Worm Farming Can Be Fun

Image via WikipediaYou may think worms are boring.  After all, they just lay there and wiggle.  They don't do any tricks that you can watch.  They don't make cute sounds.  But worms are an interesting, beneficial part of our world.  They have several uses that make them worthwhile to our existence.  You have to look beyond the obvious and appreciate the results sometimes to get the most benefit from an experience.  That's where worm farming comes in.

Have you ever heard of worm grunting?  Not many people have, it's apparently a dying art.  It's a way of harvesting worms that's still kept alive in Florida.  One small town has a yearly worm festival and gets visitors from all over to partake in their fun.  Professional worm grunters entertain guests to this event.  The worm grunters use a simple method to create the kind of vibrations that bring the worms to the surface of the ground for gathering.  You could practice worm grunting on your worm farm for your little visitors' delight.  Many small children get their fun from grossing out adults, so going to a worm farm or festival would be a great adventure trip for them.

Now before you think, "That's it.  I don't have to start a worm farm.  I'll just gather my worms from the wild woods or people's yards!"  You must know that when you take a beneficial part of the environment away from other places, it also takes the benefit of what it does for that area of the earth.  That's why re-planting of trees is encouraged, if we take away from the environment we must also return something to the environment or we all eventually suffer the consequences.

Even if you don't find any fun in worms, you could raise them for the benefits you are able to get from them.  Songbirds like grub worms.  Grub worms are white with a red head, a C shaped body, and are about as big as the end of a thumb.  If you have a grub worm farm, you can encourage song birds to visit your home property for your entertainment and bird-watching pleasure.  So, while you may not consider raising the worm farm to be fun, you can still get your pleasure knowing you are getting more feathered visitors!  Your bird-watching friends can gather at your house and enjoy the fun with you.  They'll be thankful for your worm farm, too.  (Be aware that grub worms do eat plant roots and leave dead, dry patches of grass.  So, just encouraging their existence in your yard is not the best idea.  You'd want to contain them in their own areas for the safety of your other plants.)

You may get some fun from cooking with worms from your own worm farm; this way you will know no pesticides or diseases have tainted them or their flavor.  You could entertain children at the local library by using some recipes specifically including the worms for ingredients.  If the local librarians aren't open to the idea (some people have an irrational fear of worms and some are just plain grossed out about eating them), you could try a demonstration at the nearest zoo.  Flour can be made from the worms to use in recipes.  Some worms are eaten raw, but most Americans aren't open to the experience.

Worm Farming is Safe, Natural, and Healthy in Many Ways

Image via WikipediaAre you tired of seeing all that trash along the riverbanks and ponds because of the plastic lures the fishermen use?  Are you tired of the cost of potting soil, fertilizers, and compost?  Are you tired of the expensive pet foods that contain ingredients of uncertainty?  Are you tired of not knowing how to help our eco-system, our environment, our future?  It doesn't happen all at once; it takes the efforts of many people doing the right things and making the right lifestyle choices.  Then maybe you should give worm farming a try.  It's safe, natural, and healthy in many ways.

Worm farming can be done with earthworms, catalpa worms, meal worms, red worms, or grub worms.  You can try having more than one kind, but there are benefits to keeping them in separate containers.  One such benefit is being able to track the progress of each type.  One benefit is having them separated for the different reasons you would want to use them.  One reason for keeping them separated is to make sure you have the correct temperatures and the correct conditions for each type to thrive.

Earthworms, meal worms, and grub worms are edible.  Maybe you don't want to partake of this sort of exotic delicacy yourself.  It may just be a little too safe, natural, and healthy for your tastes!  But what if you could extend the life of your furry pets by adding the cooked worms to their dry food that you've made yourself?  Even animals that don't naturally eat worms can benefit from eating them in another form.

Worm farming is one of the less dangerous types of farming.  You don't have to have a big farm that takes lots of employees and expensive equipment to have a worm farm.  You can have your own little worm farm for your own personal benefits.  Encourage your kids to join in and use it in class for show-and-tell time.  It's a way of getting up close and personal with natural science.  Little gardeners can enjoy the benefits of this safe farming.  And if you are raising the edible worms, you won't have to worry if your tot does experiment by popping one in his or her mouth!

Although the catalpa worms are not one of the edible worms, they are still safe and natural to use as fish bait.  The catalpa trees are well-known along the rivers and swamps of the southern states in the United States.  Texas, Louisiana, and Florida residents enjoy the bait from these trees.  They can be established outside of their natural habitats with the proper knowledge and conditions.  They tolerate heat well, but need well-drained, moist, rich soil to do well.  They can grow to 90 feet and can provide shade and other benefits trees add to the natural balance of life.

If you live in east Texas, you are well-acquainted with the pest called the June bug.  You may not have known, however, that this pest comes from the grub worm.  Not the gardener's friend, but useful in other ways, this worm is one of the delicacies in other countries.  You just have to know your creepy-crawlers so you can help others learn more about what's safe, natural and healthy:  worm farms----spread the word! 

Choosing the Right Worms for Worm Farming

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeImage via WikipediaImage by Getty Images via @daylifeImage by Tim Musson via FlickrWorm farming is done for several reasons.  Composting, the production of nutrient rich soil and providing live bait are three of the most common reasons for worm farming.  Some worms do a better job at their duties than others so it is important to know how to choose the right worms for your worm farm.

Composting is one common reason for worm farming.  Worms are used to compost waste and discarded material naturally and without adding to the local landfills.  To do this, the worms eat fruit and vegetable scraps, along with other compostable items such as paper products, leaves, cotton rags and egg shells.

If composting is the primary reason for setting up a worm farm, choices should be made for the appropriate types of worms that are known as being the best for this option.  The Red Wiggler, or Eisenia fetida, is reportedly the best worm for composting.  These worms reproduce easily and are extremely hardy.  The trait that makes them best as compost worms is their ravenous appetites. 

Because of their eagerness to devour anything edible, Red Wigglers produce a high quality substance resulting in a nutrient rich soil that is so desirable with worm farming. 

Perhaps raising worms for the purpose of providing live bait is the goal of a worm farm.  Bait can be raised for personal use or even supplied to local fisherman through bait and tackle shops.  The best worms for this purpose are the European Night Crawlers.  These worms can be used for baiting fish in all types of conditions, even in saltwater. 

The European Nightcrawler is reported to be one of the hardiest fish available for worm farming.  They can also be used as a live food source for other animals such as birds, reptiles, exotic pets and aquarium fish.  They can be used in a composting type worm farm but work best as live food and bait.  Night Crawlers are readily available and have similar care requirements as the Red Wigglers. 

Worms used for garden and lawn farming are typically available in sets of three different varieties of worms.  The Red Wiggler and the Night Crawlers are often two of the types of worms in these sets.  The third worm is usually Pheritema, or Florida Wiggler which are worms that burrow deep into the soil. 

Over 3000 varieties of worms exist.  The worms mentioned here are the most commonly used and readily available on the market today.  They can be found at various online distributors.  Local worm farmers can be found through online directories or by looking up the topic in the local telephone book.

Most types of worms are typically made available as adult worms, young worms and egg capsules.  Typically sold by the pound, the number of worms per unit will vary depending on their age and size.  Egg capsules yield a higher number of worms per unit once hatched.

A worm farm will be most successful when the appropriate worm is chosen for the job at hand. While most worms will compost discarded items and waste and act as live bait, some have some small traits that make them the best choice for a worm farm with a particular purpose.