Worms will tolerate a wide temperature range from about 10°-30°C/50°-90°F. If it gets much hotter than this, make sure your Tumbleweed Worm Farm is in a shady cool position. Take the lid off and hose the whole unit down, keeping the bottom drainage tap open to release excess water.
Moisture & Temperature:
If five or more drops are produced the material is too wet. The ideal temperature for worms is between 55 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
Worms are happiest when the temperature is between about 55 and 80 degrees F. (12-26 C.). Colder weather can kill worms off by freezing, but they are in just as much danger if unwatched in hotter weather.
Worms cannot survive at temperatures above 35°C / 95°F.
Earthworms will die in freezing temperatures, so they protect themselves by moving to lower depths in growing-beds or soils. They will live and breed at temperatures up to about 85 or 90 degrees F. For commercial earthworm production, ideal temperatures for growth and activity range from 60 to 80 degrees F.
Banana peels are an excellent worm food.
Worm activity slows down as the temperature drops. Below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the worms will be at risk of succumbing to the cold. They will burrow toward the warmest part of the bin: the bottom and center. Any organic scraps that you add will increase the temperature slightly.
Compost worms can adjust to a wide temperature range, however bed temperatures much over 30C worms become stressed and can die if the temperature remains high for sustained periods. Your worm farm has thermal mass making it slower than the surrounding air to heat up (but also slower to cool down).
Unfortunately, if the bin temperature gets too high, the composting worms will overheat, dry out and die. There are many things you can do to keep your worm population cool enough to survive. Placing the worm bin in the right location is the most important way to control the internal temperature.
Compost worms will live comfortably bedding temperatures (as opposed to air temperature) of around 16 – 27°C, give or take. Your worms will tolerate ranges of 4 – 32°C, however, they may become less productive at the temperature extremes.
Worms require a moist, dark environment in order to survive. Experiement #3 – Which surface will worms prefer? Collect the flashlights and give each group a dry paper towel. Instruct them to place their worms so that they are half on the wet surface and half on the dry surface.
City drinking water from your tap often contains chlorine, which can be harmful to your worms. Buy dechlorinated water, or dechlorinate tap water by boiling or letting it sit out for 24 hours to allow chlorine evaporation.
Worms like red wigglers need a damp, but not wet, environment to thrive. The ideal amount of water in a worm bin is just enough to produce 1-2 drops of water when you squeeze a handful of bedding. Think about your yard or a local park, if you dig down a few inches the ground is usually moist but not dripping wet.
No matter how careful you are with the food you eat and water you drink, you can still put your kid at risk of worms. Not many people know that tap water can also cause worms in kids. Deworming in kids is quite common.
Earthworms are safe and fun to touch, as this Discovery Garden visitor proves.
You can cool and feed the worms all at once by freezing scraps and water together. Place kitchen scraps in a plastic container, add water, and freeze solid. Bury it in the middle of the worm bin. As the ice melts, the scraps defrost, providing a meal for the worms.
Cooking at core temperature 60–75 °C for 15–30 min inactivates parasites in most matrices. Freezing at −21 °C for 1–7 days generally inactivates parasites in FoAO, but cannot be relied upon in home situations. Parasitic stages are sensitive to 2–5% NaCl, often augmented by lowering pH.
If you've fed your worms too much by placing an excess amount of food waste, the composting environment will heat up, and will rise to temperatures that are too hot for worms to handle. Try removing some of this excess food waste and add extra dry shredded paper to your system.
Worms need to be moist to be healthy and happy. Hot air has a tendency of drying things out. If your bedding gets too dry, it won't be the heat that kills your worms, it'll be the lack of moisture that does them in.
Earthworms like moist soil. They can survive in dry soils but they are not active. However if the drought is severe, they will die. In dry conditions, they can burrow deep into the soil to 1 metre, tie themselves in a knot, secrete a coating of mucous about themselves which dries and helps prevent water loss.
Because earthworms breathe through their skin, it must be kept moist in order to work. Dry skin stops the diffusion process, effectively preventing earthworms from getting oxygen. That is why worms are so commonly spotted above ground when it is rainy and at night, when air is wetter.
What do worms need? Worms can survive a wide variety of temperatures, but they thrive best at temperatures between 55 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit (13–25 degrees Celsius). They need a moist, organic substrate or “bedding” in which to live. They will eat the bedding and convert it into castings along with other feed.