Keeping worm farms going in the heatwave

by Monica O’Wheel

I’ve had a few years where I have kept all my worms alive, but with the recent heatwave I’ve had another mass death of worms. I hadn’t done my usual plan which is to fill the worm trays with horse manure which gives the worms a lot of yummy food, and water holding bulk. I’ve done it now. I always set up a coolgardie safe type water cooling system with a hessian sack over the trays which I keep wet as much as possible. On work days a friend told me she puts an ice block on top of the bag/towel/other cloth, to slowly melt through the day while she is away. I will try this. The wet sack kept my top tray of worms alive but the lower ones died. I also put freeezer blocks in the top tray to help the worms cool down after a hot day.

In talking to other people at the One Planet Market, I received some good advice. Pauline puts an old wooly jumper into the tray to give worms some insultation. Instead of an old jumper daggy wool from a sheep farmer or unspinnable wool from a spinner would work. Chris  puts her stack of trays on the ground so in the heat the worms can escape down into the wet soil under the trays to keep cool. Chris puts them under a lime tree to help the tree as well. A good shady tree is essential for this to work.