Global Worming

Global Worming Newsletter - November 2009

In this issue we will cover the following subject:

• “Over-acidity in worm bins and what to do about it?”

---

Dear Friend,

did you ever lift the lid of your worm bin, only to notice that nearly your entire herd of worms is clinging to the lid or the sides of your bin desperately trying to escape their bedding?

This was most likely a clear indication that the bedding in your worm bin has become to acidic for the worms to live in. If you would push them back into the bedding most of them would most certainly die.

Worms are pretty hardy creatures and can tolerate a certain amount of acidity and even eat highly acidic materials but they will only eat around the edges of the acidic food source and than retreat into their safe bedding. Foods like most manures, potato peelings, cooked potatoes, poultry mash and carrots to name just a few are excellent worm foods but if they remain uneaten for a period of time they might turn sour and force the worms to retreat.

If this is not possible the worms will leave the worm bin or die…. (continued below)

---

WORM SPECIAL FOR YOU

“Should you want to boost your worm population now or add another worm bin,m we can offer you a special which only extends to our Subscribers. We offer you a batch of 1kg of worms +/- 4000 worms for the extra special price of R550 and only R65 for shipping to any place in South Africa” (For shipping quotes to overseas destinations please contact us for a quote)

---

…..Although not cast in stone a Ph reading of around 7 when testing your bedding is probably the best for your worms. A reading slightly below will still be fine, but a Ph reading below 6 is not desirable.

So what can we do to keep the Ph stable and protect our worms?

1. Avoid overfeeding especially if feeding the above mentioned types or other acidic food.
2. Regularly treat your worm bin with powdered limestone “Calcium Carbonate” (purchase at Animal feed stores only) it is recommended to use 50 grams of limestone per 1 meter square of surface area in your worm bin. Just sprinkle it lightly over the surface just before you add a fresh layer of food. Once a month or every second month should be sufficient..

Should the acidity in your worm bin rise to the point where your worms are endangered, there are 2 immediate steps you can take to improve the situation and hopefully rescue your herd.

1. Treat the bedding with powdered limestone.
2. Dig up the bedding and form it into rough piles to allow as much air as possible to penetrate the bedding. Keep the bedding reasonably wet during this process. Give the limestone some time to do its work. It is slow reacting. Than place your bedding again into your bin and give it 2 to 3 days rest, without feeding. Should the worms look happy after this time continue with your normal worm bin maintenance.

Give it a try and send us your feedback!

---

Worm Farm Special of the Month only R595

The Midi Tower 145 liter, 3 Bin System. It is ideally suited for a 4 person household and we can offer it to you including FREE Starter Batch of Worms (+/- 500) FREE Expert Advise FREE Access to Troubleshooting Help line FREE Set Up instructions FREE Maintenance instructions FREE 2 Liter bottle of Worm Tea (liquid fertilizer + natural pesticide) FREE 2 liter bag of worm castings (organic fertilizer) Get all that for the amazingly low price of only R595 excluding delivery Shipping for the Midi tower within South Africa will be R150.

---

If you want to make use of these special offers, just give us a call or drop us an email with your order, Postal address, Name and Phone number. To qualify for this special it is vital that you mention that you are referring to the “Global Worming News” special!

For our subscribers who are residing outside of South Africa, please inquire about shipping costs to the country of your choice.

http:/www.globalworming.co.za

---

We love your input

Please sent us your questions concerning worm farming and we will try to answer it in one of our next newsletters. Just write to info@globalworming.co.za and post your question.

---

Read more about the do’s and don’ts of Worm Farming on our web site as www.globalworming.co.za

---

Please pass this Newsletter on to anyone you know who might benefit from it. They can subscribe for free at www.globalworming.co.za

---

We wish you continued success with your worm farming projects and hope this Newsletter was helpful.

For more information about Worms, worm farming and Bokashi composting  please go to www.globalworming.co.za 

Kind regards

Stephan Kloppert
Editor
Global Worming News

Global Worming Newsletter - July 2009

In this issue we will cover the following subjects:

• Worms are leaving your worm farm during a coldfront!
• How can we protect our worms from dying in the Sun.
• What can we do to minimize the occurance of Fruitflies?

---

 Dear Friend,

Now that we are here in the middle of Winter in Cape Town I am sitting here in front of my laptop wearing one Jersey and two Jackets, getting ready for the next cold front to hit us with lots of rain to fill our Dams with the live giving liquid that we all depend on.

How do we value a home and dry place in these kind of conditions. But while we tend to seek cover wherever we can to avoid getting wet our worms often leave their holes in the Garden soil or even their snuggly worm farm to crawl up the walls of houses, along the sidewalks or new places around the garden.

