Okay, so I’m still mystified over the disappearance over the first generation of worms. It was like a little lost worm city of Atlantis. I suspect that they all died off and turned into… compost.
So, I decided to get new worms. Local worms. Raised 25 minutes away from here. The farmer didn’t do pickups, or I would have driven out there, collected them and transported them home myself. I had to settle for a priority mail shipment. They came very quickly, and I dumped them right in. I also “plumped their pillows” a little bit: adding some new newspaper; spritzing some water in it to raise the moisture level (our house is very dry in the winter); and preparing their food by chopping it up and microwaving the heck out of it (5 mins on high). That last bit was a tip from the worksheet I got with the original worms. The preparation breaks down the food so it is more suitable for the microorganisms to prepare it for the worms. The idea was to acclimate the worms as fast as possible.
And acclimate they have. These “new” worms seem more vigorous, eagerly crawling out sight when I lift the lid and expose them to light. They’re crawling in and around the food, a good sign that they’re eating. And they’re crawling into the bottom-most bin, and leaving dark, rich-looking castings behind! Woo hoo!
I’m very optimistic about these new worms. Soon it’ll be warm enough to move them into the mud room, right off our kitchen so I can keep a closer eye on them. I hope they start to procreate soon, and I can prepare another tray for them to crawl up into.
