» Worms

Soil, as you know, is the foundation of all living and developing things on our planet, the basis of life. In order for its power not to dry up, the fertility of the soil must be constantly restored, and the most important workers in this direction are earthworms. Everything ingenious is extremely simple - the quality of the land, its fertility and high crop yields directly depend on the waste product of the ordinary earthworm. We will tell you further how to breed it at home, how and what to feed it and what care to take.

Breeding worms at home is not at all difficult. And the matter can become a very serious business, and there are at least two good reasons for this:

• creeping creatures multiply very quickly, gain useful biomass and are an excellent feed for poultry (poultry farms, farms engaged in poultry breeding and egg production);
• the product of active vital activity is vermicompost– the highest quality and environmentally friendly fertilizer for farms and greenhouses.

In addition, in pharmacology these animal organisms are also used to make medicines. The use of vermicompost on personal plots and in the household will significantly increase the egg production of poultry, soil fertility, and increase the yield of vegetables and fruits without the use of chemical fertilizers.

Varieties of annelids

The most common common representative of bristle annelids is the earthworm. But it is they, which are freely found in nature, that are least suitable for reproduction in artificial conditions. Representatives of this subspecies reproduce rather slowly, have difficulty adapting to new conditions and unfamiliar food, and live relatively short lives. They are, perhaps, only suitable for breeding for your own personal household needs.

For industrial breeding and production of vermicompost, the Russian scientist, Professor A. M. Igonin bred a special breed “Staratel”. By crossing different breeds of species living at a sufficient distance from each other, he was able to obtain individuals with completely new qualities:

• long life expectancy - from 4 to 16 years;
• reproduces quickly;
• easily tolerates changing food (any type of food can be used - from fallen leaves and grass to human food waste).

Prospectors adapt as quickly as possible to the conditions of artificial propagation and provide an excellent increase in biomass and humus.

Another variety that meets the requirements for industrial production is the red Californian worm. Individuals of KKCH also multiply very quickly, increase their useful mass, process various organic human waste into vermicompost, and serve as an excellent protein feed for agricultural and fish farming.

The prospector worm is the fastest reproducing individual. In 1 year it can produce offspring of 1500 worms

Household breeding technology

Necessary equipment and place for breeding

If you decide to start breeding worms, you first need to carry out preparatory work - choose and prepare a place or container. The containers can be wooden, plastic or cardboard boxes (it is clear that cardboard containers will have to be changed frequently), and piles.

They are placed in a barn, garage, or any other specially designated place where the necessary conditions can be met - substrate humidity of at least 70-80% and temperature from 12-15 o C to 22-24 o C. Worms can also be bred in normal conditions. compost heap, pit.

One convenient option is to use two or three perforated boxes stacked on top of each other. The lowest one has holes around the perimeter at the top of the sides. This box is intended for vermicha – the liquid component of vermicompost. A box with perforated walls and bottom is placed on top of it, a nutrient medium for worms is placed in it and individuals are populated; the top of the boxes should be covered with burlap or other “breathable” fabric, since creepy crawlies love dark and damp places.

Making a worm

You can breed individuals on the street, right in the garden, by separating a certain place for this and fencing it with boards or other available material.

Approximate dimensions of the worm: width 1-1.2 m, height 30-40 cm, length arbitrary. Compost is placed on the bottom in a thick layer, leveled and well moistened. Then for 5-7 days the compost heap needs to be covered with material that allows air to pass through.

This could be old burlap, cardboard, or a layer of straw, which need to be watered from time to time with rain or well-settled water (at least 2-3 days).

Chlorine must completely evaporate, since it is poisonous for worms of any kind.

After a week on each square. m, a recess is made in which the creepers are placed, and again the worm chamber is covered with breathable material.

Compost preparation

As compost for putting in boxes or pits, you can use mixtures of rotted manure, bird droppings, peat, straw, leaves and stems of vegetables and weeds, crushed eggshells and food waste.

Fresh manure should never be used; it contains a large amount of ammonia and the individuals die. Rotted manure 2-3 years old will also be of little use, since it no longer contains useful nutrients.

All organic materials suitable for cultivation are collected on a heap (or in a specially designated place), covered and, periodically moistened, kept for 1.5-2 months.

Own vermifarm

If you decide to get your own small worm farm, then, first of all, you need to arrange a place to keep the worms, stock up on containers, prepare compost and provide comfortable conditions for breeding.

