Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've spent a couple days working on the worm bins. We got lazy this past spring and the worm bins became infested with ANTS!!!!!! Arg

See before I had been using place the feet in a container of water or mineral oil method of keeping ants out of the worm bins. This method works fine when the bins are in an environment with little/no debris to be scratched up into the containers (I have free range chickens that like to scratch under the bins and that tends to fill the containers with mulch and dirt giving the ants a way into the bins if not constantly cleaned out and topped up with fresh water/oil.)

Well, I got the bright idea not too long ago to see if the small chain link fence rail was the right size for a uniseal. It is. The 1 3/8" fence top rail has the same outside size as 1" PVC pipe. So...

Clever clever clever......

Now an important thing here is to add a good bit of Diatomaceous Earth down inside the pipe so that ants can't come up inside the pipe. The container full of liquid will keep the ants from coming up the outside of the pipe.

By mounting the containers around the pipe like this, I'm able to have the containers up higher and avoid much of the chicken scratching problem.

Hopefully this will make my worm bins more manageable and also make weed whacking around them easier so we can avoid the problem of ants walking across weed bridges onto the bins too.

one could make ant proof tables this way too I expect.

I love it! What did you use for seals TCL? Is there something that inspired this idea?

Uniseals. The top rail just happened to be the same size as 1" PVC pipe

I hate when I get ants in my worm poop.

I could understand that, I hate it when my son gets into our cat poop!

Do you use worm juice in your system and if so what benefits do you get from this and how do you apply it? I havnt introduced much of anything to do with worms other than actual worms in my GB so I am quite interested in your applications TCL.

Naw, I just added worms and a hand full of worm castings into each of my grow beds when I started them up.

I use the worm castings in the dirt garden and for seed starting as well as providing some treats to the chickens, ducks and fish.

I suppose if I wasn't such a lazy gardener I would make some aerated worm casting tea to spray on plants that are having problems but I usually just leave it go and what dose well is great and what doesn't is gone.

Ahh! Uniseals. Is there anything you can't do?

Nicely done TCLynx.

Well there are some things I won't do

Not too many that I can't do if I were to put my mind to it.

Great Idea TCL.....and a good use for those Folgers coffee containers, because the coffee that comes in them is

Actually those containers are really handy, but I don't drink that coffee myself so it is hard to get enough of those containers.

My farm is a black plastic commercial one, with 4 legs each sits in a margarine container full of water

TC I love the pipe setup - that would make a great stand for growbeds as well and is really clever.

Have you considered worm towers for doing your compost? I'm going to give them a try since I don't want to deal with a regular compost heap. Just let the worms compost the organic matter right in the garden and the worms spread it as well. 36" long PVC buried 18" deep (probably at least a 4" pipe but a 6" would be better). Drill 1/2 inch holes all over the portion going into the ground. Throw in a little manure and your organic matter and a bunch of compost worms and your golden. The worms spread their castings out from the pipe and any tea would soak into the ground. Put a cap on to keep out flies and other critters. Just keep moving the towers and you can build the soil in different parts of the garden.

Here is a video that's not to bad and gives the general idea. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFuIFnjK-ko