Bad worms where I don't want them
  • dcotton
    Hello folks, I am a wastewater system operator.  My system is a packed-bed-filter that is heavily infested with red worms that love it, multiply, and fill my media with worm casting upsetting the treatment process. I am looking for ways to permanently dis-invite the worms and looking for subtle way to make the environment un-friendly even hostile to worms.

    Let me explain the housing environment.  The packed-bed-filter is a box that is buried so that the lid of the box is at ground surface, the lid is sealed but openable and is insulated to maintain temp for the preferred bacteria. Inside the box there are very porous textile towel hanging over bars, they hang down twenty inches.  over the top of the towel septic tank wastewater is intermittently showered with a small amount of liquid 96 times a day srpitzing a minute at a time.  The wastewater liquid wicks down and trough the towels feeding bacteria that live there and that clean up the wastewater.  In 25 % of the system we see a very light infestation of what looks like red worms max size is up to 1/8 inch thick.  They tend to live in between the hanging towels In a very small percentage of system the worm population explodes and they build worm casting housing between and around the sheets. I believe that in many cases the worms are not introduced from the outside world but from the septic tank wastewater system.  They travel through the textile towels and plug them up and stitch them together and coating the towels with up to 1/2 of biomass/worm castings. Note the sheet are alway hanging like they are in a shower stall in that the box never fills up with liquid.

    The problem is two fold: 1, the continued present of the worms and the casting blinding much of the surface area creating a hostile environment for the hetertophic bacteria, and 2. is there a way to dissolve the casting out of the media, i.e. how can I get the casting out of the mass of the textile.

    Thinks that I have control over my shower/spritz dose, I could periodical increase the dose amount such that the sheets would be near staurated, would this be hostile toward the worms.  I can also vary pH from 6 to 9 and the bacteria would still be OK. I could plug the drain and completely flood the box and the sheets.  I can introduce chemicals that won't hurt my bacteria. I am hoping you folk can help me find a way to show the worms they are not welcome.  thanks for any ideas or brainstorming you can help me with.

    Dave
  • MatthewMatthew
    All earthworms are extremely photo-phobic and enough light will kill a worms. If they are indeed a form of earthworms, it will be a simple solution.

    Hello, this is a little out of the normal range of this forum, but its not a problem and I find it an interesting question.

    I think the more basic, towards (pH 9) would be less favorable to the worms. These worms are not earthworms like are discussed on this forum, instead they are either midge fly larvae or planaria worms. Since you said they were red, they are likely the midge larvae.

    Have you tried to mechanically remove the "castings"?
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