The purchase of breeding stock is of decisive importance. The most suitable species, as already mentioned, are California red worms or prospectors. One family consists of 1500 individuals. In order to populate 1 cubic. m of compost requires 1-3 families of breeding stock.

Moving into a new place must be done with great care. First, a few individuals are released into a small amount of prepared soil in a separate container, the soil is leveled and the container is closed. After a couple of days you need to add some food. If all the worms are active, mobile, and have a characteristic red color, the entire population can be populated. If dead individuals are found, then it is necessary to correct the acidity of the soil (the most favorable environment is considered to be with an acid index of 6.5-7.5 pH).

How to feed earthworms

Earthworms are true vegetarians and they cannot tolerate protein foods: meat, fish, eggs. When buying breeding stock, you need to find out what the seller fed his wards, since the most common food is the one they tried “from birth”. Nevertheless, they quickly get used to new food, especially Prospectors. It takes some time to get used to a certain type of food, so new components should be introduced into the food supply gradually, giving the worms the opportunity to adapt.

Plant remains, potato peelings, cabbage leaves, various food waste from the kitchen of plant origin, tea and coffee grounds, straw, grass, dry bread are suitable as feeding. Just everything you add to the compost pile should be shredded for easier and faster processing by the creeps. Otherwise, the process of acidification, fermentation or rotting of the products may begin.

You need to feed every 2-3 weeks. Pour the fertilizer over the entire surface of the boxes or piles, evenly, 7-10 cm thick, until the thickness of the processed humus reaches 50-60 cm and the substrate takes the form of evenly processed biomass. The approximate cycle time is 3-4 months from the time of stocking.

Feed the worms every 2-3 weeks

Care and reproduction

The main care on worm farms or worm farms is to maintain the temperature regime, timely feeding, and maintaining the humidity level when watering with warm rain or settled water.

Being in favorable conditions, the worms begin to reproduce. In the compost they lay cocoons - small balls of yellow-sand color. Each cocoon contains several eggs, from which small worms appear 2-3 weeks later, and after another 7-8 weeks they are ready to produce offspring. The unsurpassed leaders in reproduction speed are Prospectors - one individual produces offspring of 1,500 individuals per year.

Possible markets

Growing worms can really become a profitable business if you worry about the market for processed products and increased livestock in advance.

1. Vermicompost is an environmentally friendly fertilizer, highly effective in increasing the productivity of agricultural crops, growing seedlings, flowers, etc. Therefore, consumers of vermicompost can be farmers, greenhouses, flower greenhouses, as well as private entrepreneurs engaged in plant cultivation.
2. Living biomass is a valuable nutritious protein feed for poultry farms and poultry farms.
3. Live food in the form of worms serves as an indispensable nutritional product for fish farms.
4. Worms are in great demand as food for pets in zoological stores.

Profitability of production

According to the calculations of farmers involved in earthworm breeding, the profitability of a vermifarm is within 150%. One Prospector per year produces offspring of 1,500 individuals and about 100 kg of the most valuable fertilizer - vermicompost. From 1 ton of prepared compost you can get up to 600 kg of high-quality fertilizer and 10-15 kg of new individuals.

Farms for growing worms and producing vermicompost are not only cost-effective and profitable farming, but also enrich the environment with useful substances and the opportunity to obtain environmentally friendly food products.

HOW TO BREED A DURING WORM AT HOME

In order to have the necessary supply of dung worms for bait and groundbait throughout the year, you should start breeding them. It has been noticed that the fish prefers the dung worm over the rain worm, although they are “relatives”.

And the costs of breeding it are small; care and feeding also do not require special investments. High-quality fish baits are expensive, and you will have your own mini-factory for breeding worms for successful fishing.

CONTAINER FOR CULTIVATION OF DURING WORMS

We take a container, ideally a box measuring 600x400x300 mm. You can use a wooden or plastic box; drill several holes in the bottom of the box for drainage. It is better to place the box with soil on the sand to remove excess water. The bottom of the container also needs to be filled with sand and covered with a 5-7 cm layer of straw or grass about 10 cm and lightly compacted.

Which filler should I choose?

Spread a layer of vermicompost on top of the bottom layer of turf. Soil can be purchased at flower shops; “Universal” is perfect.

