Could this work for raising worms??

[ctf58]

Could this work for raising worms? My thoughts are it gets cold in the winter here and I can expect months of sub 40 degree days and many 10's at night in my unheated garage.
Could I get a rubber tote and use my old fish aquarium heater? It has to be in water so I thought I would make a container out of 3"pvc with a cap on the bottom and fill it up with water. I could place it anywhere in the tote and can set the temp from 60 to 90 dredges. It in turn would heat the water and radiate heat into the bedding. I thought a plus might be added humidity. I could make it stick 2" out of the bedding and put some sort of mesh over the open top of the pvc where the cord comes out. It might not heat the whole tote but wouldn't the worms move towards the warmer spot if they get cold?
Second question: Is worm tea a problem with growing worms in a box or will I be emptying the tote out completely and adding fresh bedding regularly enough that it is not an issue?

If this is going to be a huge mess especially during the winter my wife will have a fit.

I just want worms next spring and have totes and newspaper and a aquarium heater laying here and it seems like I should be able to make something out of it.

[cricket george]

Get an old freezer and put it in the garage,add manure, peat,soil and blend it. Add water to moisten, add a 40 watt light bulb for heat, stock with worms and feed them vegetable matter from the kitchen. You will have more worms than you will know what to do with by Spring and help with recycling your waste.

[ctf58]

Thanks for the reply Cricket george,
But I have a very small space and wanted to use materials available to try it out.

[cricket george]

Then buy a storage bin at home depot to start your bed

[Tracker123]

I started mine in one of those motar/cement mixing black tubs you can get a Lowes. They are roughly 3' x 4' x 6" deep. Covered it with a piece of plywood with air holes drilled into it. Without the lid, they will crawl out.

[NeonMoon]

I used to enjoy building model cars, problem was (like you), no room in the living (heated) space, so I built a 5'X10' room from 2X2's and large sheets of cardboard and heated it with a small electric heater. I added scraps of insulation as I could find them.

Something much smaller to house your worm container might work, allowing you to keep them in the garage, and the wife happy. Just be sure there's ample clearance for your heat source.

[RetiredRR]

Raised worms commercially, and sold worms starting other commercial worm farmers. Also sold boxed worms to bait stands to sell.
Your idea will work, but I have always used a simple light bulb to provide heat and the light bulb serves another purpose. The light
keeps the worms from escaping. That being said, if the lights go out, the worms will escape. Now, start the bedding shallow to begin
with. Only takes about 3" of bedding consisting of dried cow manure or horse manure. Cut the manure with 1/2 compost or peat.
If you use 2" of manure, finish with 1" of peat or compost. This will get you started. Yes, the light bulb will dry the bedding, so......
since you have a heating element, use it and fill the pvc with water and keep the bedding wet enough to keep the worms from
dehydrating. If you pick up a handful of bedding and can barely squeeze water from it, it is just about the right amount of moisture.
Start with only one container of worms. Worm of choice was the Hybrid Red Wiggler. The most hardy of all fishing worms. Never change
your bedding because you want the eggs to mature and hatch. Worm eggs look like okra seed and about the same size. There will be
@ 15 to 20 worms per egg, so they multiply rapidly. Feed all worms lettuce, cornbread scraps, green/wet horse or cow manure, and
due to ph factors, never place too many coffee grounds on the bedding. Never mix the food into the bed, always feed on top.
Soaked cardboard will sustain worms easier than any other type of food products, but..........it must be soaked until it is a mush.
Worms thrive on the glue product in cardboard (corrugated only) Solid cardboard will not serve any purpose. Moisture is the most
important issue you will face. In time you will notice the bedding will settle and the worms will actually eat the bedding. Add more
bedding to the top only, mixture as mentioned above. Anything you feed that is green will generate heat in your worm bed. It may
not seem like much, but it does provide some heat. You can have too hot of bed, so regulate as close as possible to 60-80 degrees.
Start small and by the end of the winter, you will have a full aquarium and many, many worms to last you all spring. Worms will work
the bedding from top (while feeding) all the way to the bottom. The moisture will stay on the bottom, and the bedding will always
be cooler on the bottom. That is why it is best not to mix the food into the bedding. Allow the worms to adjust to the temps they
like best. If you ever find worms on the sides of the glass, the bedding is too hot or too wet. If too wet, add dry material to the top
but do not mix into the bedding. Any questions, feel free to ask.
Oh, btw..........never separate two worm knotted together. they tie themselves in a knot to reproduce. All worms have bands around
the neck and this is where the egg comes from. All worms are bi, meaning all worms reproduce, therefore they multiply rapidly.
If anyone can dispute this info, please tell me how many hearts worms have............and I will believe you. No fair looking back to
previous posts.

[dandeman]

Worms don't have hearts. Kinda like my ex.

[ctf58]

Thank you so much RetiredRR for all the great information!!!

[RetiredRR]

The Hybred Red Wigglers have 7 hearts...........never researched the African Night Crawlers or any of the others for that matter.
Would you believe there was a very huge market at one time for the HRW's in Japan. Protein. And, they were also used by land
fills to eat refuse and leave castings (fertilizer) which was later harvested and sold to nurserys. Back in the 70's, a lot of folks
that lived on dairies were in the commercial worm business, at least in my neck of the woods. Some folks made some money just
raising worms. Thought I'd share that just for educational purposes.