Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

i regularly go out and pick out 20 odd worms for my indoor perch...........they LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE them i try and dump them in all at once, so some of them make it to safety..........i have seen a jade pull one out of the gravel days later

nice experimant simmo,

if those natives are also common to the southwest, it would'nt supprise me if they would make a great suplimentary marron feed.

will you be providing the worms native food sources?

nice work

when I was studying permaculture we were taught that 'earthworms' available for for worm farms are really manure worms - not earthworms at all. But the general public dont want to buy 'manure' worms because the thought of poo puts them off.
These little guys live closer to the surface and are great in a compost, worm farms or bio loos for your dog, cat, or poultry poo etc - they love nitrogen and other goodies in vegetation etc. They are usually either called tigers or red wrigglers.
Real earthworms are the great big ones - they live way further down in the soil and have a very different job and relationship to the soil than the little ones. They dont do so well in compost or worm farms ( apparently).
I have heard of people feeding both kinds to their fish with no apparent reaction to the chemical defence put out by the big ones.
Cheers
Aeon

Aeon - being new to the worm farm end of the business - am I really able to put my doggy doo-doos in with the vege scraps for my worms or would it have to be a separate setup eg a doggy loo?

the doggy doodoo was a marketing ploy - the worms won't know the difference and break down the manure with the veggie scraps - toss em in but try and cover them so they break down quicker and get consumed faster

Most domesticated pets are de-wormed regularly and the vermicide can be active in their droppings, so you need to be careful about putting them in a worm farm or compost heap as you can kill your composting worms.

Useless nugget of information: "Barker's eggs" are loaded with calcium, which is why they go white after a few weeks in the sun...

ah yes - forgot about that

not that we spend a lot of time having family discussions on old dogs ablutions but children were most impressed with mothers nuggety info...
thanks for the input on the output guys I think I will just keep throwing it in the garden

I'd keep dog droppings well away from anything that's likely to be part of your food chain. Dogs can carry some organisms that you don't really want to get into your physiology.

Re dog poo:
Whatever you do keep carnivore poo OUT of you worm farm and compost. (It CAN be neutralised but in a lab - not at home or in the garden).
Dogs and cats can carry things like nematodes in their faeces - yucky little microscopic organisms you do NOT want entering into your food chain. They can make you very sick and are the leading cause of blindness in Aussie kids under five. This occurs when they are deposited onto soil via cats and dogs ( and foxes etc) in parks and backyards where they can lie dormant for years. The kids eat dirt and the nematodes lay eggs in the lining of the stomach which can make their way up behind the eye where they grow as a cyst and when the eggs hatch it does irreparable damage to the eye.
Not much fun. On the other hand, dirt eating in general for little ones is a positive thing as it offers exposure to all kinds of viruses and bacteria and this is exactly what their immune system needs to develop antibodies to cope with infection. Interestingly, only 5% of all viruses and bacteria are actually pathogenic - the other 95% is very benefical.

feed the kids marigolds as well... they kill nematodes in the soil!
i never knew that about the dog poo tho

beeso, please explain the use of marigolds in killing nematodes. I never knew you could eat a marigold.

RE: earth worms and dogs

My understanding was that the passage through the worms gut effectivly killed any nasties.

HOWEVER;
If you carefully examine your worm farm (mine is a three tray system) it takes the bottom tray MONTHS to resemble dirt. It is very likely that the worms may miss a microscopic bit, which if ihappens to be one of the nasties we are talking about would be very bad for you.

I guess its a time when although probably theoretically correct, its application in practice leave much to be desired.

Keep it out, IMHO

If you chuck it in the garden, why not set up a little "pit" that you can throw the dog droppings, some cardboard or shredded paper and the odd bit of veggie scraps into? Seed it with a few thousand compost worms, and you have a functional worm farm that will break down the poo much quicker than what it would in the yard. Obviusly keep it far from the veggies and do not use it for anything, just a decomposition aid.

Welcome back to the fold Joyce! Did you have a good trip?

you plant marigolds around tomatos to ward off nematodes its a chemical thing...don't know if eating has the same effect