My worms dont seem to be growing

[Vikkiwormatron]

I had lots of adults originally and it seemed to be doing really well. There was lots of babies but its been several weeks and there doesnt seem to be many adults and the babies arent growing. Should I be worried?

[markmyworms]

You don't when you got them or what season this happened. But I'm guessing that if they really gone then the environment was either too wet or too dry or, if overwintering, too cold. See what worm city say and keep going, it's worth it in the end!

[WillyWorm]

Hi Vikki,
No there is no need to worry. The 'baby worms' sound like they are adult 'pot worm' a baby red worm is white with a red/brown line down it's back an adult pot worm is all white. Pot worms are just part of natures composting system and we all get them, they do no harm to your red worms nor your compost, they will eat the food you put in and turn it into compost. However, the presence of pot worms does tend to indicate that your bin maybe a bit Alkaline and our worms prefer a natural PH. The solution is to apply eggshells to your bin. Just wash and dry your eggshells then dry them in the bottom of the oven, crush to a powder (I use an old coffee grinder) apply a couple of spoonfuls every three days until you see a marked reduction in the pot worm population.
Your worms will be fine and wont leave home if you keep the basics right. There are five main things to keep an eye on. 1) moisture : the bedding should be like a wrung out sponge, at this time of year it can become wet in which case add shredded corrugated cardboard. 2) temperature : worms like to live between 14° and 20°C they will survive outside of these temperatures but slow down in all they do. 3) light : worms die in the light, they will move away from it fast this can result in them leaving home! 4) space : worms are very sociable and will happily live together but if they feel their population has reached the optimum for the available area they will stop breeding. (It normally take a while to reach this level of occupancy . 5) feeding : in the colder months of the year feeding requires a little more attention. Worms do not directly eat the food and scraps we put in the bin. They depend on bacteria and microorganisms to break it down, the worms then eat this and a lot of the micro. In winter the food available from the kitchen tends to be harder root veg. Root veg have developed a defensive protection against soil bacteria, try it for yourself, put a carrot top in your worm bin and see how long it takes to break down, it may never break down just start growing again. For these reasons we need to help, you can do this by freezing, cooking and or chopping the food before feeding. This will break the cells in the food and increase the surface area for the micro and worms to work on. Also feed little and often this keeps your bin healthy and again increases surface area.

Hope is helps
Willy

[WillyWorm]

I've been on holiday for the past three weeks. I fed the herd, closed the gates and opened the slurry sump before I left. When I returned, yesterday, all was well. (I think the herd were pleased to see me 😆.) I had no kitchen scrapes so I fed them some dried food I always keep it to hand for things like this. My dry mix is made of bread dried in the oven, any out of date cereal or dry good I find (never use salted biscuits or crisps, worms have a very low salt tolerance)  put it all in the food processor and blitz to a powder. Lucky guys
Willy worm

[WillyWorm]

Sorry sent this to the wrong thread ?