getting a wormery

[Swingtip]

morning lads,

decided that now all the christmas spending is done and dla has finally consented to recognise my existance i'd need to find cheapest and most natural way to feed the perch i will be targetting in 2008. what better way than awormery and loads of lobworms from an organic source. gonna be organic feeding themanyway bso just wondered what you might thinkthe best way to introduce flavour &smelll to them to make them more interesting to those i'm trying to tempt. would just a small amount of chosenflavour left around where they live be sufficient don't want to soak them in case they .go off and don't want kill of stock gonna make a great big topsoil patch with good quality lawn over the top for them to live in once fully grown to angling size.then dig them up when wantedliquid feed from wormery can boost pot plants i intend to grow alsothe drendo's will be ok as i'going to keep them in a fish tank . bear in mind i will be warm weather fishing not winterotherwise i'd be trying som weird and wonderfull curry or west indian concoctions via my brotherinlaw. will let you know if it helps at all as it might just be the way to gohave a very sterile back garden to where we have just moved into all pavedand concretefencing so will be making some small bird boxes etc in next 2 weeks with nephews help while he's not at college.... another bloody lawyer so want him to do some good for the world before he dstarts tearing it dawn.

 

[Morespiders]

Hi Swingtip,

Try pouring some Sensas, Liquid Worm on them . Works a treat makes them very worm flavoured.

Happy Xmas Good luck .

 

[Phil Hackett The common Boastful Expert :-)]

Be careful about feeding them with liquid flavours as many are derived from synthetic ingredients. One that springs to mind is Ethyl acetate, I think you'd find it would kill them or drive them out of the area because of it's toxicity. Worms are very sensitive to toxicity in soils and many papers have been written on using them on toxic dumps to clean up the pollutants.

As for them retaining the flavour or smell, I'd have my doubts about this.

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

Always consider them to have enough natural flavour and scent as to not require any more being added.

 

[Bully]

Now I am really dredging the old memory bank here, and my reasons (or theory) may be bull, but I do not think worms will retain any flavour of what they eat.

Mammals retain flavour (e.g. the sheep that eat wild rosemary in Spain), but this is because the nutrients are used directly in building muscle, fat and bone. I doubt very much that the same applies to worms. I just feed them all my peelings and shredded confidential waste and it works a treat!

 

[Steve Holland]

Apparently, feeding them on plain cold mashed tata's helps plump them up abit. I's agree with others, no point trying to flavour (even if you can), theres enough pulling power in them already.

I recently invested in a black placcy bin. Got some lobbies from the old chaps allotment, and bunged them in the bin along with about 12inches of clean gravel, topsoil, garden/kitchen waste/shredded newspaper. Will leave them for 6 months to get going and hopefully by next autumn/winter I should have some decent worms for bait. Dont forget to keep a regular check and get rid of any dead ones otherwise they'll quickly kill off the whole lot!

 

[Bryan Baron 2]

As anybody had any luck with them breeding. From what i have read in the past the do not breed in captivity. No problem with the dendrobenas breed like mad.

 

[Swingtip]

as i understand it in the proper conditions they thrive i keep you all posted as the months go on. pro worm farms seem to do okay they supply the shops you buy them from regularly don't they? going to build a special 8x4 box in the back yard so they can live to a fairly large size before getting drowned as fish food sort of "free range worms "you might say.HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.ME TURKEYS GETTING ON THE PLATE GOT TO GO

 

[Bob "chubber"Lancaster (ACA)]

wouldnt flavour them at all. When a worm falls in the river from the bank would it be curry flavour or perhaps mixed spice , i think not just use it as nature intended . The only modification i would make is cut off the tail before you cast it in then you will release loads of smell and flavour,and its all natural

 

[coelacanth]

"Now I am really dredging the old memory bank here, and my reasons (or theory) may be bull, but I do not think worms will retain any flavour of what they eat"

There is some evidence theywill take up dips and flavours. I've seen trials doneusing them for delivering medications to fish, a tracer dye which fluoresces under UV light was added to the medication and the worms given a fairly short bath, several hours later the worms still flouresced under the lamp. Of course this could have shown that the dye had better retention on the tissues than the medication.

