SOUTH AFRICAN SOURCE FOR RED WORMS (Eisenia Fetida.)

September 11, 2009 / / 3 Comments

From: Adrian Glanvill 
Sent: 08 September 2009 01:21 PM
To: info@working-worms.com
Subject: Where and How?
Importance: High

 

Hello,
Could you please direct me to an Inexpensive source of Eisenia fetida (SP??).
I have contacted a number of work farm suppliers, but the prices they quote are prohibitive I feel.
I can dig worms out of my garden of course, but these are “deep burrowers” mostly, and though I do want to breed them as part of a Land restoration Project, I also need to produce vermicompost.
Adrian Glanvill

 

 The one source I had for cheaper worms is out of the market – all the rest seem to charge about the same – around R150 per thousand (about 250gm). I’ll put a post on our blog site – asking for assistance, maybe someone will contact you. See https://working-worms.com/. Don’t waste your time with earthworms – good for the garden / no good for worm farming..

 Steve

Hi Adrian, 

 

 

 

From: Adrian Glanvill
Sent: 08 September 2009 03:17 PM
To: steve
Subject: Re: Where and How?

 

Thanks, I have in the interim found someone who charges R25.00 per hundred.  They are in the Cape, but this is not an insurmountable problem.
I actually need both.  Eisenia for worm farming, but also the other (Lumbricoid) types. These can be used to revive worked out soil.  Common sense tells me to harvest these from the local environment (if any can be found) since they are likely to be better adapted to vegetation and soil types.
I am seeking to help a self-development project that wants to improve food production for school feeding schemes.

 

 

 

  

—–Original Message—–
From: Adrian Glanvill
Sent: 12 September 2009 04:18 PM
To: steve
Subject: Re: Where and How?

Ah, now there is an immediate problem.
Tyres are not a good idea for the garden, they contain cadmium and some other toxic stuff that pollutes the soil.  At one stage tyres were used for growing potatoes in a stacking bed, but this is now discouraged because of the toxicity of the soil and hence the potatoes. 
No body in the world really knows what to do with tyres- they are not permitted in landfill sites anywhere, according to my son who is a consulting geologist – one of his services is advising on land reclamation and the rehab of open cast pits.  Using them for worm farms is thus out.  I know that it is done, but I will not recommend that it is done.

It would be better to use cardboard boxes coated with paraffin wax.  Ultimately they will compost and need to be replaced, but they are at least bio-degradable.  The wax itself is metabolised by bacteria (slowly) but is not a toxic pollutant.

One could also stack bricks, or make frames out of untreated wood (my favourite) and polypropylene/polyethylene shade cloth, or biddum.  What we will do is see what is available for recycling without pollution at each site, and adapt our practices to suit.

 

 Hi Adrian

Thanks for that valuable information  – I’d never heard that. I’ll post it on the blog and will need to update the website.

 

Steve

—–Original Message—–
From: Steve
Sent: 12 September 2009 01:12 AM
To: ‘Adrian Glanvill’
Subject: RE: Where and How?

Hi Adrian,

 

Regarding your self-development programme – have you thought of stacked tyre worm farms – see seen the article we wrote at  http://ezinearticles.com/?Stacked-Tire-Worm-Farm&id=2020501 and the section of working worms       https://working-worms.com/content/view/39/61/

Regards

Steve

Uncategorized

3 Comments

  1. Steve (Post author)

    Hi there,

    Further to my e-mail last night, here are two sites that you may want to look at:

    http://www.ehi.org/turf/rubber_mulch_facts08.shtml

    http://www.sgaonline.org.au/yy_potatoes.html

    There is controversy about this issue, but whatever is said, Tyres are not inert, they do degrade, even in storage, let alone outdoors.

    So to be safe I have elected not to use them.

    Adrian

    Reply
  2. Marius

    Hi,
    Can anyone tell me if “Moo Poo” as bought at nurseries or any other source,
    is safe and advisable to use in worm bins.
    Regards,
    Marius.

    Reply
  3. Sarah Venter

    Has there been any reseach on the invasiveness of composting worms in South Africa? What is the general opinion on this?

    Reply

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