Many times we’ve seen hundred’s and even thousands of worms stranded on the pavement or the street once the morning sun hit the grounds and dried them up. It takes just a few minutes for a worm to die once exposed to the sunlight with no place to hide.

So it happens quite frequently that a once thriving worm bins looses thousands of worms due to heavy rains….

---

WORM SPECIAL FOR YOU
“Should you want to boost your worm population now we can offer you a special which only extends to our Subscribers. We offer you a batch of +/- 500 worms for the extra special price of R125 and only R65 for shipping to any place in South Africa”

Worm Farm Special of the Month only R595

The Midi Tower 145 liter, 3 Bin System. It is ideally suited for a 4 person household and we can offer it to you including FREE Starter Batch of Worms (+/- 500) FREE Expert Advise FREE Access to Troubleshooting Help line FREE Set Up instructions FREE Maintenance instructions FREE 2 Liter bottle of Worm Tea (liquid fertilizer + natural pesticide) FREE 2 liter bag of worm castings (organic fertilizer) Get all that for the amazingly low price of only R595 excluding delivery Shipping for the Midi tower within South Africa will be R150.

---

If you want to make use of these special offers, just give us a call or drop us an email with your order, Postal address, Name and Phone number. To qualify for this special it is vital that you mention that you are referring to the “Global Worming News” special!

For our subscribes who are residing outside of South Africa, please inquire about shipping costs to the country of your choice.

http:/www.globalworming.co.za

---

…So why do the worms migrate in wet weather and how can we protect our Worm herd?

There are 2 probable reasons why worms leave their cosy homes…

Firstly: Worms can drown if their burrows get flooded with water which has a very low oxygen content. However this shouldn’t be a problem for worms in domestic worm farms as they are covered with a lid and only little to no rainwater will enter their home.

Which leaves us with the second possibility:

It is thought that the worms dislike the vibrations that are caused by the raindrops falling and banging onto the lids and sides of their Worm bins. This theory is supported by the fact that worm bins that are standing in sheltered places like a garden Shed or a garage, are loosing significantly fewer worms than those that are placed outside.

But knowing that many keen worm bin owners don’t have the luxury of a Garage or Garden shed, what are our options to protect our wriggling friends?

We at “Global Worming” found a cheap and effective way of minimizing the loss of worms is to set up what we call “Worm saving Traps”!

It sounds fancy but they are actually easy to make and fun to work with. What you will need are some old Newspapers or Cardboard boxes. All you have to do is to place an old newspaper (several sheets at once) or a nice flat piece of corrugated cardboard (the bigger the better) on the ground underneath your worm bin or close to it. We use corrugated cardboard as it works the best. The cardboard sheets will soak up water in the rain and will offer the worms who leave their bin during a rainy night a place of food and shelter once the sun comes up the next morning. All you or your children have to do now is to lift up the Cardboard or Newspaper, pick up the worms and return them to the worm bin. You can use a soft hand broom and a dustpan and sweep them up or take the whole sheet of cardboard and throw it into your worm bin. The worms will love it.

Have a look around and pick up a few bricks or buckets that might have some moisture preserved underneath their bottom. You will be surprised how many worms have crawled underneath to find shelter.

Give it a try and send us your positive feedback!

---

Question

Hi Stephan,

My worms seem to be happy, but I’m concerned about some flies in my farm. Anything I need to do? The flies are small little jobs, like fruit flies, but I don’t want them to lay eggs which will hatch into larvae etc when the weather warms up.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Andrew

Answer

Great Question Andrew!

These flies sound indeed like fruit flies. They are actually not harmful to your worms but widely regarded as a nuisance. The eggs of the fruit flies come usually unseen to us on the skins of fruit and vegetables. Fruit flies love banana skins for example.

You can kill the fruit fly larva by freezing your scraps before placing them in your worm farm.

In addition to that it would be good to dig a small trench in your worm bin and and drop your scraps into the trench, covering it afterwards again with processed worm castings. This should keep most of the fruit flies away.

Build a simple fly trap out of an old 2 or 5 liter bottle plastic bottle. Poke a few (5 to 10 holes) with a Nail or a small screwdriver into the sidewalls of your bottle, stuff a few banana skins inside and place the bottle on an elevated place close to your worm bin.

Try any or all of the above and you should get on top of your fruit fly problem.

---

We love your input

Please sent us your questions concerning worm farming and we will try to answer it in one of our next newsletters. Just write to info@globalworming.co.za and post your question.

---

Read more about the do’s and don’ts of Worm Farming on our web site as www.globalworming.co.za

---

Please pass this Newsletter on to anyone you know who might benefit from it. They can subscribe for free at www.globalworming.co.za

---

We wish you continued success with your worm farming projects and hope this Newsletter was helpful.

