Worm'ag: Worm Farming Magazine Issue 02 - March 2017 | Page 21

a bush etc ... Shady and moist areas are best , if they are covered with fall leaves or cover plant then that ' s even better as this might have already attracted some native worms .
If there were fall leaves , remove the leaves to make place for the container and put them back around the container . For small cover plants just place the container over them ( ask permission first ).
Now your container in place , fill it with a 50 / 50 mix of shredded cardboard or newspaper and varied food scraps or horse / cow / goat / rabbit manure . Using a hose or a watering can , thoroughly wet the mix down and put the lid on .
Now all you need to do is check the moisture of the mix weekly or more often in drier / warmer areas . Depending on the conditions it might take several weeks or couple of months before you see a good number of worms in the trap . Once you notice some worms inside , you can either harvest them and move them to their new home but what I usually do is leave the container in place for one month . The wild worms will start mating and breeding in the container and cocoons will start showing all over the place . This is even better because juvenile worms will adapt better to a change of environment and will settle down instantly if they hatch in your compost bin rather than being moved from the trap .
But before you transfer the worms , do some identification or send photos to a worm farming group and ask for confirmation on the worms species . Your trap might have also attracted some deep dwelling earthworms which are not adapted to life in captivity and are best left in the garden where they do more good .
Now that you have some worms you can decide to leave the trap in place as an on-ground wild worms feeding station just like the Big Rotter . A worm tray used as trap
I filled this trap with only fall leaves and wet it down .
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