How to Raise the Temperature of Red Worms
As cold-blooded invertebrates, red worms stay at exactly the same temperature as their surrounding environment--in this case, the bedding in your worm bin. If your bedding falls below 55 degrees F, your worms--more commonly called "red wigglers," or Eisenia fetida--will begin to slow down and stop eating your kitchen scraps. You can pursue several tactics--everything from the simple to the complex.
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Things You'll Need
- High-nitrogen compost
- Night light
- Coffee can
- Soil heating cables
- Leaves
- Hay bales
- Fiberglass batting
- R-18 Styrofoam rigid insulation
Instructions
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Add compost materials that will naturally increase the heat level of your bedding. Many horticulturalists refer to these high-nitrogen components, such as food scraps, green leaves, grass clippings and aged manure, as "green" or "hot" compost components. Your worms will likely find a safe band a few inches away from the hot compost where the temperature is to their liking and will live in this band.
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Place a night light in a coffee can in the middle of your worm bin, running the power cord under the lid to avoid touching moist materials.
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3
Purchase an electric soil heating cable and run it about 4 inches below the surface of the bedding. Most turn on automatically when the temperature dips below 74 degrees.
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Insulate your worm bin, if it is kept outdoors, by either covering it in 2 feet of leaves, surrounding it with hay bales, or adding fiberglass batting or R-18 Styrofoam insulation to the sides and lid.
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5
Load the bin on a pallet and skid it to a garage or greenhouse with an interior temperature ideally in the 60s or low 70s.
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6
Construct a largely below-ground worm bin out of cinder blocks (see link in Resources).
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Tips & Warnings
Use a thermometer to check bedding temperatures in the winter, advise the authors of "The Worm Bin." Special compost thermometers feature stems 12 to 24 inches long (see links in Resources).
Fine-tune your temperature as you attempt various strategies to see if you can attain the optimum 72 to 74 degrees F for compost worms.
Hobbyists often use their own ingenuity to raise the temperature of red worms (see links in Resources).
Electric soil heating cables are not designed for exterior applications.