For further information please go to www.globalworming.co.za

 

Kind regards

Stephan Kloppert
Editor
Global Worming News

Global Worming Newsletter - June 2009

Are Your worms prepared to survive Extreme temperatures?

Dear Friend,

It has been a while since my last newsletter and the last few month where very taxing. But now it’s time to inform you about a few steps that can prevent your worm bin from loosing all its inhabitants in an instant.

While we here in South Africa and the Southern Hemisphere are facing the cold and wet Winter month, Europe and the Nations north of the Equator are moving into Summer and the possibilities of very hot weather. Extreme temperatures are a serious challenge for any Worm- farmer and is Herd of worms! Many happy Worm friends have lost the majority or often even their entire worm population in one cold night or one hot day.

In order to prevent this from happening to you our loyal SUBSCRIBERS, “GLOBAL WORMING NEWS” will mention in this issue how to protect your wiggling Master soil- builders.

---

THIS MONTH SPECIALS FOR YOU

“Should you want to boost your worm population now we can offer you a special which only extends to our Subscribers. We offer you a batch of worms 500 for the extra special price of R100 and only R50 for shipping to any place in South Africa”

Our Worm Farm of the Month is the Mini Tower 85 liter, 3 Bin System. It is ideally suited for a 2 person household and we can offer it to you for the reduced price of R495. It comes complete with worms, set up and maintenance instructions, and free access to the Troubleshooting Help line. Shipping for the Mini tower within South Africa will be R120.

If you want to make use of these special offers, just give us a call or drop us an email with your order, Postal address, Name and Phone number. To qualify for this special it is vital that you mention that you are referring to the “Global Worming News” special!

If you are residing outside of South Africa, please inquire about shipping costs to the country of your choice.

---

Please sent us your questions concerning worm farming and we will try to answer it in one of our next newsletters. Just write to info@globalworming.co.za and post your question.

---

Keeping your Worms cool!

Ok now you’ve had your Worm bin for some time and your worms are thriving, enjoying themselves in their home and doing a great job for you converting your organic scraps into nutrient rich Worm Castings and Worm Tea as well called leachate if it’s not brewed. But now with the cold winter nights around the corner it’s time to make sure your worms will be cosy and safe in their worm farm. Composting worms in our case (Eisenia Fetida) known as Red Wigglers, red worms, tiger worms and some other common names are according to our information the most often used worms living and eating in domestic worm farms with in South Africa and possibly world wide. These worms are able to handle temperatures between 5 and 28 degrees Celsius. So what are we going to do if the outside temperatures are sinking to Zero or even below? We are giving you just a few points to follow which if applied correctly should help to keep your worms warm enough to make it through to spring.

1.) Make sure that the Bedding, castings and food inside your worm farm are together at least 15 to 20 cm high. This will enable your worms to hide away in the center of their bedding which will insulate them from the cold outside temperatures.

2.) Cover your Worm Farm with an old Carpet or blanket which will protect it from cold and icy weather.

3.) If possible move your worm farm for the duration of the cold weather indoors. A corner in the garage or a store room will be just fine.

4.) If you have enough Bedding and castings in your bin you can add some fresh hot compost from your compost heap on top of the bedding, which will act as a heater and will help your worms through the cold day or night. (Caution, don’t do this when you only have very little bedding in your bin, your worms might die from heat.

---

Read more about the do’s and don’ts of Worm Farming on our web site as www.globalworming.co.za

---

Keeping your Worms cool!

For all those happy worm farmers who are facing hot days in the near future. In the Red Wiggler world anything above 28 degrees Celsius is regarded as hot and could become live threatening for your little friends. So here are a few steps that can make all the difference for your worms.

1.) Place your worm bin in a protected place out of the sun. Morning or afternoon sun should be ok in most areas but, don’t place it in the middle of your garden without any protective shade. (good places for your worm farm are, A cool garage or a store room without a tin roof, a cellar, in the garden under a tree, next to the house or a wall alongside your property, under the kitchen sink.., to name just a few.

2.) Make sure that the Bedding, castings and food inside your worm farm are together at least 15 to 20 cm high. This will enable your worms to hide away in the center of their bedding which will insulate them from the hot outside temperatures.

3.) Give your worms a cool shower. Rinse them with 2 or 3 liters of cold de chlorinated water, it will make sure that the bedding stays moist and keeps it just a little cooler.

4.) Cover the surface of your worm bedding with 2 soaked newspapers (stay away from the colored and shiny magazines) they will act as a natural barrier against the sun and will keep the contents of your wormfarm moist for longer.

If you follow those simple steps your worms should be prepared to face the extreme temperatures of the hot an cold seasons.

We wish you continued success with your worm farming projects and

say good bye for now.

Kind regards

Stephan Kloppert

Editor

Global Worming News

Global Worming Newsletter - September 2009

In this issue we will cover the following subjects:

• Worm farming Blog for YOU!
• How can we maximize the production of our worm bin?

