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Heat wave

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2020 2:50 pm
by Pauline
Dear worm carers/lovers,
Sadly, my worms have not survived the heat wave. I live in a flat with a large balcony but do not have a safe place such as a garage for them to hide when it is above 30 degrees for several days. I had placed some damp newspapers and ice freezer blocks. I also stopped giving them food waste. However, I had to go away for a couple of days so could not renew this on a daily basis. I started my wormery in May and was very excited but did not anticipate a heat wave could be so challenging. I would welcome any tips from someone in a similar situation.
Many thanks for your help!
Pauline

Re: Heat wave

Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2020 3:41 pm
by WillyWorm
Hi Pauline, sorry to hear your news. For worms heat is the fastest killer of all šŸ˜Ÿ. You have tried a number of the correct things but sometimes even with our best efforts things still go ā€œbum upā€
Worms like to live at a temperature very similar to the temperature that humans like to live thatā€™s about 20/22 degrees c so if you can provide a space that even when the temperature is high, that you are comfortable in, then your worms should be fine. Worms start to be uncomfortable at 25c, start to die at about 30c and die off very quickly at 33c. Sometimes moving from one side of the balcony to the other can make a big difference in temp, please check.
I will try a few more ideas with you. Firstly can you give your worm bin some shade, even some cardboard will help reduce the temp. A simple fan, if you have one will help, you could put it on a timer if you are going away.
You could freeze your worm food in muffin baking tins or egg trays which you can tear apart and feed it while frozen, this will cool the bin and help control any fruit fly problems. Feed a small portion two or three times a day.
Donā€™t over feed.
Donā€™t feed any grain or grain products, like bread, cake, biscuit or dried worm food. Grain is very warming and helpful to warm a bin in winter but can make it to hot in summer.
Cover your bin with a white sheet or paper to reflect light and heat away.
Continue with your cool blocks.
Try leaving the lid off the bin during the day this will encourage the worms to go down out of the light too cooler regions of the bin.
The biggest problem comes if you have to go away and canā€™t tend your herd. Without shade they will over heat šŸ˜”šŸ˜”

Hope that helps please call again if we can help or to update

Willy