Food for worms

Dung worms are undemanding in terms of food; they feed on:

• food waste that can be passed through a meat grinder;
• or peelings of fruits and vegetables, not including potatoes;
• It is advisable to give eggshells that have previously been ground into powder.

Spread the feed in a layer of 5-7 cm, pour vermicompost on top, approximately 2 cm wide. Portions of feed should be added as needed. You can use fresh or last year's foliage as natural bait.

To determine the food needs of pets, you need to dig a small hole; if there are no traces of food, but only soil is visible, this means that the worms have processed the food and need a portion of feeding.

Now everything is ready for the launch of the first batch of animals. Fishing will be especially successful with such bait.

WATERING

We spill the box with high-quality water and put the worms in there. Drainage holes are necessary to maintain suitable humidity and allow excess moisture to drain away.

To determine the optimal humidity, you need to squeeze the vermicompost in your hand; if water seeps through your fingers, this means that the concentration of water is normal.

Use only warm water for irrigation and let it sit for more than 3 days, watering as needed. Watering after feeding is required. You can cover the box with a lid or corrugated cardboard, which worms simply adore.

Comfortable temperature and reproduction

The best temperature for breeding dung worms is +18-24 o C. If these maintenance criteria are met, the population of dung worms will increase from two to six times in just 2 months. At this time it is necessary to carry out resettlement. For resettlement, you need to prepare several boxes and use this breeding technology.

Many people do not know whether breeding dung worms at home as a business is possible. Let's answer this question simply. Yes, perhaps some farmers are already doing this.

A dung worm is essentially the same as an earthworm, which is also successfully bred by farmers, but has a slightly longer length. Individual individuals in favorable conditions grow up to twelve centimeters or even more. Extremely active and very attractive to almost any fish.

As the name suggests, dung worms live primarily in manure, but they also feel comfortable and give birth in compost.

What to breed in

To start breeding dung worms at home, you will first have to prepare a container. These can be boxes made of any material, with the exception of metal. Many experienced farmers do not recommend allowing metal to come into contact with the environment in which worms live, since it is capable of releasing various harmful oxidation and elements into the soil. Holes are drilled in the bottom of the box for drainage. A layer of sand is poured, it should not be too thick and two to three centimeters will be enough.

Next, the hay is laid down in a layer of about five centimeters and then there is a layer of vermicompost, which you can buy or make yourself. These are necessary and important conditions, the observance of which will allow the worms to adapt more quickly once they find themselves in a new habitat.

Where to get breeding stock

You can buy worms for breeding, or you can do it easier. Drive up to some farm where cows are kept, find a stack of hay or straw and dig up worms.

Feeding

In nature, dung worms feed mainly on rotten vegetation. But if kept at home, they can be fed with kitchen scraps. Potato peelings, various cereals (but not dairy), apples, etc. are suitable. In a word, dung worms are given the same products that are given to other breeds of worms. But there is one difference. For example, if the Californian worm or prospectors are fed simply with crushed food, then dung worms need to be fed with products that are crushed in a blender or meat grinder.

Check-in

Before you transplant the dung worms into the container, be sure to water the soil so that it becomes soft. The water temperature should be room temperature. Representatives of this species love high humidity, so to check whether a given soil is suitable for them or not, take a handful and squeeze - the water should seep out a little.

You need to populate dung worms as follows. Place them in a box on the surface of the ground and wait until they begin to hide. When the last worm is in the ground, pour a three-centimeter layer of food and cover it with a cardboard sheet. Place the box in a warm place.

When you notice holes on the cardboard gnawed by worms, this is a signal that they have already eaten the food you provided and it’s time for another feeding.

We do everything the same as the first time. We lay down the food, water it and cover it with a cardboard sheet. We do this until the box containing the worms is filled to the top.

This video shows how you can keep and breed a worm in an ordinary room.

Below we will tell you in detail how to breed worms, how to care for them and get a good income.

To be able to work with large wholesale buyers, your enterprise must be officially registered. The most common options are individual entrepreneurs and LLCs.

In our case, the simplest one is IP, registration will take about a month and require a minimal investment ($70-90).

Worm breeding technology

It is necessary to organize the cultivation of worms in several stages:

• Preparing the premises in which your “wards” will live;
• Purchase of livestock for rearing;
• Preparing “housing” and moving the purchased “family” into it;
• Caring for “pets”;
• Reproduction;
• Collection of vermicompost, vermicompost, sale of adult worms.

