Anyone raise earthworms/have a composting bin?

[Bob Lee]

So, I was thinking about finding a feeder that can live off our kitchen waste. Obviously most of them can but moisture and mold start to become a real problem. And yesterday I had the idea to raise earthworms for feeders, because those guys can tolerate quite cold temperatures and they can flourish in a moist environment eating any type of kitchen waste we might produce. But surprisingly I didn't find anyone raising these as feeders... Most people raise them for composting and fishing ONLY. So I'm wondering is there a reason to not use these guys as feeders, or am I just happen to be the only guy who thought of this because of my horrible conditions. ...

 

[Bob Lee]

I mean, they look pretty alright to me...

 

[Tangled]

I've not done earthworms but I do Black Soldier Flies. They aren't active in the winter (mild here in San Antonio, TX), but they survive in the bin and when the weather starts warming up again, I start dumping food in again. I've used the larvae for Chameleons and Sugar glider treats. I'm sure spiders and scorpions would take them. A lot of people use them for chickens and fish feed for aquaponics (or bait).

 

[Tangled]

View attachment 292236
I mean, they look pretty alright to me...

https://nypost.com/2018/11/05/man-dies-8-years-after-being-dared-to-eat-slug/

 

[Myrmeleon]

I have a compost bin with worms in it. I use them for fishing, the red wrigglers aren't the best for feeding. Anyway, I suppose you could if you wanted to, just make sure that you take them out of the compost bin and "purge" them for a period of time before feeding to make sure anything harmful they may have ingested gets out of their system.

 

[Bob Lee]

https://nypost.com/2018/11/05/man-dies-8-years-after-being-dared-to-eat-slug/

Wild slug and snails are a whole different thing ... They are known for carrying parasites.
Whereas earthworms have a much lower chance to carry any.
I still won't eat them myself, but I think they should be okay as feeders. (I can always freeze roast them and tong feed)

 

[Introvertebrate]

Unless you’re dumping plutonium into your bin, they wouldn’t have ingested anything harmful.

 

[Bob Lee]

I have a compost bin with worms in it. I use them for fishing, the red wrigglers aren't the best for feeding. Anyway, I suppose you could if you wanted to, just make sure that you take them out of the compost bin and "purge" them for a period of time before feeding to make sure anything harmful they may have ingested gets out of their system.

This is exactly what I was looking for
How does 'purge' work? Do I just let them sit in a bin or is there something I need to do? Do I gut load them again after I 'purged' them?
Also I'm planning on getting european nightcrawlers instead of red wigglers, those guys grow much bigger.

 

[Bob Lee]

I've not done earthworms but I do Black Soldier Flies. They aren't active in the winter (mild here in San Antonio, TX), but they survive in the bin and when the weather starts warming up again, I start dumping food in again. I've used the larvae for Chameleons and Sugar glider treats. I'm sure spiders and scorpions would take them. A lot of people use them for chickens and fish feed for aquaponics (or bait).

Flying feeders feels too much for me. I am way too lazy to care for something like that XD... Not to mention housing them also takes effort...

 

[Myrmeleon]

Not sure what varieties of worms are safe to feed to things, I only know what I shouldn't! When you purge them, I would leave them in a bin with some fresh stuff that you would think wouldn't be harmful to whatever you are feeding them to (organic, pesticide free) for a day or two. Then simply feed them.

 

[Tangled]

Flying feeders feels too much for me. I am way too lazy to care for something like that XD... Not to mention housing them also takes effort...

You feed the larva. Aka Phoenix worms and some other brands. It's a bin with a drainage hole and a loose fitting lid so the flies can get in to lay eggs. A ramp inside the bin on one side should be present for the worms to crawl out when the mature. They're easy. They're not earthworms though.

 

[The Snark]

So, I was thinking about finding a feeder that can live off our kitchen waste.

That's backwards. I've got a friend who runs a huge worm castings operation. Prep and suitable habitat makes or breaks it. You might raise a few worms off your kitchen -compost-, not garbage, but that is a short term precarious operation at best. 9/10ths of an earthworm operation is all about their environment and suitable food sources.

 

[schmiggle]

I raise earthworms as feeders for my salamanders. My setup is pretty simple, but I've killed three rounds of worms, so be careful about changing anything. I use European nightcrawlers.

I took a 1-ish gallon bucket with a lid that I poked holes in, filled with newspaper torn into small pieces, and added water until it was damp. I didn't originally have it, but I added a shirt torn to fit between the lip and the lid because the worms kept escaping. I give them vegetable scraps whenever I have them. I only give them plant material, and I never add spicy foods (onions, hot peppers, etc.) Within two weeks they had eaten the newspaper from the top of the bucket down to about half height. I haven't noticed any reproduction, though, so I might still have to change something.

 

[Introvertebrate]

That's backwards. I've got a friend who runs a huge worm castings operation. Prep and suitable habitat makes or breaks it. You might raise a few worms off your kitchen -compost-, not garbage, but that is a short term precarious operation at best. 9/10ths of an earthworm operation is all about their environment and suitable food sources.

My thinking as well. I want healthy feeders, so I wouldn’t feed them anything I wouldn’t eat. I also don’t waste food, so anything that’s not for my consumption is an additional purchase.

 

[WildSpider]

I've heard of keepers using earthworms as feeders for Ts before . I even happened to come across this in a YouTube feeding video recently but I don't seem to be able to find it now.

I don't have a proper setup at the moment but I've also got some earthworms I'm keeping. When researching how to keep them a while back, I came across this video. (Some of this might not apply since its for fishing instead of feeders but hopefully it's informative none the less.)

Don't remember if it was in the video itself but supposedly oyster shell and egg shell are good to add to the bin as a grit for the worms because that should help them digest their food.

 

[Bob Lee]

My thinking as well. I want healthy feeders, so I wouldn’t feed them anything I wouldn’t eat. I also don’t waste food, so anything that’s not for my consumption is an additional purchase.

That's the problem. I don't waste food either, but my family does... So I'm trying to reduce the waste by finding a feeder that can eat it. It's just vegetables after all so I imagine it won't affect their health.

 

[galeogirl]

I've tried to get a worm bin going a few times but haven't had the best luck. My only spot for it is in a tiny shed on a second story deck, so I think that the temperature extremes out there are just too wide ranging without supplemental heating and cooling. Just picked up several roach species, partially to experiment with their efficiency in household waste management. I'd like to get some soldierflies going, too, at some point.

 

[The Snark]

My only spot for it is in a tiny shed on a second story deck, so I think that the temperature extremes out there are just too wide ranging without supplemental heating and cooling.

That's a classical example of needing a climate mediator. Commonly it's mineral soil which rarely drifts more than a few degrees year round. A more gross example would be the polar ice caps acting as a massive thermal battery/regulator for the entire planet resisting drastic changes. (5 million square miles)

 

[galeogirl]

Agreed. I think that if I tried a worm bin again while living in this space, I would alter the set-up to include a deep soil layer. I was going to alter the set-up next spring and see how it does.