Southland residents bored by being locked down by the coronavirus or winter weather, are looking for a low-maintenance pet or want a hands-on science project might want to check out the Will County Forest Preserve District’s “Crash Course on Worm Composting” Thursday online.
Interpretive Naturalist Kate Caldwell hosts the livestream presentation, scheduled to run from noon to 12:45 p.m., on Facebook.com/WillCoForests
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, with production assistance from Communications and Creative Services Manager Chad Merda.The program includes tips on setting up and maintaining an earthworm bin. It also focuses on raising earthworms as a means of waste management, formally known as vermicomposting, rather than as an income source.
Caldwell said she likes two kinds of “the same type” of composting worms — the Eisenia fetida, commonly known as Red Wiggler, and Eisenia hortensis, commonly known as European Nightcrawler. However, she prefers the Red Wiggler to the larger European Nightcrawler, which digests food slower and is more expensive.
Beginners should source earthworms online, with 500 earthworms — about one-half pound — as a good start, said Caldwell, a longtime worm hobbyist and Forest Preserve District staff member.
Caldwell is considerably cooler to baitand tackle shops, which offer a type of worm fated to dangle from a fishing hook. Those earthworms, she said, don’t process waste nearly as well. “They need more of a compacted soil.”
Worms bins, generally made of plastic, are widely available and plastic storage bins can be converted by drilling a few holes, she said. But Caldwell said she prefers wooden bins, which can be put together from scraps of wood obtained at a lumber yard or big box store.
Caldwell said setting up and maintaining a small worm farm is a “gateway to composting outside” while offering a chance to interact with key players in the process.
The earthworms eat vegetable and fruit scraps, leaves and sometimes newspapers. Leaves, she said, are especially helpful because they bring in “lots and lots of other microbes — other critters that are preparing the food for the worms.”
“They’re almost like little chefs,” she said with a laugh.
Noting the earthworms eat half their body weight per day, on average. Caldwell said, “You are feeding them like they are your pets.”
Worm manure, known as castings, is “considered one of the richest types of compost,” said Caldwell, a full-time staffer with the forest district who works out of the Plum Creek Nature Center near Crete and Beecher.
Caldwell, who holds a degree in environmental biology from Governors State University, said nonscience types needn’t be intimidated by worm farming’s emphasis on proper temperature, humidity, aeration and pH.
Addressing the issue of dampness in the bin, she said the worm bedding should have some moisture, but not a lot. “It should feel almost like a wrung-out sponge.” Fruit flies, she added, are a clear indication things are too wet.
Caldwell warns failure to maintain may mean the worms are eating those castings, a potentially poisonous diet. “It’s easy, but you need to maintain it [the environment,]” she said.
“A Crash Course on Worm Bin Composting,” is from noon to 12:45 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, a Facebook.com/WillCoForests.
Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.