Rain escapees

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Smallthings
Junior Member
Posts:49
Joined:Mon Oct 22, 2018 6:50 pm
Re: Rain escapees

Post by Smallthings » Thu Oct 31, 2019 5:33 pm

Hi Lilwriggler, glad to hear your number of escapees has reduced - I think I started my wormery within a month or two of yours so have been interested in reading about your experiences. I feel I'm now getting into a groove, better at gauging how much food to add and when, etc. but it continues to be a learning curve! Mine are in a dry, unheated shed but here had been a forecast of very cold nights a few weeks back and I wrapped the wormery up in bubble wrap, similar to what I'd done last winter, but for the first time since getting it I suddenly had a number of escapees too! I was a bit shocked to find them on the floor as had not expected it. (Fortunately all had survived!) Then I figured it must have been that I simply hadn't allowed enough air/ventilation this time and had wrapped them too tightly as dampness levels and smells were all good/normal. Once I returned them and loosened the insulation to allow greater airflow everything settled down again nicely and has been fine since, so lesson definitely learned! Think I will follow your idea of adding Autumn leaves too as will make great natural insulation inside the trays for them :-)

Lilwriggler
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Posts:143
Joined:Sun Nov 04, 2018 12:08 pm

Re: Rain escapees

Post by Lilwriggler » Thu Oct 31, 2019 7:07 pm

Nice to share experiences, i’m always keen to read other peoples and am always happy to see a new post on here. I haven’t done the wrap up here yet, it is still pretty warm. I now wonder whether it is the change in pressure that encourages the escapism, or the vibrations of the rain as it can’t be water getting in as they are inside. I have lost a few in the garage, the floor is dry and if they don’t head for the door they don’t make it. I have found a few carcasses in a set of drawers next to the wormery, which they have climbed into. Moved that for now. I have 4 layers going. The food layer has cardboard on top. They are taking a bit longer getting through the hamster 🐹 bedding and waste/food, taking longer than 4 weeks to breakdown what goes in so i need to maybe store a little and introduce a bit of variety. Tray 2 has partially broken down, although the hamster bedding is still obvious. I have added leaves to this tray to try and encourage more bacterial breakdown. Third tray is higher in volume than tray 2, but again the hamster bedding is still obvious, although grey/brown. It is drier though than all the other trays and has far fewer worms. My lowest tray has some cardboard in the bottom with leaves on top as insulation and there are quite a few happy worms in there. I think worms are preferring trays 1,2 and 4 and leaving 3 which i may need to do something about.... any advice out there would be great. I should try to take a photo and post it. Would love to see a photo of the contents of each of your trays by way of comparison if we can post it? Anyway.... enough rambling!

Smallthings
Junior Member
Posts:49
Joined:Mon Oct 22, 2018 6:50 pm

Re: Rain escapees

Post by Smallthings » Sat Nov 02, 2019 11:35 am

Yes, always interesting to read about and compare experiences here, as well as a great source of advice! My wormery sounds quite different to yours Lilwriggler. Having recently harvested my first bottom tray, with two above it at the time, I now only have two trays. Bottom one just about ready to harvest already I think, and top one filling up nicely. I will probably add another on top soon and to help insulate through the winter so maximum 3 trays. No hamster bedding here - purely newspaper and shredded cardboard., I've noticed that some of the latest castings look very much like tiny recycled blobs of paper too (v light in colour) so the worms have obviously been tucking into their carbon! That also made me think they may need a little more other food (as in our waste veg etc.) so have increased the quantity lately. There were so many babies hatching in the Summer that I do seem to have had a significant increase in population so food is definitely going more quickly.

I noticed there's a board on here for Wormery Photos and Videos (but only the set-up video on it at the moment) so could try uploading some pics there?

Lilwriggler
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Posts:143
Joined:Sun Nov 04, 2018 12:08 pm

Re: Rain escapees

Post by Lilwriggler » Sun Nov 03, 2019 9:58 pm

I will give the photo’s a try this week at some point, but it might not be till weekend when i can do it in daylight!

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