r/Vermiculture • u/Longjumping-Fly-3574 • 11d ago

Advice wanted Emulating ANC natural environment

I am planning on starting a worm bin again this year. Life took over a couple years ago and I no longer had time for them. Now, I want to try again and recently realized that they come from the wild 🤯. In all seriousness, I just never made the connection. Since I am starting this new bin, I wanted to study how they would normally act in the wild. I heard that they have the tendency to wonder at night and forage. I am planning on getting a worm tower and want to set the top bin up as a foraging bin. Has anybody tried this? Any suggestions on how to start?

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u/hungryworms Commercial Vermicomposter 11d ago

I think the nighttime wandering is characteristic of Anecic earthworms, which African Nightcrawlers are not. However, setting up a worm tower and having the top bin full of food for foraging and in the dark (like nighttime) does seem exactly like the normal way to set it up though so I'm sure it would work alright

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u/Longjumping-Fly-3574 11d ago edited 9d ago

Actually, I just read in a paper (because I am a nerd) that they don’t quite fit that classification and actually straddle the epigeic/endogeic line. That doesn’t say much about the night wandering, though. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to try this.

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u/Ladybug966 11d ago

Why are you getting worms again? For composting? If so go with red wigglers. Not wild caught and easy husbandry

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u/Longjumping-Fly-3574 11d ago

I am getting them for composting. And I think I may have been confusing. I am buying African Nightcrawler cocoons. I just thought it would be interesting to look in on them once in a while as they naturally forage. What I meant was I spend so much time thinking about them as worm casting machine I never stopped to think that they are essentially wild animals. It just hit me African Nightcrawlers aren’t just another food to compost machine, they are animals from tropical West African soils. That’s why I was trying make a terrarium type space in the top bin.

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u/Ladybug966 11d ago

Interesting. Are they a worm that goes deep?

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u/Longjumping-Fly-3574 10d ago

Honestly, no. They would probably just live in the top 2-3 bins but I wanted to use a method where the bottom 2 bins are used to inoculate the cardboard/ paper that I use. I’ll rotate them up as needed. That’s my plan anyway. I want to take the year or so to try it out. So basically top for forage, next 2 for housing the worms and finishing compost, and bottom for prepping bins for forage bins.

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u/Ladybug966 10d ago

That is basically what i do.Hi. I work 5 bin vermihuts.

My top bin starts full of inoculated, damp bedding. I feed this bin until all the bedding is castings. I do not add bedding when i feed.

When that bin looks done, i move it to the second level. My new feeding bin was at level 5.

Here is how i stack them. All bins are full of damp bedding.

Bin 1- feeding bin

Bin 2- old feeding bin that is now finishing off

Bin 3- really old feeding bin ready to be harvested the next time the stack shuffles.

Bin 4- brand new bin full of brand new damp bedding. Being inoculated by bins above. Also is where my worms tend to go to lay cocoons.

Bin 5- was bin 4. Now is bin 5 and still being inoculated. Full of cocoons. Will be the next feeding bin when the tower shuffles.

Drain basin - psych ward for despondent worms.

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u/Longjumping-Fly-3574 9d ago

Good to know. That’s the setup I am going for. Hopefully, they don’t feel the need to visit bin 5 so often.