 

[Bully]

I was talking about taking flavouring due to eating, not from dips etc.

 

[Risque Manoofus]

Making a wormery from scratch.

Clear plastic storage box with lid about 3ft x2ftx 2ft. Shop around. Should cost you around a tenner.

Clear plastic is much better than a black dustbin as the heat and humidity build up quicker and your worm will be breeding constantly.The oblong surface area makes it easier to work with as well.

Burn some holes with an old poker in the bottom for drainage.

Place sacking or weed suppressant on the bottom.

Place the box on some concrete blocks to aid drainage.

Buy a small sack of sharp ballast from builders merchant (less than 2 quid) and spread over the sacking.

Go to your local stables and get 3 fertiliser sacks of worm rich manure and dump on top of the ballast.

Then feed them with tea bags, fruit and veg peelings.

Give it a month before you start harvesting and a wormery that size will easily keep you going through a heavy match season.

Soil and water have no place in your wormery. Your primary objective is trying to breed wormnot making compost.

Rotting vegetation, heat, humidityand warmth are what you needto realy make them go for it.

Keep your lid on all the time you arent using it. You dont want any cold water getting in there at all.

Lobworms just dont live well in wormeries in my experience.

This method will get you loads of dendras and reds.

 

[Deanos]

R.N

Are dendras a good bait for all species of freshwater fish? (I mainly target chub and barbel).

Advice sounds good!!!...I am off shopping for the above in the morning!

 

[Deanos]

Do they have to be protected from direct sunlight in the summer months?

 

[Risque Manoofus]

Hi Deanos. Yes mate dendras take anything and sorry I forgot to say that. Yes . They dont need cooking so dont put it in direct sunlight.

The other thing is that after a couple of years and winters the plastic can get brittle. As long as your aware of that and take care then thats not a problem but trying to move it full by dragging it will generaly end up with you sat on your bum with a broken chunk of wormery in your hand "tuit suit".

 

[Deanos]

Cheers R.M

I have used lobs over the years, but never these worms, so I look forward to the results.

Many thanks.

 

[Merv Harrison]

I'd go along with Risque's advice, but when buying your plastic storage box's, if you look around, you can find them with wheels on for not much more money, much easier if they do have to be moved.

 

[Swingtip]

thanks isque but gonna buy one of the dustbin type ones as the inbuilt tap will make it easy to drain liquids for feeding the garden plants as i' m expecting to do abit of that as well now i expect to be 'aman of leisure'. and i won't always be galavanting on all that oap cash they will be throwing at me.thanks for tips though it's all food for thought innet.happy new year lads.best wishes roy

 

[Risque Manoofus]

I do the same thing Swingtip.

Mine has a large tap that I drain off the fluids. I dont want to teach my granny to knit socks but if you dont know then just make sure you dilute it well with water because its ever so strong when it comes out of there.

I dont have the 3ft wormery I used to have. I was given one of these clear heavy duty plastic 5 ft x 5ft cubes in a metal cage that they transport industrial syrups in.

I cut the top bars off with an angle grinder and then cut the plastic top off and put hinges on for the lid. I knew how many worms I could produce and I thought of supplying the local shops, hence I made a huge version of exactly what Ive described above.

The trouble was I found that the local shops wanted to give next to nothing for them and charge the earth to the customers.

To go back to topicI dont think you can give them flavours as such. If that were the case then all mine would smell oftutti fruiti /forum/smilies/big_smile_smiley.gifas I have a good free supply of apples and bananasalong withdroppings from my rabbits that mine feed on.

 

[teecee]

R M-a very good submission on the wormery.......But did did I not read on a very old thread that the bins should be buried in the ground(to keep them warm and protect them from frost etc??).............

Your thoughts on this please as youv'e obviously been diong this for some time!!!

Did not the anglers of yesteryear such as The Taylor brothers of the 60's breed lobworms with great success-perhaps I have this wrong...............??