Red Worm Composting
A project for the environment
A diary of what's going on with the worms
- June 3
- Chris from The Pennsylvania Resources Council (http://www.prc.org) came to the Library to give a workshop on worm composting. Reference librarian Elizabeth Krebs attended and received a worm bin, 750 slightly frozen redworms, and instructions on how to make them a happy home. She learned that the worms need air, bedding (in this case, damp, shredded newspaper), soil, water, and food. Here is the worm bin with the lid off. The worms do not like light, and quickly moved under the bedding to avoid it.
- June 9
- The worms are getting comfy in their new home. We stirred up the bedding a bit so you could see one. Each worm will eat half its body weight in food scraps every day. Worms do not have teeth. They eat soil along with food, and the soil acts as grit to help with digestion.
- June 16
- Watermelon seeds have sprouted in the moist environment, and banana peels are starting to disintegrate and disappear. Cutting up the food into small pieces will speed up decomposition, and burying it in the bedding eliminates odors and fruit flies. Can you spot the worm on the brown paper?
- June 23
- We dug way down to find this worm to show you; they like to hide at the very bottom! Look at the "dirt" that is starting to appear. That's the paper and fruit parts after passing through the worms! Our critters have now been with us for three weeks. Nothing smells, and we have no bugs or fruit flies.
- June 30
- The paper is getting grayer and the worms are getting longer and fatter on their diet of banana peels, apple skins, and orange rinds. If you want to learn more about these critters, try the articles at:
- www.wormswrangler.com
- July 7
- Two-year-old Dane of Mt. Lebanon has been following our worm saga from his computer at home, and he finally persuaded his mother to inquire about seeing the worms up close and personal on one of their regular library visits. What good luck for us that they chose Picture Day to ask!
- We dug way down to the bottom of the bin, scooped out some bedding and a fat wriggling worm, and plopped it all into Dane's waiting hands. He gave it a good looking over and a friendly poke or two before depositing it back into the bin and covering it over.
- Outdoors around his home, Dane is a fearless bug collector. Now his mom is thinking that a worm bin will be next on his wish list!
- July 14
- We put the worms on a paper towel for this week's picture so they would be a bit easier to see - the red doesn't show too well because of all the dirt they are making and have on their bodies! After trying out various living quarters in the building, we decided to keep the bin at the Reference Desk to more easily accommodate requests to see the worms up close and personal! Their home is looking very "wormy" these days.
- July 21
- Dylan, age 5 (almost), and his 3-year-old sister Hannah were good sports about touching the worms and worm "poop" and they were off to wash their hands right after their visit. We found a baby worm this time!
- July 28
- The worms are getting more visitors to their home at the Reference Desk. We will be getting a scoop of some kind to make it easier to find them when folks stop by. The newsprint is slowly disintegrating. Can you tell how much dirtier it looks compared to the first few weeks?
- August 4
- Just look at all the great dirt these worms are making!
- August 11
- Light glints off the shiny back of this fat worm as he takes a dive to get down into the gloomy lower regions of the bin. New food additions this week were banana peels and coffee grinds.
- August 18
- The worms went on vacation and forgot their camera!
- August 25
- It's not getting any easier to catch a glimpse of our light-avoiding worms! Can you spot this one a little left of center? We are thinking of trying a big scoop to get way down deep into the bin.
- September 1
- Today our worms are enjoying some red and green grapes that over-ripened in the refrigerator while they were on vacation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that each person generates 7.2 ounces of food waste per day. Since worms can eat 1/2 their body weight in food scraps per day, our 1/2 lb of worms digest about 4 oz of food scraps each day.
- September 8
- We poked around in the middle of the dirt this morning, and struck gold - er, worms! I think they heard Elizabeth cutting up that big juicy apple and couldn't wait to dig in. It is amazing how all the fruit and peelings just disappear.
- September 15
- Several worms are on the way to that big bunch of decaying grapes! We'll have to see how many are left next week.
- September 22
- Here is a wee baby worm exploring the lid of the bin. We had a visit from Chris and Corrine from The Pennsylvania Resources Council (http://www.prc.org) and they said our worms are doing great! They advised us to break up any newsprint clumps that form and to make sure any paper towels we put in are damp. Also, unless grapes are very decayed it is best to poke a little hole in each so the worms have an easier time breaking in.
- September 29
- We now have a gardening tool to move the bin contents around and look for the worms. Can you spot the two we turned up?
- October 6
- Here is a big fat worm that came to the surface for a picture! The newsprint and paper towels are now greatly disintegrated and we are really pushing dirt around to find our worms!
- October 13
- Here is a bunch of worms in the middle of things, and a baby off to the side. Come on in, baby, the eating's great!
- October 20
- A big worm is heading for some food. We really could be harvesting this fertilizer but Elizabeth wants to hold off a few more weeks. We are going to run some newspaper through our shredder and add it to the bin next week.
- October 27
- Elizabeth is using our new rake to find some worms to show patron Kush.
- November 3
- We found a group of worms huddling in a corner of the bin this afternoon.
- November 10
- Janisha, 14, and her friend Vanessa, 15, stopped in to have a look at the worms. They dug out a few fat ones to pose with!
- November 17
- Today we did some housekeeping in the bin. Elizabeth raked the worms and the dirt they have made over to one side of the bin. Then she added moistened shredded scrap paper from our office area to the other side of the bin, and mixed it with a small bit of the dirt. The worms will soon start to migrate to this new "food." We'll add our coffee grounds and fruit peelings to that side as well.
- In about a month, all the worms will have made their way to the side with the new paper, and we'll scoop out the abandoned fertilizer and set it aside for use in an experiment this coming spring. We will be mixing our compost into the dirt in one of two identically planted urns in our courtyard. Which plants do you think will look healthier?
- November 24
- Reference Librarian Craig Hayward pokes down into the new paper to see if any worms have made it to the fresh side - and yes indeed they have! Those tasty banana peels surely had something to do with it as well. No turkey for these worms!
- December 1
- Our bin is getting heavier each week from all the "dirt" the worms have been making. Can you see the curled-up film-like object to the right of the fat worm? It's a brittle strip of the outermost layer of apple peel!
- December 9
- We waited an extra day to take this week's picture so that Mr. Wiegand could come in and have a look. His reaction? "It looks like last night's Chinese dinner!"
- December 15
- Middle Schoolers Amanda, 13; Ellen, 13; Harrison, 14; Dylan, 13; and Ali, 13, stopped for a look at the worms in action.
- December 21
- We threw in some festive red apple skins for our worms to enjoy as the year is coming to a close. The pen tip is pointing to one happy worm in the bottom middle of the picture.