Then another layer of nutrient bedding is added and the whole process starts all over again.

Is it worth buying worms?

You can purchase invertebrates at any vermifarm, which is not difficult to find via the Internet. The average cost of a thousand heads is 22-40 dollars, depending on the chosen type and volume of purchase. For a business to be profitable, you need to start with at least 2-3 thousand worms.

If you are going to breed ordinary rainwater, you don’t even have to spend money on buying them and take them in the yard of your own home. First you need to dig a not very deep hole and pour manure or moistened rotting leaves into it. Then the “bait” is covered with a board or cardboard. Within a week, the first invertebrates will appear in this place. They must be transferred to the box along with the soil in which they lived.

The best types of worms

Each type is good in its own way. By providing proper climatic conditions and good nutrition for your wards, you can breed several species at once.

Earthworm

It has the best adaptation: both to climate change and to life on a closed farm. But his activity, compared to other “breeds,” is somewhat lower. It produces fewer offspring and forms vermicompost more slowly than its “brothers”.

California Red

One of the most popular species due to its mobility and rapid reproduction. California red produces excellent vermicompost and is not very picky about food. But it is sensitive to temperature. If it drops below +10 degrees, you may lose your livestock.

Worm prospector

An excellent choice for beginners. This species is active, quickly processes food and substrate. The prospector feels good at a temperature of +9…+28 degrees.

Worm breeding room

A worm farm requires a minimum of space, literally a few square meters. You can arrange it in a garage, cellar, attic or outbuilding.

Even a summer cottage can become a springboard for growing invertebrates. In this case, it is necessary to comply with some requirements:

1. To prevent business from “freezing” in winter, you need to take care of heating in advance;
2. The room should not be too humid, but not dry either;
3. The farm should be located in a quiet place, away from the road, noise, and vibrations.

Housing for worms

For comfortable keeping of pets, it is best to build special boxes. You can make them yourself from wooden or plastic containers. The wall thickness of the wooden box must be at least 25 mm. Standard nursery parameters are 1x2x0.5 meters. You need to make holes at the bottom of the box to collect humus and tea, and place a tray. The top of the nursery is covered with a lid with holes.

To save space, boxes are installed on racks that can be made from metal profiles.

There are several more ways to build a home for worms with your own hands:

• From an old refrigerator. It is necessary to remove the internal contents from it, make ventilation holes in the walls and door, and install the refrigerator with the door up and at a slight angle.
• From a cardboard box. The simplest and cheapest option, plus in the box, due to the natural thin material, there is very good air circulation and enough oxygen for invertebrates. As soon as the “creeping workers” begin to feed on pieces of damp cardboard, the box needs to be replaced.
• From a plastic container. Any plastic container can become a “house”: from a flower pot to a basin. The main thing is not to forget about ventilation and collection of humus and vermicelli.

If you wish, you can purchase a fully equipped vermicomposter, its cost is about $200.

Conditions for growing worms

Pets should be housed based on the norm of 1000-1500 individuals per cubic meter. This will ensure optimal nutrition and substrate processing. There are certain requirements for the maintenance and care of these creatures.

The soil

The substrate must consist of three layers. The top layer is the most nutritious, that is, the soil should be enriched with organic matter. Invertebrates spend most of their time in the middle layer.

And worm tea and vermicompost accumulate in the bottom. Worms will reproduce well only in high-quality soil. How to prepare it?

1. Choose a container to contain it and fill it halfway with humus, add a little shredded newspaper. The mixture needs to be slightly moistened, the total humidity level should be no more than 80%;
2. A few days later, depressions are made in the soil, where the individuals settle along with part of the soil in which they lived before transplantation;
3. The soil is leveled, moistened, the home is covered with cardboard and left for a couple of days;
4. When the “residents” adapt, you can add food to the soil.

There is a great way to check the quality of the substrate. Place 50-100 individuals in a small container with prepared soil and observe them for 24 hours. If they are alive and remain mobile, it means that the acidity and moisture of the soil suits them. The required acidity level is 6.5-7.5 pH. Tops, straw, and sawdust increase the acidity level. Reduced - limestone, chalk, ground eggshells.

Temperature for keeping worms

These creatures feel best at temperatures +15…+25 degrees. Critical indicators: +4 degrees (individuals will hibernate or die), at +36C and above, invertebrates also die.

