The New Worm Bin Update.

Not much to update about.

I am still feeding the soldier fly larvae well so they can metamorphosize and fly away, and they are getting big, but still here. For those who don't know what those are, they are a type of fly that has larvae that look like maggots but aren't really because they have hard shelled heads. They exist mostly in piles of organic material, not so much in carcasses, they aren't much into meat. They tend to make compost piles warmer than worms like, until they turn into flies (that look like wasps) and fly away. I get them in my worm bin from time to time when for some reason the worms aren't performing well. This time it was because the bin got nasty while I was in Oregon and I had a little die-off.

Anyway, I started the bin with paper on the bottom to keep the material from falling through, and I have put a total of nearly an entire wheelbarrow of composted horse manure in it. The paper has disintigrated and the material is compressed enough not to fall through for the most part, not at least detrimentally. The bin is so full right now that the lid is sitting on top of some watermelons I put in there and weighed down with a brick so it doesn't blow off. If there are any remaining soldiers, they'll find the watermelons fast enough and make quick work of them, however, it seems the soldiers are declining in population as I expect they are getting to the stage where they will start changing. Soon there will be flies in there all the time. These aren't like your normal house flies remember, they look like wasps and aren't dirty little suckers.

I have also been adding material from a backyard compost bin that the worms had populated. There have been quite a few worms in the material and so with the bin's heater, I hope they will soon be taking over and populating the bin. This bin is supposed to have many lbs. of worms in it to start, but I don't have that kind of dough, so I hope this method will work. they need a population large enough so they can reach peak productiveness. If there are too few worms, they will not find each other as fast and will not reproduce as much and it will take a long time, if ever, for that population level to be reached.

I am still needing to fnd a good source of sawdust for the sawdust toilet. I'd like to train the boy on the sawdust toilet, some kids are afraid of being perched above a pool of water.
WiredForStereo