Ever since I used the settlement money (it was digital currency) from the class action lawsuit against Facebook for the Cambridge Analytica scandal to buy worms to eat my garbage, YouTube is relentless in showing me ads for Mill, that mechanical kitchen composter.

Hey, YouTube, this is not my first rodeo. The worms are happy, and already fattening up, and probably will be making worm babies very soon.

#Backyard
#Science
#vermiculture

The worms are here! They arrived one day late, so they are extra scrawny. We added a little water after taking this pic and set some food in two corners of the bin. All seems well. So far, nobody's trying to escape out the bottom (but I did line it with acorn shells.)

#vermiculture
#composting
#Backyard
#Science

I just built a worm bin and ordered a bag of red wiggler worms to eat our garbage, a fitting use for that $24 that came in the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica settlement.

Stay tuned

#Backyard
#Science
#vermiculture
#composting

#VermiComposting #WormFarm

I found it in my worm farm. 😭 Thought it might be a mite, but this one has claws... I also don't know how to make the picture upload clearer. I've had my bin for almost a year now, and it's the first time I've seen this.

It's about 0.5cm long. The length of the claws are the same length as its body. It looks like scorpion claws. 8 legs...

*****

After taking a break and having to go back to work, I've discovered that this is a pseudoscorpion. Turns out that they are totally harmless and actually beneficial! They eat other bugs and they ignore the worms.

They also hunt the little flies that seem to plague worm bins. So now that I know what this is, it's going back in to the bin. 

Edit: Turns out there are more! When I picked up a little piece of newspaper to scoop it out of the little bowl, there were some hidden in the folds of the newspaper. Yay! Adding a few tags.

#Bugs #Pseudoscorpion #Arachnid #TodayILearned #TIL #Composting #Compost #Vermiculture #Worms

Yesterday, was #worm castings harvesting day.

You get the top shelf (with the most recent food in it), move it down a layer, and get the bottom shelf (which they've been eating for ages, and is now mostly thick muddy rich soil-like castings), and get all the castings out to add to soil.

In my case - preparing the way for a planting of chilies! That tray of mud? That was all food like 24 months ago.

#Gardening #Vermiculture

The worms which escape from our worm farm go to a nearby outdoor mat. The mat is made out of coir which makes a cosy worm home. It also seems to be food that worms like eating. As a result the mat is falling to pieces.

#vermiculture #worms #gardening