All of my red wigglers are small

[Midnight1957]

I have had my red wigglers since last October. I have them in an 18 gallon tote, feed them worm chow and veggie scraps but I have yet to find any adult full size worms. There are thousands of babies but no adults, is my container too small, do I need to get a larger bin (flow through bin), or feed them more.
Also I have not removed any vermacompost yet, what gives.
I want my worms to grow so I can fish with them, please help.

Thanks,
Wade

[The Worm Expert]

Wade

An 18 gallon Rubbermaid style worm bin will hold roughly 2 pounds or 1,600 to 2,000 red wigglers with room to grow. It seems you may be to crowded, hence they are stunted.

Try separating the worms into two or three worm bins to give them room to grow. If this is the issue, than they will grow out in no time. They should also begin to start breeding again if this is the issue at hand

The flow through worm bin can hold more worms, however it too is limited to the number of worms based on the size of the flow through system.

Bruce

[Benjy136]

Bruce:

My RWs came in this afternoon. They just left them at my back door. I've been keeping an eye out for them or they would have just sat out there in the sun. They were much smaller than I expected, but I probably got more worms that way. I have a cement-mixing tray (three feet by two ft.) it has about 12 gallons of mich. peat and a proportionate amount of the mixture you advised for the 14 day AN buckets and about a gallon of fresh horse poop which has been piled up in the middle of the tray for several days now. I made a frame out of some three -and-a-half inch wide and one inch slick finnished wood, fastened weatherstripping on the top of the tray, and laid the frame on top so that the worms would have to traverse the frame upside down for a good three inches to get out. I then drilled two 15/32 holes right close to the bottom, on the side and fitted tubes into the holes and fitted filters into them on the inside. (its watertight) The tubes come down to a 5 gal. bucket that has a 5 inch aereator in it with enough water (One and a half inches) for it to function. I know it'll be a while before I start getting any "worm tea"(how long?) but I just want it ready, as I'd like to be using it as soon as possible. What would be the highest temperature I can keep this set-up in and still have it function well?I have plenty of both old rabbit poop and freash and old horse poop. I have a few buckets of each set up with water and aerators in them. If I've made errors in this set-up, spit it out. If you don't, There's a fair go that Banana Bender will. He's been true blue with me since I've been here. lol and hooroo.

Ben

[Brian M]

in them. If I've made errors in this set-up, spit it out. If you don't, There's a fair go that Banana Bender will. He's been true blue with me since I've been here. lol and hooroo.

Ben

Banana Bender??? Who you talking about LOL

[Benjy136]

Brian

Brian. Don't tell me I've made another faux pas. It was my (mistaken?) understanding that Queenslanders were referred to as Banana benders in Strine. I didn't know that Queensland took up 1/4 of Oz. This is the second time today I'm having to offer an apology for misspeaking. If I'd just stick to what I KNOW I'll bet I'd never get in any trouble.,,,,But then I probably wouldn't learn as much. Please accept my apology if I offended you. And If I didn't, could you help me out....pleeeze?......LOL

Ben

[Brian M]

Ben you make me laugh. I look forward to reading your posts. Your knowledge of Australia surprises me. Not many over there would know the nickname for Queenslanders is Banana Benders. New South Wales is Cockroaches and South Australians is Crow Eaters lol. Tasmainians have Two Heads. LOL
Yes Queensland is quite big is quite big. It would take a couple of days or more to drive almost none stop from one end to the other. Only Western Australia is bigger. We have cattle staions ( cattle ranch) bigger than some US States.
When you said True Blue and Banana Bender I knew you were having a laugh at me. I think it is great. Next week it looks like our Prime Minister will get rolled by the guy she knifed, our former Prime Minister. I hope she goes.

Now back on topic. If you are used to Africans and Eruos you will find the Reds are much smaller. They do lose weight and size in transit. When they are packed ready to go they froth up with stress and the bedding can become quite damp. This is why your transit bedding should be almost dry. Give them a week or two in good damp conditions and they will return to full size.

[Benjy136]

Brian:
Thank you for the help. I was a little concerned when they didn't surface on the second day. Should I keep feeding them the aereated poop when they start eating? By the way, do you know if John Laws is still recording? He did a cover on one of my songs back in the sixties when I was performing under the name "Johnny Yukon"? I believe he was from Newcastle. Its been a lot of years and we lost touch quite a while back. lol

Ben

[Brian M]

Brian:
Thank you for the help. I was a little concerned when they didn't surface on the second day. Should I keep feeding them the aereated poop when they start eating? By the way, do you know if John Laws is still recording? He did a cover on one of my songs back in the sixties when I was performing under the name "Johnny Yukon"? I believe he was from Newcastle. Its been a lot of years and we lost touch quite a while back. lol

Ben

Wow you are a man of many surprises.John Laws is one of Australias top paid radio announcers in Sydney. I did a Google search to see if he used to sing and sure enough. The link is below to his show. I am sure I have heard of Johnny Yukon. Did a Google search to see if I could hear your songs but couldn't find it. I did find it to buy.
http://www.2sm.com.au/laws.html

This aereated poop you are talking about? The mix I make up containing about one pound of poop mixed in the bucket along with the other stuff is what I aereate. This is just like dirty water I use to water and mix with the feed. I use it every couple of days when I feed. I also use it to make a slurry of the cow poo as it is still damp but not sloppy so I wet it to like a wet slop and then feed this.

The worms could take a week to settle in so don't panic my singing friend. Crikey I now know someone famous.

[Benjy136]

Brian:

What I did was to take about 4 gallons of fresh horse poop,with a 5 inch aquarium "stone" in the bottom of the bucket and a plastic tube to use for a siphen with a filter on the end, bring the water level up to about two inches from the top and turn the pump on. I let it run for a couple days and then began siphoning some of the liquid. The PH is 7.1. My well water here is 5.3, so it actually brought the PH of my water up. I have used some of this resulting liquid for my greenhouse plants with very good results. It probably still has pathogens so I'm anxious to get the "worm tea" from the wrigglers to spray on my garden veggies. There is a blight sweeping accross this part of the country, taking out heirloom tomatoes. I'm seeing some of the effects on a few of mine, and would hate to lose all of them. The "tea" will not, I'm afraid, be ready in time, though, so I'm starting some seedlings in the greenhouse after sterilizing and fumigating the greenhouse. I notice that the buckets with the rabbit poop are a little lower on the PH scale. I've given a clump of the horsey to my ANs and they went crazy for it. Overnight, all that was left were some thin pieces of straw all over the top, I have three buckets set up as I described in a small room and no smell. You said you were using Molases in the bucket mix. How much?

There were three other groups over there that covered my stuff. I only remember the "Kiel Isles". But that was long ago and when I wasn't a Super Star by the age of 50 I got out, as I had promised myself I would. Now I'm just a retired Tree man, though I occasionally pull out my old Gibson hummingbird and amuse my friends and amaze myself. I really appreciate all the help and insight you have afforded me with my new venture. We can't save the world, but if our little parts of it could talk, they'd probably say "what took you so Damn long?"..lol

Ben