At the right temperature, your wards will reproduce well and produce vermicompost.

Feeding the worms

Feeding should be done once a week. The food is placed on soil 10 centimeters thick. Place a piece of newspaper or toilet paper on top of the food. As soon as your charges start eating it, you can feed them again and lay a new layer of compost.

These creatures feed on rotting organic matter.. The diet of worms must be formed from the following products:

• Plant remains: peels, vegetables (boiled), potato peelings, etc.;
• Bakery;
• Ground eggshells;
• Food waste;
• Water with remaining kefir or sour cream;
• Tea leaves;
• Straw, leaves, grass;
• Cow and horse manure, chicken droppings. It is important that the manure is of medium freshness and contains many nutrients. Very fresh manure will raise the soil temperature and the livestock will die.

Do not use under any circumstances meat scraps, citrus fruit scraps, fruit and vegetable peels.

Reproduction of worms

Proper maintenance of worms involves creating favorable conditions for their reproduction. They begin to give birth to offspring at the age of two to three months.

Over the course of 4 months, cocoons are formed, ripening in a few weeks. One cocoon is 15-20 new worms. If we roughly calculate the dynamics of reproduction, it turns out that in six months the number of invertebrates in one box will increase 50 times.

It is very important to regularly place individuals in new containers. If the population density is high, they will simply stop reproducing.

Equipment for breeding worms

Equipment required for growing:

1. Boxes or other containers;
2. Shelving;
3. Sieve;
4. Wheelbarrow, shovel and pitchfork, bucket;
5. Scales, thermometer, device for measuring soil temperature and acidity.

Selling worms

Your farm on several points at once: from the sale of live individuals, the sale of vermicompost and vermicelli. “Young growth” and vermicompost are collected for sale every month and a half. Who should I sell to?

• Live specimens to pet stores for animal feed, fish farms, and breeding;
• Vermicompost and vermichay for farms to fertilize the soil and feed plants.

You can create your own website and engage in retail sales yourself.

Costs and profits

If you equip containers for growing yourself, then the main costs will be inventory (no more than $100) and the purchase of three thousand individuals to begin with ($80-100).

Materials for the “houses”, food, soil will require no more than $50. Preparing food does not require any special expenses. In total, including registration, the investment amount will be about $350.

For 3 thousand individuals, two to three cubic meters of soil are needed. Every month and a half they will produce about 30 thousand worms for sale ($900) and approximately 1000-1500 kg of vermicompost ($700-800). You can earn about $600 more by selling vermicha. Monthly income will be $1500-2000.

Growing worms is quite simple and very! These creatures live a long time, are unpretentious in many respects, and the costs of setting up a vermifarm are minimal.

Despite the huge variety of artificial baits for fishing, nothing can replace real worms. Therefore, anyone who knows a lot about this prefers to always have them at hand. That is why many fishermen ask a logical question: “How to breed worms for fishing yourself?”

Fans of winter fishing know very well how difficult it is to get the necessary bait at this time. It’s good if bloodworms are available for sale. And if it is not there, then you have to use any available food, which does not always guarantee a successful catch. As a result, many people are thinking about how to breed worms for fishing at home.

General information about earthworms

Almost any fish can be caught with this bait. There are several varieties of the mentioned living organisms that are popular among fishermen. How to breed earthworms? How are they different from others? This common name hides a number of families of oligochaete worms. The most common individuals have a body of 3-15 cm. There are worms 2.5-40 cm long. There are 1,500 species, however, the bulk are found in the tropics. There are about 100 species of worms in temperate latitudes. They live in the ground and are active at night. During the day they can be found on the ground after rain. Due to the fact that during their digestion they process organic residues, they obtain the most valuable fertilizer - vermicompost. When thinking about the question of how to breed earthworms, you need to understand the most common types of this fish bait.

Red worms

Many fishermen believe that red worms are the most attractive bait. They are suitable for both industrial and home propagation. At the same time, in a fairly short period of time, you can get a large increase in their biomass. The body of such creatures contains proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and minerals, making them an excellent food not only for fish, but also for domestic animals and birds.

How to breed red worms? There are different ways to grow them. In one cycle, lasting 3 months, up to 30 kg of worms are collected from 1 m2. To feed them, almost any organic waste is used, such as food waste, animal manure, bird droppings, straw, waste from the paper, woodworking, meat and fishing industries.

