Trouble in Wormland

I had been meaning to get some aeration holes retrofitted to the wormery for weeks, and by the time I finally got around to it last week I had troubles, big troubles. Mites, ants and fruit flys were using my wormery as party central and my worm population seemed to be declining. My handy moisture meter told me the bottom of the wormery was saturated and the thermometer said the middle of the bed was 28 C, so the upper limit of what they can stand. I could just imagine my worms, battling parasitic mites and carnivourous grubs fleeing the top layers of bedding only to be cooked in the middle or drowned at the bottom. Not good.

As the wormery is compartmentalised I was most concerned about the section that has the worms, and is almost full. I drilled two sets of hole in the top and bottom. I tried using a 2 cm bit to create a reverse cloverleaf pattern as this is supposed to be an excercise in aesthetics as well, creating two holes at the top for each compartment and two holes at the bottom. Boy, did it smell when the drill poked through those bottom holes and a I got a nice rush of black, reeking slime.

To keep the nastys out I covered the holes with a plastic insect mesh, probably 2mm. I bought a meter of the stuff online and it will last forever, fulfilling all my insect mesh needs. I could fit it on the inside for the top holes (see photo) but had to slap it on the outside for the bottom holes. Not attractive or ideal, but I'm going to apply all this learning to Marque Two.

Now I just had to deal with the mites, ants and flys. We collect plastic takeaway containers so I had enough on hand to fashion four ant traps using ant powder, sugar and kibble and punching holes along the bottom edge and laying them on top of the bedding or burying them around where the ants were congregating. I also dug out the corner where they were swarming and poured a kettle of boiling water over the buggers. I dug around but could never find a queen. For the mites I lay a sheet of newspaper along the top of the now much disturbed bedding, and will take it up, dispose of it and replace it regularly. According to The Worm Book (Nancarrow and Taylor) mites are supposed to congregate on the underside. The Ant Death Trap their idea as well. And the fly trap. Again I used a takeaway container, filled it halfway with cider vinegar, put in a couple drops of washing up liquid, made an opening in the top and laid it carefully on top of the bedding.

So now when I lift the lid of my wormery I looks something like this. That was all yesterday, so too early to tell whether the attempt at aeration or pest control has worked. I'll keep you posted.