---

Dear Friend,

it has been a while since our last newsletter and I hope you are well and your worms have survived the challenges of the cold winter period.

I am busy with a few projects: one of them was to set up a ” Vermiculture Blog” on our web site that will help you find some answers to your questions, without having to wait for our newsletter.

We want to offer this “blog” as a platform where all the friends of worm composting can exchange ideas, experiences and find answers to their concerns and questions related to Vermiculture. It is finally on line now and we believe that it can be a helpful tool for everyone who is interested in the field of recycling of organic waste. it is absolutely free, so please make use of it and share your experiences with us. You will find the link to the Blog in the index of www.globalworming.co.za.

---

Productivity of worm bins

Is your worm bin working at full capacity? Here in Cape Town many are enjoying the sunny spring and its carpets of Cape wildflowers. For worm farmers, large scale or enthusiastic home farmers, the change of weather will also bring a change in the behavior of our worms.

As the temperature climbs the worms will become more active and increase their breeding activity. We all want to have more worms that can recycle loads of organic waste. So what can we do to maximize the production of our worm bins? (continued below)

---

WORM SPECIAL FOR YOU

“Should you want to boost your worm population now we can offer you a special which only extends to our subscribers. We offer you a batch of +/- 500 worms for the extra special price of R125 and only R65 for shipping to any place in South Africa”

---

Worm Farm Special of the Month only R500

The Mini Tower 85 liter, 3 Bin System. It is ideally suited for a 2 person household and we can offer it to you including FREE Starter Batch of Worms (+/- 500) FREE Access to Troubleshooting Help line FREE Set Up instructions FREE Maintenance instructions and a FREE 2 Liter bottle of Worm Tea (liquid fertilizer + natural pesticide) Get all that for the amazingly low price of only R500 excluding delivery costs! Shipping for the Mini tower within South Africa will be R125.

---

If you want to make use of these special offers, just give us a call or drop us an e-mail with your order, postal address, name and phone number. To qualify for this special it is vital that you have been a subscriber of this newsletter before this issue was published.

For our subscribers who reside outside of South Africa, please inquire about shipping costs to the country of your choice.

www.globalworming.co.za

——————————————————————————– Productivity of worm bins (continued)

There are a few simple ways you can grow your worm herd and with it increase the amount of recycling in your worm bin. So what is needed to shift the worms into the next gear and make them happy breeders and fertilizer producers?

1. Try keeping your worm bin in a stable environment. Studies have shown that worms kept in environments with little to no temperature changes produce more cocoons than those who are kept outdoors with significant temperature changes during the seasons as well as between day and night. So if possible place your worm bin in a store room, a garage or even an underground cellar.
2. If possible, do not disturb your worms. Worms produce favorable conditions inside their worm bin through their constant digging. Their tunnels aerate their environment and encourage them to produce more offspring.
3. Maintain a healthy moisture level inside your worm bin. A handful of bedding softly squeezed should produce a few drops of moisture. A little more or less will still be fine. If your worm bin seems to be too dry just pour 1 to 2 liters of water over the surface of your bin and the bedding will absorb the necessary moisture! Let the water stand in an open bucket for a day to allow for the chlorine to evaporate. Remember that it is important for the excess water to drain out of your bin onto the ground or into a container below where you can catch it and use it as fertilizer for your plants.
4. If you have the time shred or tear up your worm food to make it easier for your worms to eat. They don’t have teeth and are actually sucking on the soft decomposing parts of their food to eat.
5. Worms will stop breeding when they feel that their bin is overpopulated or the conditions are not right. In order to get more worms to live and eat in your worm bin add another bin to your “worm tower system” or just start a second worm bin (this can be even a simple bucket or any other suitable container. Once the worms in this bin have multiplied take surplus worms from this container to add to your worm bin. In this way you can stock more worms in your worm bin than it would produce naturally.
6. If your worm bin is outdoors and there is rain in the air, remember to place a worm trap underneath your worm farm to catch worms that might migrate at night.
7. To stop worms from leaving your worm farm place a light over the worm bin at all times. Worms avoid light at all costs!

---

Try some or all of these simple steps and you should increase the production capacity of your worm bin considerably!

---

We love your input

Please send us your questions concerning worm farming and we will try to answer it in one of our next newsletters. Just send your question to info@globalworming.co.za .

---

Read more about the do’s and don’ts of worm farming on our web site as www.globalworming.co.za

---

Please pass this Newsletter on to anyone you know who might benefit from it. They can subscribe for free at www.globalworming.co.za

---

We wish you continued success with your worm farming projects and hope this newsletter was helpful.

Kind regards and happy worming

Stephan Kloppert
Editor
Global Worming News