Introduction

Why would someone be interested in starting a worm farm?  Nowadays, there are many people that are concerned about the environment.  Worms fit right in because they provide fertilization to the earth. The downside of that is there are not as many around.  The chemicals that farmers use help to grow their plants.  These chemicals do not agree with the worms and therefore they die off the face of the earth.  However, there is an underlying picture:  using worms would also help plants to grow naturally.

Fish Bait

For a long time, worms have been used as bait in order to catch fish.  They are considered to be some of the best bait to use.  It’s actually cheaper to have a worm farm than to constantly buy worms when you’re ready to fish.  If you have more bait than you need, there are plenty of fishermen that would be grateful to buy some worms.

Leisurely Fun

Some people create worm farms just as something to do.  They can have a lot of fun with creating them.  Worm farming can be something to do in your downtime and can help you to relax.  It doesn’t take a lot of money to start, and once you get into it, you may not want to stop.  In fact, you may want to start your own worm farm business if you like it so much. When some people initially think of worms, they are not something to behold.  Of course, they are creatures of the earth, so they are here for a purpose.  Nowadays, with lots of people getting involved with the environment and the green concept, worm farming has been introduced as a way to create potting soil in your own home.

Worm farming allows you to use scraps from fruits and vegetables and create potting soil for plants that you have in your garden or inside your home.  The good thing about this is that anyone can do it, regardless whether you have a home or an apartment. If you are an apartment dweller, this would really work out in your favour.  Normally, if you had plenty of plants you wanted to maintain, you would not have a backyard to take care of them.  With worm farming, having a backyard is not necessary.

In order to start, you will need the following items:

• A container that is made of wood or plastic
• A cover for the container that is made plastic, burlap or newspaper
• Worms (Red Worms or Earthworms)
• Material for bedding purposes (i.e., newspaper, cardboard—the corrugated kind)
• Waste matter, such as scraps and peelings from vegetables, egg cartons made from cardboard material and tea bags; any organic waste matter is fine to use

A wood or plastic container is very suitable to use.  Some have suggested containers made from metal, but some sources fear that’s not a good idea.  Metal can cause contaminants to get into the compost.  That can mess up the worm farming process altogether. Your best bet is to use a plastic storage bin that you can see through.  Whether you use that or a wooden container, holes will have to be drilled for drainage purposes.  The holes should be placed on the sides and the bottom of the container.

You can also purchase containers that are made for that purpose.  In that case, you may need more than one container because you will have to keep the worms in one and the worm castings in another. For the bedding, you will need to tear the newspaper or cardboard material in strips that measure one to two inches long.  Moisten them really good, but not so where they are drenched.  If you don’t want to do that, you can also use straw or decomposed compost.  There are even some people that will use grass clippings.

As far as the scraps are concerned, you should only use what is recommended.  Using waste from animals is prohibited.  Waste from animals can have contaminants and can also be a breeding ground for unwanted pests as you are building your worm farm. The bedding has to be set up correctly because worms depend on it for their food source.   It should be loose enough for the worms to move around and have breathing room.  In addition to using newspaper or cardboard material, you can also use sawdust, burlap, hay, manure that has aged and dried leaves.

People that create a worm farm will use the matte kind of newspaper.  Phone books are good to use.  Any glossy paper is not recommended.  Also, a paper that comes from junk mail and copy paper is not a good idea.  They can be mixed with harmful toxins that can mess up the composting processing. In addition to that, cardboard that is coated with plastic or wax is not good to use.  So, using milk cartons is out of the question.  Basically, any type of material that decomposes quickly is ok to use.

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