The Summer of Worm Love
The Melbourne Permablitz Collective’s resident worm enthusiast Thomas, has some tips for keeping your worms cool this summer…
Before too long, we are going to get hot days. Days so hot that our eyeballs dry out, and worms cook in our worm farms. This isn’t good for the worms, and isn’t good for us, so here are some vermafriendly strategies:
Shady business
Your worm farm should be in full shade, and particularly protected from the harsh afternoon sun. However, even that isn’t protection when the air temperature is above 40degrees several days in a row.
Wet blanket
Put a towel over your worm farm, with the ends in buckets of water. The water wicks up the towel and evaporates, cooling the worms.
Ice bucket challenge
Put ice in your worm farm, preferably big blocks of it, to really cool it down at the start of the day.
Air con
Bring your worm farm inside, and share your cool air conditioned space. A well maintained worm farm shouldn’t smell or be a problem.
Going to ground
All of the above are only short term solutions. If you are going away on holiday for two weeks, or even if you aren’t but want to be sure, you could dismantle your worm farm, and put each shelf directly in contact with the ground (still in the shade, and putting some form of lid on top of each shelf). That way, the worms can seek refuge in the earth when it gets too hot. Don’t worry, they should all come back, as compost worms like a rich food source which the normal soil won’t provide.
