I got a new package of worms in the mail yesterday…sounds great, right? Thanks for the worms, Bentley! I had a bin all ready to go for them, filled with moldy food scraps and shredded cardboard. Around 7pm I put them in their new habitat, stared at them for a while, then went out for some food.
I came back a few hours later, and whaddya know, they’re all over my floor in slimy clumps. Believe it or not, this is somewhat normal for worms in the beginning as they figure out their new living situation.
How did I solve the problem? Well, I put the container directly underneath a light since the worms don’t like light so much. Further, I began shredding through all the paper I could find, plus a good chunk of a telephone book. Who uses telephone books, anyway? Waste of paper. So here’s the contents now:
After smothering the worms with this new thick layer of bedding, I figured everything was cool…and it was, more or less. It was really hard to sleep that night, I kept wondering if my floor was flooded with pissed off worms.
Turns out that not a single worm bailed on me overnight, but when I opened the lid, I noticed that a large portion of them were right at the edge of the lid…lack of oxygen? So I got out the drill and added an additional 12 holes to the container and told the dudes to chill out. So far, so good. And now they’re in my living room:
I figure that keeping them in the living room will force me to pay a bit more attention to them, plus it should be a bit warmer there too. Plus I can educate guests about worms while I’m at it.
So remember, pay close attention to your worms at first and make sure their needs are being met adequately: oxygen, bedding, moisture.