Habitat conditions for red worms

How to breed worms in the garden? To do this, it is necessary to satisfy their need for nitrogen-containing organic matter. In such an environment, their growth and fertility are greatly enhanced. Sufficient soil moisture is required to grow red worms. If it is below 30-35%, then the development of individuals will be inhibited. If the humidity level drops below 22%, they can die within a week. This is why it is necessary to water the soil regularly. Its optimal humidity is 70-85%.

Soil acidity below pH5 and above pH9 is unsuitable for breeding worms. In such an environment they will die within a week. The best option is soil that has an acidity of pH7. They also cannot tolerate saline soil, and a salt concentration of more than 0.5% is simply lethal for them.

At temperatures below 5 °C, worms do not feed. They crawl deep into the soil and hibernate. As a rule, they wake up 10-14 days before the soil thaws. The optimal temperature for their breeding is 18-24 °C.

Reproduction of red worms

Each adult lays 18-24 cocoons in the summer. They contain from 1 to 20 eggs. After 3 weeks, young individuals appear, and after 7-9 weeks they can already bear offspring themselves. Most often, one individual lives 10-15 years. Moreover, with age their size only increases. Sexually mature young worms weigh about 1 g each.

Growing worms

How to breed dung worms? A sufficient number of individuals are collected in old heaps of humus or in accumulations of rotten last year's foliage. Such worms are not so common in ordinary soil, but they can be found in some places with high humidity (for example, in a raspberry field). Dung worms are very similar to red worms. Only when hooked on a hook do they release yellow contents that have an unpleasant odor.

To create a worm cultivator, you need only about 500 individuals per 1 square meter. m. One of the main factors for the successful reproduction of these organisms is the quality of the substrate in which they will live. It uses manure, straw, hay, sawdust, which are thoroughly mixed. Dense compost creates an ideal environment for worms to live and reproduce. It should remain moist even in dry weather.

Construction of a worm-cultivator

In a shady area of ​​the site, dig a small ditch (no more than 2 m2) with a depth of 30-35 cm. A layer of clay is laid and compacted at its bottom. It should rise to the very edges of the ditch. The thickness of this layer is 10 cm. Good soil (preferably black soil) is poured on top of the clay. Next, the groove is filled with humus, which is thoroughly compacted. You cannot add ash or coal to it, since worms cannot tolerate them.

The collected individuals are poured into the substrate, distributing them evenly throughout the groove. In such a worm house you can grow not only dung or red worms, but also ordinary earthworms or earthworms. For each of these species, the most suitable substrate composition is selected. So, for earthworms and earthworms, you should not add manure to the soil. It's better to limit yourself to compost.

When breeding dung worms in warm winters, they can be collected for fishing even during frosts. How can we explain this phenomenon? This is due to the fact that a large amount of manure in the substrate increases the temperature in it. For the winter, the worm house is covered with bags and sprinkled with earth and snow.

Breeding worms at home

How to breed earthworms at home? Although the vast majority of people breed them in their summer cottage or garden plot, some avid fishermen manage to do this in apartment conditions. True, not everyone succeeds in this, but those who have learned to breed worms in an apartment are provided with good bait all year round.

How to breed worms for fishing at home? To do this, you need to choose the right container to contain them. A wooden or plastic box can serve as housing. As a last resort, you can use a regular canvas bag for this. But worms will not be able to live long in such containers. For long-term breeding, it is better to use enamel dishes, a basin or bucket. Worms will do just fine in an old aquarium.

After choosing a container, they begin to prepare the substrate. It should consist of soil in which there is no or very little humus. The best soil for this purpose is one that has few fallen leaves and grass roots. This is due to the fact that when this organic matter rots, it takes a lot of oxygen from the soil, which is necessary for the normal functioning of the organisms we are considering.

Feeding the worms

Answering the question of how to quickly breed worms, we can say with confidence that the speed of their growth and reproduction depends entirely on the food. Almost any organic waste (peeling vegetables or fruits), unsweetened tea leaves, coffee grounds and boiled or raw oatmeal are suitable for them to eat. It must be remembered that dry food helps reduce the level of moisture in the soil. To increase the rate of reproduction of worms, many advise giving them dairy products. Under no circumstances should you give them potato peelings.

