Worm City: Upgrading to Worm Metropolis

Ok, technically with the new population, it's still smaller than a village, but compared to before it has become a metropolis. Seeing that I could keep worms alive and that they did not drive Emily completely nuts made me want to get more. I am American after all, so I will always want more. Of course, that also means that I want fast results, so knowing that there were 60 worms in my bin, I ordered 1000 more off of the internet. I got mine from Redworms.com (unfortunately I'm not getting paid to say that either). They got here in about a week and a half because they only ship on Mondays. I didn't really know what to expect when they came, and half-expected a crunchy mass of spaghetti noodles in a plastic bag. Luckily, they fared much better than my fears. They arrived in a Priority Mail box, inside a green cloth bag. When I picked the bag up, I could feel it moving from the worms burrowing inside. It was definitely strange.

Notice that the bag is from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. This is another website that I almost bought from, but it was $1-2 more than the site I chose. I don't know if the sites are related, or if they resell Uncle Jim's worms, or if they just recycle bags. In any event, I paid a little less for them. They are shipped in super dry peat moss, which dehydrates them. This sounds really weird, but it's supposed to keep them from freezing in the winter and overheating in the summer during shipping. It also slows them down, which causes them to eat less.

There were a few of the spaghetti noodles I was expecting in the box. The bag was tied shut, but a few of them obviously had a death wish. As soon as you get them, you're supposed to dump a cup of water in to start providing moisture for them. The instructions say that it can take 48 hours for them to get back up to full movement. They also provide a warranty that if they aren't perked up within the 48 hours, they will send a new bag of worms. If you are adding the worms to a new bin, they recommend that you let the bin sit for a week so that the beneficial bacteria has time to grow and the worms have plenty of food. They don't like fresh food. After letting the water soak for a few minutes, you dump them in!

Now there's a big pile of dirt and a pound of worms in your bin.

And here is the finished product. I left my bag in the bin turned inside out for a couple of days just in case there were any stragglers in the bottom or corners. It is recommended that you put a light over the bin for a couple of days to encourage burrowing, but I didn't do this and didn't have any problems with worms trying to escape. At the time of this writing, I've had the worms in the bin for just over a week and haven't had problems with them. I have found a few of them at the bottom of my modified double bin, but have been able to get them back in the bin before their death. The bedding seems to be getting reduced and I have found castings all over the sides of the bin.