This morning I found the first dozen or so dead worms which committed suicide by escaping from the worm compost bin onto the dry floor. I left the other layers off the worm compost bin as I was worried it would squash the worms but now put them on top to prevent any more break-outs.
The other issue I want to keep recorded is that the lid of the can-o-worms does look upside down very much like a tray, and I accidentally thought it was the bottom tray. I hope that when I flopped the whole contents out of the lid into another tray it did not matter that the cardboard used as a mesh did fall into pieces and couldn’t be used anymore.
Found out that Mary Applehof’s book is garbage, really, because she has no practical troubleshooting answers like the Pilkington book. Most of what she is going on about in the book are how brilliant and experienced she is, though her classroom activity book is very useful. The information in her book is very US-centred and ignores the developments on the continent in the last 10 years completely – information about different systems, including pictures are taken in the last century.
Well, looking into the book’s index I realised it’s the 1997 edition, the updated version from the 1982 book.
Comments
Comment by Bunny on 2008-10-01 21:11:55 +0100
I don’t think the worms committed suicide they just did not like highrise living and took a jump. I think the solution to give them some soil in pots or trays for them to land in, and then they can be added to other peoples compost heaps rather than be wasted by drying out on balcony floor. Although they are not sentient beings it is a little traumatizing to see them dieing. Also the ones that make escape the wormer composter will be good to go in other compost heaps. There will be plenty to gradually go round in allotments. It would be good to get feedback about how people feel about having extra differnet worms in there composts, and if they feel makes difference.