insects sharing worm binsgreenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread |
My worms have settled nicely into their bins. They've got soaked straw (wrung out), old leaves and a few scatterings of compost thrown in for bedding. They seem fine. I checked on them and noticed that a few other insects are also in the bins - spiders, slugs, a couple of ants. I'm not talking thousands, but if I sit and watch long enough, I see them. I assume they came from our leaves, which compost out back of the barn. Are these intruders harmful to the worms? My assumption is no, but I thought I'd check. Thanks, Sean
-- Sean (rougan@rcn.com), April 18, 2002
They can be problematic should their size increase to starve the worms in the confines of the bin.I would advise if the bin is indoors that you place it on a table or sawhorses and place the legs in tin cans, then the canned legs in larger cans with vegetable oil to act as a migration barrier for ants.
I minimize the insect contaminations, sealing my leaves in a black bag in the sun or putting it in my solar oven before adding to the bins.
-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), April 18, 2002.
We keep our worm bin outdoors, so we often get insects. Honestly, we haven't noticed any real problem with these extra visitors--the worms seem as numerous (and as busy) as usual. However, if my worm bin were indoors, I'd no doubt be more fussy about this.
-- Julie Woessner (jwoessner@rtmx.net), April 18, 2002.