Home Composting > Worm Farms
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Worm Farms There are several thousand species of earthworms in the world & they all have an important role to play in keeping our soils healthy & well drained & breaking down organic matter.They can loosely be described as composters or earthworkers & the composting worm most suited to worm farming in our climate is the tiger worm; Einsenia Fetida.
Tiger worms thrive in rich warm environments so are well suited to a worm farm where they will eat up to their own weight in waste per day & reproduce lots of hungry baby worms. In ideal conditions tiger worms will double their population in 6 – 8 weeks.
Tiger Worms will eat anything that was once living but are not so keen on citrus fruits & the onion family. Garden waste especially lawn clippings is best suited to hot composting as it heats up too much for a worm farm.
Worms love eating bad news! One of their favourite foods besides vegetable & fruit scraps is newspaper.
Always cover food scraps with with newspaper, old carpet or cardboard as worms are sensitive to light and will not come up to the surface to eat the food if it is not covered.
Worm farms need to be kept moist as worms breathe through their skins.
 However as most food scraps contain 70% water feeding our kitchen scrap bucket to worms generally provides enough moisture.
It’s important to put your worm farm in a sunny place. Tiger worms need warmth to continue eating & reproducing especially in winter time when your worm farm should be in the sunniest spot nice & handy to your back door so you can feed it easily.
Worm farms can be constructed from all sorts of materials. WasteBusters do it yourself worm farm is made from 3 tyres, 34 newspapers, 3 telephone books, & a piece of corrugated iron to which is added 500 grams of hungry tiger worms & your kitchen scraps!
You may choose to purchase the deluxe Can-O-Worms.
Australian rose growers’ say no black spot & no aphids when they spray their roses with vermiliquid.
A worm farm in your back yard is an easy fun way to recycle your kitchen waste & enjoy the simple pleasure of working with nature as you observe the daily magic of the humble earthworm at work.
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