Caring for Your Worms
We aim to provide you with the healthiest worms and the richest wormcasts by giving our worms the best care.
Composting Worms
To keep your wormery in tip top condition:
 |
Keep them in the dark - dendrobaena worms are sensitive to light. |
|
Keep them moist - dampen your household waste when adding it to your wormery, but don't overdo it otherwise your worms could drown. If your wormery gets too moist, add dry newspaper or cardboard. |
|
Keep conditions alkaline - dendrobaena worms thrive in alkaline conditions. If your wormery gets too acidic, you can add lime or egg shells to help neutralise the pH |
|
Keep them cool - dendrobaena worms ideally like temperatures from 12 - 23oc, but can cope with temperatures up to about 25o. Worms will eat approximately 50% of their own body weight in a day, and the warmer it is the more they eat. In the summertime you may need to move your wormery into the shade. |
|
Make sure your worms can breathe. Like all living organisms, worms need oxygen, so your wormery will need breathing holes and you will need to gently rotate the soil every month or so to keep the oxygen moving. |
|
Feed them properly - dendrobaena worms are prolific eaters, but they do like their food cut into small pieces. |
|
Give them a balanced diet - make sure that as well as your household waste, the worms are getting enough roughage. Good sources of worm roughage are cardboard, eggshells, paper and sand. |
|
Stop them escaping - you don't need to install barbed-wire worm fences or hi-tech security devices. If the worms are happy, they won't try and escape. Keep an eye on your wormery for the first few days, particularly if the weather is very humid, as these are the only times the worms will try and leave the container. They tend to try and escape through the top, so put a light over the container and they will shy away from it back into the bins. |
|
Don't let them get too smelly - normally, an organic wormery won't smell. If your bin starts to smell, it may be because there is too much water and not enough oxygen. Use dry absorbent foods such as dry newspaper or dried fruit peelings and mix through the bin to allow the natural moisture level to return. |
|
Planning for your holiday - Wormeries are low maintenance. Providing you have looked after your worms by followig the tips on this page, your wormery will be fine left for up to 4 weeks. |
Live Fishing Bait
To keep your fishing bait in tip top condition:
|
Put them in the fridge - the ideal temperature for dendrobaena worms ranges from 12 - 23oc. At lower temperatures, the worms go to sleep, prolonging their lifespan. Worms will survive for up to 2 weeks refridgerated to 4 - 13oc. If you are planning to keep your worms for more than a few days, you must keep them moist and cool. (4oc) |
|
Keep them in the dark - dendrobaena worms are light sensitive, so will wriggle about madly, getting very tired, if you expose them to too much light. If you can put them in the fridge, it will naturally be dark, but if you can't, keep them in a cool dark place. |
|
Give them space - transfer your worms to a larger containier with a tight fitting lid (with air holes) if you plan to store them for more than a few days. While we ensure our worms reach you in the best possible condition for fishing, if you are planning to keep them for a while before you fish, they will need to be looked after to keep them healthy. |
|
Feed them - We pack our worms with enough food to survive for a few days, ensuring they are still healthy after their journey to you. If you are not planning to use the worms straight away, then make sure you keep them well fed on kitchen scraps and other organic waste. They will eat up to half their body weight every day, so to keep them as plump and juicy as they were when they arrived, make sure you give them plenty of food. Cutting it into small pieces will help the worms digestion. |
