Earthworms

Earthworms:

• Keep them at 55 to 70 deg. F., w/65 deg. being a good average temperature of the bedding.
• Mean humidity should be 55%, and keep the earth worms out of the rain. They will drown and/ or scatter all over under rainy or very humid conditions.
• The pH of the bed should be as close to 6.5 as possible, with 7.0 and 6.0 being the upper & lower pH limits.
• Bedding material for startup and future re-starts can be; Canadian peat moss, soaked in water at least 24 hours, (US peat is too tough & stringy), yard clippings, dead leaves, wood shavings, newspaper (torn up and soaked in water). Garden clippings should have "aged" beyond the green stage. Any moistened organic material can be used for bedding. If you look around, there is usually plenty nearby, inside or outside of your house.
• Earthworms can be fed all forms of food waste, yard & garden waste, (plant and root material are OK but not too much dirt), paper and cardboard too wet to recycle otherwise, etc. Don't worry about how nasty some waste matter may seem to be, the earthworms have strange tastes. In fact, they are at their highest level of activity, consuming and procreating with glee when recycling cow manure or sewage sludge. Do not feed them; metals, foils, plastics, chemicals, oils, solvents, insecticides, soaps, paint, etc. Avoid all citrus products (oranges,lemons, limes, grapefruit), onions, garlic cloves, extremely hot and heavily spiced foods, and high acid foods. Also, avoid oleanders and other poisonous plants (if you are unsure about a species, ask a nurseryman). Be careful of plants that have been sprayed with insecticide.
• Generally speaking, 2 lbs. of earthworms will recycle 1 lb. of organic waste in 24 hours. In absolutely ideal conditions of comfort and ground up, moist food, the herd will recycle their own weight in wastes every 24 hours.
• Worm poop (Casting) is the best thing around for plants. Getting the poop seperated from the worms is called harvesting. There are many types of harvesters from a simple framed piece of 3/16" mesh to motorized, drum type, large volume harvesters. For residential use, a hand held mesh frame should suffice.
• Don't use green manure for bedding, it has to be dried and composted. A few months in the outdoors usually is sufficient. This goes for any pet poop as well. However, small amounts of green poop can be placed on top of the worm bed if there is plenty of room around it for the earthworms to escape the heat of decomposition. The earthworms will nibble at the edges of the pile where the heat is low, thereby reducing the amount of material daily.

Benifical Insects

Gardening

Questions:

• what causes earthworms to come out of the ground and crawl on driveways?