The worms are fed at the following rate: 3 handfuls of cereal per 15 liters of soil. When adding nutrition to the soil, it should not be left on the surface. It is necessary to mix the soil thoroughly by hand. If a “tangle” is discovered, consisting of many individuals intertwined with each other, they must be carefully separated, evenly distributed throughout the entire container. If this is not done, many of the worms will die due to the increased temperature inside such a lump.

Compliance with containment conditions

When thinking about the question of how to properly breed worms, you should not forget about maintaining optimal conditions that ensure the normal functioning of these simple animals. To do this, it is necessary to constantly maintain appropriate humidity. To determine the condition of the soil, it is squeezed in a fist. If a lump forms after it is unclenched, then the humidity is normal. At the same time, we must not forget that excess moisture has an adverse effect on worms.

Despite the fact that these creatures do not like low temperatures, they should not be placed in close proximity to heating devices, as they will quickly die there. The optimal temperature regime for normal development of worms is 17-24 °C. The container is placed in a dark place, away from direct sunlight.

You can contain different types of worms (earthworms, red ones) in one container, but it is better to allocate “separate housing” to each subspecies. When raising these animals using this method, you can collect up to 1 kg of fish bait per week from a 30 liter container.

Growing worms in a summer cottage

How to breed worms for fishing in the country? The simplest way is to dig a small ditch, 30 cm wide. Its depth should be 15-20 cm. Rotting leaves, grass, hay, and humus are placed in the ditch. The top is covered with boards or burlap. After 7-12 days, earthworms will appear in it. A special dwelling is built for them, which is a wooden box on legs with a removable lid. Its minimum size is 100 x 100 cm, and its height is 35-40 cm. A mesh with small cells (0.5 cm) is attached to the bottom of the box.

How to breed worms in the country? To do this, the box is placed in a shady place. It can be placed near the compost pit. About 20-25 cm of compost is poured into the bottom of the box. The worms are moved from the ditch along with a small amount of soil into this new home. The soil is moistened and covered with burlap. After a week, the box is filled to the top with compost and watered again. It is necessary to moisten the substrate 1-2 times a week (depending on the rate of drying).

Reproduction of worms

Over the course of 2-3 months, the worms lay cocoons in the ground. Moreover, each individual produces one cocoon weekly. 5-20 worms appear from it. The last clutch is observed at the end of July. The first offspring appear at the end of August. Already in October the worms become adults. For development and growth, they require a lot of food, so from July to November, a layer of compost with humus 10 cm thick is added to the box twice a month. During the digestion of the worms, vermicompost is obtained from it, which pours out through the mesh bottom of the box. In one season, the layer of accumulated valuable fertilizer can reach 25-30 cm. In winter, the worms' housing is left in place, insulated on top with compost, a layer of 20-30 cm. The sides are covered with earth and sand. When snow falls, a small snowdrift is poured onto the box.

In the spring, vermicompost is collected and used for its intended purpose, and most of the worms are spread around the site. Only a small number of individuals are left in the box for further reproduction.

Recently, fishermen are increasingly using mealworms, often called zoophobus, for bait. In large cities, they can be purchased at pet stores as they are used to feed a variety of animals. Where this is not possible, you can grow them yourself. How to breed mealworms at home?

You should choose a suitable location for their placement and a container for growing them. Large plastic boxes or trays without gaps are suitable for this. A fine mesh mesh is used as a cover. Flour, bran, sawdust, and ground crackers are poured into the bottom of such a container. The nutrient layer should be 2-10 cm. Acquired beetles, whose larvae are zoophobes, are placed in the trays. When using pupae, the breeding process will take longer. The number of beetles depends on the expected result.

After adults lay eggs, it takes 2 months before mealworms hatch. The humidity in the box with them should be about 50%. Worms develop best at a temperature of 26-28 ° C.

The larvae of beetles are omnivorous. Zoophobes are fed once every 2 days. They are given bran, oatmeal mixed with grated carrots, beets, and other vegetables.

Instead of an afterword

We looked at the most common ways to solve the question posed in the title of the article. Of course, it’s easier to buy bait in a store. However, after spending some time arranging the worm house and caring for its inhabitants, you will not lose either. Firstly, breeding worms cannot be called an expensive pleasure, rather the opposite. And secondly, you always have fresh bait at your fingertips, at any time of the year or day. And this, you see, is sometimes very important.