This ingeniously simple idea to get compost worms out of a worm farm is the brainwave of an 8 year old boy.
The inspiration…
My son, Hugh, was inspired to find a simpler and better way to extract worms from a worm farm. He was selling worm tower kits at the local market and was getting tired of the long process of separating the worms from the castings. He knew there had to be a better way …
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| Hugh’s method of collecting worms had us harvesting an abundance of worms so rapidly. |
The typical method – too slow for Hugh
We had taught Hugh the typical method of separating worms, but he found it was fiddly and took too long. The standard method is up-ending a worm farm on a table or other smooth surface and mounding it up like a volcano. The worms move away from the heat and light towards the centre. Bit by bit you gently scrape away the castings, wait, scrape some more etc… and you are eventually left with a bundle of worms in the middle.
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| The typical method of separating castings from worms. Mound it up, scrape it off …. repeat a few times… |
This method is still good for collecting the castings for your garden since you are rescuing most of the worms to put back into the farm. If however you are particularly wanting to extract bundles of worms for whatever reason – to feed to chickens, for fishing bait, for a micro-enterprise as Hugh was doing – I’ve not come across a simpler way.
Hugh’s ingenious idea…
You’re not going to believe how remarkably simple this method is, and just how effective it is. I love that Hugh brought his creative thinking to a challenge he was facing and found a solution. This method he has developed is a standout – it revolutionises the process, making it so easy and convenient. Essentially, he decided it would be much easier to entice the worms to come to him. Check it out how he does this in our short 3 minute youtube clip (link above).
Please share….
Please share our little video and spread Hugh’s positive idea. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/moraggambleourpermaculturelife to get notice of each new movie I make. You can also subscribe to this blog so you get notice of each article and film.
Great idea Hugh! I need to get some funnels and have a go myself!
Great idea! we decided last week to rehouse our worms as a large number of beetles had moved in. spent a long time sifting and sorting. will definitely try thi
Oh, Hugh!! What a brilliantly simple idea. Just love it, thanks so much
Have a wonderful weekend
Fi
Brilliant idea Hugh!
you could use old drink bottles also recycle the top half for funnels and the bottom half for raising seedlings
Simple and effective, thanks for sharing your idea with us Hugh. Great thinking.
I love your idea and will try it myself. Also, Adam- good tip for using old plastic bottles.
Brilliant!
Great idea Hugh! Now I'm wondering if a variation of this might work when I want to harvest the castings rather than the worms. I wonder if an upended funnel on a flat surface followed by the castings would give them a nice, safe hiding place and move them out of the castings faster. Hmmm. Off to experiment with that idea. Might need to cut the end off the funnel.
Brilliant idea Hugh. That is so clever. I'ts so true the saying that we can learn something new every day. Keep up the good work Hugh, we need more people like you.
Blessings Gail.
That is so clever! Heading out to try this now 🙂