Worm is a great bait but it can quickly become expensive if you use it regularly and have to buy it from the tackle shop. For this very reason I have built my own wormery which will provide me with all the worms I will ever need, will save me a few quid each time I go fishing and allows me to compost some of the waste that our household creates. If your looking for step by step directions on how to build your own wormery and how to maintain it so you have a steady supply of worms then read on.
Step 1: Choose an enclosure
After a great deal of research it transpires that it’s all to do with having a large surface area, not depth. With this in mind I have chosen a plastic stacking box which is approximately ?? x ??. You could build a box out of untreated ply but I didn’t have any wood laying around that was suitable and couldn’t be bothered, besides the box only cost £4 from QD.
Plastic stacking box to be used as a wormery
Step 2: Prepare the drainage layer
Drill holes in the bottom of the box approximately the width of a pencil (be careful not to push to hard or you risk cracking the plastic), this will allow any liquid to drain. Line the bottom of the box with damp newspaper or if like me you have some weed suppressant material laying around cut a piece of this to size. I then poured in a mixture of sand and grit (often used in laying patios etc) which I had laying around. This is to aid drainage and also acts as a deterant to the worms burrowing down to the bottom as they don’t like the course texture of the sand/grit mixture.
Showing weed surpresent
Sand and grit layer
Step 3: Prepare the worm bedding layer
Next I poured in a layer of well rotted compost from our garden compost heap, followed by a layer of newspaper shredding that had been soaked over night. As I had the remains of a bag of sawdust I poured this in too. The aim here is to provide the worms with a variety of bedding material.
Compost bedding layer for the worms
shredded newspaper bedding
Step 4: Add the worms and food layer
Next I added a few pots of dendrebena worms that I bought from the local tackle shop, these quickly burrowed down in to the bedding material. Then I added a layer of kitchen waste, this included vegetable peelings, a couple of egg shells that had been crushed up and a number of tea bags that had been ripped open. You need to be careful not to overfeed the worms as this can kill them and as I had only added a couple of hundred worms I have only covered approximately half of the box. A quick spray with an atomiser spray to keep the wormery damp and then a few sheets of damp newspaper on top, after that the lid is placed back on (make sure you have drilled air holes in the lid).
kitchen scraps
Step 5: Choose a suitable location for the wormery
Choose where you are going to situate the wormery, somewhere out of direct sunlight would be best and ensure you place it on bricks (one in each corner should be surfice) to help with drainage, you could even place a tray/container underneath and use the liquid as fertiliser on your plant. I keep mine in an old outbuilding.
Step 6: Maintaining the wormery
- Make sure you keep the wormery damp but not too wet, I use an atomiser spray for this
- Make sure you don’t over feed the wormery and avoid things that are acidic, such as orange peel. I also avoid onion and leak, mainly because it stinks.
- After a few weeks you should start to notice that the worms have multiplied in numbers, to harvest a bait tub full for fishing, just pull back the top layer of rotting food and you should find the worms there. Ensure that you leave enough worms to keep breeding.
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