pieces of food and grass and whatnot. The "batch" in this box has been going since about last July or August.
Oh, one more thing. Do the worms sometimes eat each other? I've seen what at first looked like there was a group tangled up with each other, until I realized one of them was writhing out of or through another one. Ergh! The Worm Shop of Horrors!
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They were not "eating" each other. How can I say this.....you walked in on them while they............sometimes Mommies and Daddies hug in a special way. Those special hugs are where little brothers and sisters come from.......(BLUSH).
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BAZimmerman said it better than I could. Yes that is how worms reproduce.
:">
The worms will only need to move away from the food if it starts to heat up and compost. Otherwise they do fine in the food. But on occasion they could potentially die if they did not have a place to escape composting heat. Yes it is fine to loosen the bedding material, but best not to allow to much uneaten food get mixed deep into the bedding. If it sours it could cause problems.
You can harvest whenever you have enough dark black compost to be worth your effort.
Its great to see that everything is going well with your worm composting ventures.
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When they are hungry
:D
Ok in all seriousness it is kind of hard to know when a worm is hungry isn't it? I like to feed the worms small amounts of food more frequently then just piling lots of food on them all at once. After some time you will get the feel for this, but feed them when you have the time and don't worry to much that they will starve or something like a normal animal would. Many people feed there worms about once a week. Look to see how much of the old food is left. If there is still a lot left over from previous feedings then feed them a little less than before. If they consume all the food scraps quickly then go ahead and feed them more. If you feed to much you will start to see populations of bugs increase. They are harmless, but some people don't like them in their composter especially if they are composting indoors. -
They may avoid some spices and really salty food is not a good idea
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Greetings once again from the Worm Mommy in SW Washington. Here we are, another November, and getting ready for winter. My worm boxes are still out in the garage, and the worms are doing quite well--almost TOO well, in fact. I may be TOO good of a worm mommy! More about that in a mo'. I obtained some hay bales this past summer, and today we insulated the bigger box with flakes of hay: underneath, around the sides, and on top. (I put a garbage can liner inside the box and then laid the flakes on top of it. That way I can just lift it out.) I still have the old comforters from last year, and I piled a couple of those on top. I don't expect these precautions to ALWAYS keep them from freezing a little. But, most of my worms survived last winter with minimal casualties, so I'm not too worried.
In fact, I may just have more worms now than I know what to do with. I originally started this project because I was ashamed of all the food I was throwing out. I thought vermiculture would help me take care of this issue in a green, environmental way (which it has). Now I'm worried I'm not feeding them enough. I'm bringing stuff home from work in addition to my own scraps. The ensuing winter will probably bring the numbers down a bit, but I'm just curious...When do you start thinking about the possibility of actually becoming a worm farm? That is, selling them?
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I also live in W WA (Kitsap Peninsula) and was looking for a way to keep the worms from freezing in the winter.
I've found that a15 watt reptile heater is enough here to keep the worms active and multiplying thru the winter. I've got it hooked up to a 12 v battery and a couple of cheap solar panels, and Velcro-ed to the middle of a tumbler composter. Plenty of hay/ straw in the mix and no rotating until the weather warms up
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This is my first time composting and trying the red worms I just bought the worm factory but they would not send the worms out yet because it's too cold for them to travel,I'm looking forward to ordering them in April, but I want to learn as much as possible before they get here, thanks for all the tips, Bettz from chatterary wa.
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