Our Wiggley Worm Box

Daddy told us many times that there are things we do that hurt our Mother Earth.  When new cities replace forest, when farmers spray pesticide over the vegetables we eat or when rivers are polluted by our rubbish, a part of my future is lost.

Sometimes, it is as simple as wasting the useful things around us.

"Nature's Child" is what he wants us to be and this page is made so that my friends and I can learn to love Mother Nature.  There are already many things in Nature that we will not see because it is destroyed (I want to walk in creeks and streams, not concrete canals).

Today, my sisters and I are learning about vermicomposting.  Composting happens when living things die and left to spoil and rot, it changes into something else which other living things can use.  When plants die and rot, it also turns into compost.

Daddy is teaching us about vermicomposting which means that worms are used to help turn the dead plants from compost into worm poo poo. (Daddy's note: the proper word for the 'poo-poo' is vermicast)

Vermi is a Latin word for worms.  I do not know what Latin is and daddy is also not sure but he says that Latin is a very old language.  Big science words are also sometimes spelt in Latin.
 

Our worm box looks like this and it has 3 parts. There is a box with holes on the bottom, a tray and a cover. The brown soil above the box is coir. Coir is actually coconut husk that is broken up into many fine pieces. The worm will live and multiply in the coir.

You can click on the worms to see a bigger picture.

There are many species of worms and we are using 3 different type in our worm box. Worms have cute names too. There is The 'Tiger' (eisenia foetida), The 'Reds' (Red Wigglers or lumbricus rubellus) and The 'Indian Blues' (periovyx excavatus). I like the the Indians because it reminds me of cowboys but my sisters like the Tiger because it has pretty stripes.

We are adding the coir into the box.  We mixed a littled water so that it is damp because the worms don't like a dry home.

Audrey and I are putting more coir into the box so that the worms have a deeper 'bed'.

We are looking for the worms so that we can pick it up and put them into their new home. My youngest sister, Clara, is not helping.  She just look at the worms wriggling around.

I told her that worms are harmless. Now Clara is poking at the worms to see if it bites her fingers.

We are all busy now looking for worms.

Each of us caught a big fat worm. Look at the cheeky grins on my sisters' faces.

We wonder what they taste like.  Birds like them.

The worms can sure hide.  It was not easy looking for them. If we play hide and seek with the worms, I think we will lose.

I grabbed a handful of coir and see if I can find more worms. My sisters' eyes are sharp and can find the worms very quickly.

where are you?

Clara has a worm on her palm. She was looking for it's mouth but cannot see it.  I cannot find it either.

Daddy is preparing a piece of vegetable for us to feed the worm.

We crushed the vegetable into smaller pieces.

The vegetable is put on top of the coir and covered with a piece of damp newspaper. We put the lid back on so that it will be dark and cosy inside.

Our worm box is small because it is easier for us to take care of it.

Daddy made a bigger worm box and it has more worms.  He is a big kid as well and still plays with fish, worms and he also has his toys.