Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Maybe this should be in the rant thread...

Could someone explain why compost worms so frigin expensive!

Their unit price is low, but I put their per weight price at about $80/kg in Australia!

Okay... So clearly they take time to multiply but:
1) ppl rave at how fast they breed in home systems
2) in principal you could source their food cheap
3) all their waste products are marketable
4) surely it does not take that much time to "tend to your flock"

I realy dont get it... Is the going rate calculated on their breeding cycle time line and yield, or returning the initial investment on a commercial setup quickly?

If it the sale price wasnt already close to the production cost, then I assume someone would undercut everyone else .

I suspect it will be yield vs demand?


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Supply and demand my friend.

Plus the farming of worms is not very developed (from an industrial sense) so the labour costs are huge.

And it's not a straight supply and demand equation where major hardware chains demand very special deals to get your products on the shelves.

The same worms are produced by backyard growers at a much reduced price for their local fishing tackle shops as bait.

Sometimes, when you want to get your product into a supermarket chain or whatever, you have to sell your soul to get there.

They demand that you have made efforts in advertising or special offers to buy back worms from people who buy your product.

The cost of souls can add up, with advertising, packaging, and hiring that person to stand at the end of an isle handing out free lukewarm samples of reclaimed chicken lips and buttocks, lovingly machine crafted into leg and wing shapes by food scienticians.

Try a fishing tackle store, or a disgruntled private worm grower that was promised some kind of deal to buy back worms at a given price in the 90's.

I'm just about to start my first worm farm because it seems to wake up my silvers, no matter how cold the water when I drop one in.

Worms and green caterpillars drive them nuts.

I'm sleep deprived, but can make bread.

If I had to dig around in shit... catching and counting worms all day... I'd be charging you as well...

Someone on here had a commercial worm production setup in the states I believe with a proper custom made worm sorter and stuff... looked pretty snazzy. I don't have the link though.

ching ching

i buy from Chittering in WA, and they aren' cheap, but the worms are good.....then I kill them when i have a Barra problem with too much salt........Go figure...

Found some local seller in the yellow pages, will let u know if there is much difference in price compared to online sellers.

I like your comedy Rupe, but in the clips i've seen on tv of worm farms (1 family run business with low tech blue barrel set up, and 1 hi tech city wide waste management setup) neither was that dirty or shity. The only time they touch something dirty in their days to day maintanence is to pick non-organics out of the incoming food source. Pre composting this takes out a lot of the rot/eeww factor.

Obviously you will need to get armpit deep in some shit from time to time though.

I suspect it is supply and demand mainly, though BW raises some nice tangental points.

Something is worth exactly as much as what someone is willing to pay for it

Got two big compost bins full of them. They love the spent brewing grain, and for anyone wanting to farm them, remember to throw a handful of lime/dolomite over the farm and water it in, every month or so. They hate acid conditions and will disappear if it is

does that mean I have to start brewing ?

I like this one -

~ Worm farming ~

On my trip to the Salton Sea, all of the tackle shops sold night crawlers, as the tilapia loved them. I wonder how well they would do in a grow bed?

My fish like the big earthworms too, but I don't know how to house them, since they function different than compost worms. I was wondering if I am supposed to put earth or compost worms in my grow beds because it seems like the compost worms would eat my plant roots. I have been growing compost worms for 3 months and I don't feel like they are multiplying nearly fast enough to keep up with my greedy gutted fish. Thinking about meal worms as a substitute, those are cheaper right?

Yeah, that's the blue barrel farm I was talking about

Can't see your location cause I'm on tappa talk. If you are after fast multipliers check if you are in a location that has wild black solider flys (phoenix grubs). If not, and you have a big enough property, use house/blow flies instead.

Do a forum search for "cold climate food alternatives". I'll see if I can find the thread: