Raising Worms

Summary: Raising worms can be very profitable. The worms you grow make excellent fishing bait and they are terrific sources for nurishing your garden soil. 

Are you sick of taking the garbage out all the time? I'll teach how to turn your garbage into a profit. Raising worms may be your key to success. In fact, if you properly raise just 100 red worms, within a year they will reproduce exponentially and you will have at least 3,000 worms to sell.

Raising worms can save you time and money. Worms help recycle our waste, as well as provide nutrients for the soil. After you harvest worms for a few months your healthy soil will be ready to grow a beautiful garden. Also, you can use the harvested worms as food for any reptiles your children may have as pets. I can hear you all scooting up to the edges of your chairs.

Here are some important tips you need to keep in mind before you begin raising worms. Don't keep them where you might mistake them for anchovies. No! Seriously, here are some real tips.

• The best temperature for a worm's environment ranges from 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure you do not set the worms in a place where temperatures go beyond that range unless you wish to make worm mush.
• Keeping your worm farm in your basement is a good idea as long as your young children cannot get to them. “Mom! The worm box is empty. Have you seen my worms?”
• When deciding on a box or bin to use for raising worms make sure that there is no paint or other chemical substances on the inside of the box. Duh!
• If you decide to use newspaper for bedding, make sure that you use paper with only black ink. Colored ink could be dangerous to the worms.
• Do not feed the worms any type of citrus fruits (oranges, grapefruits, etc.), onions, coffee grounds, potato peels, eggs or egg shells. Also, do not put bones or meat in the worms' bin because these foods are too thick for the worms to digest.
• If you have a doubt that certain types of garbage may be harmful to the worms, go with your instinct. It is better to throw it out rather than test the worms and hurt them.
• It is imperative that your soil is always moist. Worms cannot survive without water. Add water, and then cover your box with burlap. Don't seal it. Worms need a lot of oxygen.

Okay! Those were the “Don't Do” items. Here are the “To do” things.

Choose a bin to store the worms in. Cut or drill small holes in the bottom to allow water to drain easily. Make sure the holes are not too big or the worms could wiggle away.

Add soil into the box or bin. Six to eight inches should be plenty. Water the soil enough so that is moist, but do not over-water it. Make sure to water the soil at least every three days.

Assemble bedding for the worms. The bedding can consist of scraps of paper, shredded newspaper, leaves or even shredded junk mail. (It turns out there actually is a use for junk mail.) About one to three inches of bedding is ideal.

Buy a couple dozen red worms from a reliable vendor. Red worms are the best kind to use because they are the fastest breeders out of all the earthworms. You may find red worms in your backyard and can use these.

Add a small amount of cornmeal or dog food in the top inch or so of soil. This should encourage the worms to move around the soil more because cornmeal and dog foods are some of their favorite foods.
Add the worms into the bin.

If you put cornmeal or dog food in the soil, wait a few days before adding garbage. If you did not add food, add waste products within a few hours because the worms will need to eat a lot each day.
Set some dark paper or wood boards on the top of the soil to keep out light, as worms as extremely light sensitive.

Continue feeding garbage to the worms every few days. They will gladly recycle your scraps of food and paper products. Within a few months you should have at least a few hundred worms to sell or use as bait.

Use a garden fork to scoop out the soil. Once the soil has been removed put the remaining worms in a container. The worm-free soil will be nutrient-rich and ready to use for your garden. Plus, you'll have plenty of worms to sell or use as fishing bait.