[stickydank]

Feed and Feeding. Animal manures, garden compost, shredded or chopped cardboard, wood or papers or almost any decaying organic matter or organic waste product may be used as feed or to produce feed for earthworms. Dairy, steer, horse and rabbit manures are excellent feeds. Low-nutrient feeds need to be supplemented with high protein or nitrogen materials such as grains, mashes, walnut shell meal or cotton seed meal. The feed and supplements can be used straight or can be mixed with 20 to 30 percent horse manure or old pine or fir wood shavings, and spread on top of the bedding in thin strips or patties. This method of feeding will draw the worms to the top of the beds where they may be harvested most easily.

The protein content of the total feed should not be less than 9 percent and no more than 15 percent. If too little protein is present worms do not grow well, and the beds become too acid for eggs to hatch. With too much protein, feed decays quickly and the beds become too hot for the worms. Soured beds become filled with maggots from flies. Using feed with about 10 to 12 percent protein gives best results. If reasonable care is taken not to overfeed, worms can be raised without growing flies.

Worms should be fed regularly, usually once a week. The best guide to feeding schedules and amounts is condition of the worms. When the last of the feed is almost gone, it is time to feed again.

Fattening earthworms. Earthworms may be force-fattened so that their girth and weight double. A good method is to prepare several new beds with 6 inches of bedding and soak until soggy wet. Harvest the regular beds, place the harvested worms in the fattening beds, and feed them straight mash or meal. If they are very active, feed them twice daily. A formula that has given excellent results is as follows: 700 lbs corn, 500 lbs. oats, 200 lbs. Milo and 600 lbs. alfalfa pellets. This formula contains about 12-15% crude protein. Additional cottonseed meal is often added by experienced growers but can result in sour beds. The worms will be ready for harvesting and selling in 7 to 10 days.

[stickydank]

I use my old feed for rabbits there alfalfa/protein 15% I also use rabbit manure
rabbit piss and poop is ok for worms and plants same as worms casting with a ph of 5.5-6
here in the Mountains MUHAAHHAAAA haaaa haa ha

[stickydank]

Originally Posted by hoss1111

He's got them on those vanilla protein shakes

I've got your protein SHAKE

[stoned-trout]

Originally Posted by The Revolution

LOL that sounds awesome, what would you add to make the buggers glow?

they sell this food you feed em that does it...my worms love oatmeal...^^^^

[The Revolution]

Ive got a major mite problem! I have 3 bins going currently. Set out this week to harvest them, which I do all manually so it's a bit of a chore. The first one went smooth. Screened out all of the worms, and uneaten food and returned it to the bin. I sort through the casting before storing it to remove and worm eggs, and newly hatched worms that made it thru the screening. I found very few brown mites in the finished casting.
Today I started screening through the second bin. I immediately noticed an abundance of red and brown mites and Springtails. More than an abundance, they're fuckin' infested. I also noticed a bunch of my worms are fucked up. They look like they've been put through a grinder, or something was munching on them. They're all deflated looking in certain areas of their bodies, and bloodied.. To my understanding, the white and brown mites only consume the worms food, and won't harm the worms unless they become over populated. Even then, will only compete with the worms for the food. Spring tails also only consume the materials and will not harm the worms. The Red Mites will actually attack the worms. Attaching themselves to the worm bodies and sucking blood from them. Well there doing a number on my worms in bin 2 and 3.
I attribute it to the fact that I probably overfed the bins with too many wet ingredients (a lot of whole fruit scraps, ie. Apples, grapes, bananas)
I was unable to attend to my bins for a cpl weeks due to being out of town, so I figured if I added some whole apple cores, apple peels, and other wet foods, it would keep my bins from drying out too much while I was away, and I could harvest once I returned. This created too much moisture, and one of the bins is smelling a bit funky. Anaerobic nastiness going on. I sprinkled some Diatomaceous Earth into each of the bins, as I know this will help absorb some of the moisture, and I've heard it'll actually help to kill the mites. Does anyone know if this is an effective means to kill or control a large population of mites. I'm still perturbed by the size of the mite and spring-tail population in such a short amount of time. Its been a month since Ive really got in and inspected these other 2 bins, and only a cpl weeks since I added all of these over moist ingredients. The castings are literally crawling with mites. I should remove some of the remaining food scraps and pitch them, but to be honest the thought of all those mites running up my arm is making me itch! Also are these the same as spider mites that affect the foliage of our plants AKA The Borg? They look very similar, but Im not certain they're one in the same. If they are Im going to pitch these bins down the bank. What else can I do to save these bins? Are they a lost cause? Should I worry about them spreading to my other bin that seems unaffected? Also, Where the fuck do they come from? My bins are secluded in my basement, it's freezing cold outside with 4 ft of snow covering the ground! I havent added any materials from outdoors. Been using shredded News paper for bedding, and adding food scraps as needed. How can I go from just a few mites to thousands in a matter of weeks?

[stickydank]

nematodes work 15 bucks on ebay mix dry pour into each in bin takes about a week to see a change i wipe volck oil spray on the rim of my bin keeps all mites from leaving the bin when the nematodes start to eat them they suckem dry too

[hoss1111]

Hey rev I have a red/orange mite in my bins too. They are fast, and do kill some worms, but I think they also kill all the bad bugs too. Natural killers they are haha

I use de too and it helped with controlling their numbers. They are a lot less now that I keep my bin a little dryer. Also my mites don't seem to like water, they climb the bin walls when I water. If you learn more about them please post it here or start a new thread and post a link to it as id like to follow

[Eighths-n-Aces]

Originally Posted by The Revolution

How can I go from just a few mites to thousands in a matter of weeks?

because mites fuck?

sounds like the mites you have are just doing what they do and playing a part in there own little ecosystem. if what they do isn't fucking/or going to fuck with with your plants i wouldn't worry about it at all. worm bins and compost piles have a whole bunch of tenants that are on your side. if they're not plant pests let them do their job.

[The Revolution]

Originally Posted by Eighths-n-Aces

because mites fuck?

sounds like the mites you have are just doing what they do and playing a part in there own little ecosystem. if what they do isn't fucking/or going to fuck with with your plants i wouldn't worry about it at all. worm bins and compost piles have a whole bunch of tenants that are on your side. if they're not plant pests let them do their job.

The red mites are killing my worms. Theyre actually the only mites that are detrimental to my worms. They feed off the worms and inspecting my bins I can see theyre clearly munching on them. Also one of my bins has gone anaerobic in just a matter of weeks. It has a bad smell. Should i dump it and start a new one, or try drying it out and remedy it?

[stoned-trout]

I been adding all kinds of worms to my bins from various sources wild and other wise...wonder if there will be any crossbreeding?? should I be playing some barry white.. ??? ..yeehaw .. I dumped a few bins into my new raised bed....there was some fat happy worms in there...8ft bed 20 inches high,32 inches wide....yeehaw