Worm farming is very useful and exciting to us human beings as it helps us recycle some of our waste food and produce compost that benefits us in many ways. The compost produced by our worms can be used to enrich our soil for gardening, can be used for flower beds and can even be sold to make extra money.
Setting up a worm farm can be easy and can be done by almost anyone. As a beginner farmer you should know what type of issues may arise when managing your farm and some of them are listed below.
– Foul Smell
First let me make it clear that a normal worm farm doesn’t smell, you don’t find worms living under smelly conditions in the wild. Some farms can become smelly after some time and the main reason being that they are over feed which has to be reduced.
It’s very important to give your worms the right amount of food because if you give them too much they won’t be able to eat all of the food causing the rest to rot. Once the food rots it can cause all sorts of smell and even giving bacteria some room to develop and affect the worm farm.
If you find yourself in a position where by your farm has been over fed you should stop giving the worms food until they finish the rest of the food. Another thing to do is to stir the compost so that the worms can move around other places and eat the food.
– The Pests
When managing a worm farm not only will you attract worms but other insects as well. To help in keeping out unwanted insects you should make sure your farm is nicely closed at all times. A common insect that is known to infest a compost farm is vinegar flies. These insects are not harmful to the farm and are mostly attracted when there’s lot of food.
Other insects that are known to infect a compost farm are ants. If you see them in your farm you should know that the reason they may like it there is because the soil mixture is dry. To stop it from being dry you have to moisten the soil so the ones in the mixture can die and the others will become less attracted to coming to the farm.
Maggots are other insects that infect the farm. They are attracted to the farm by meat, if you give your worms some meat then you are bound to find maggots. To help stop them from coming to the farm you should stop giving the worms some meat which on the other side is not good for the worms.
In order to have a productive worm farm you should try by all means to stop pests from entering your farm and make sure you give the worms just the right amount of food for them to eat it all. Remember this will also help in your farm not to smell.
