Pests in my farm

Posted by Vicki Hill on February 28, 2010 at 6:40am
Hi All, I discovered a mass of very tiny reddish coloured mites (?) in my farm today! They look like little round, smooth reddish beetles, so tiny, at first glance I thought they were some kind of egg until I noticed them moving. Any ideas what they could be and whether I need to do something to get rid of them? They seemed to be concentrated on the underside of the paper I have the worms covered with and the rim of the top tyre, as well as some bread in the farm.

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  • Megan April 30, 2010 at 1:21am
    hello Iona, centipedes are unwelcome guests in our worm farm, they'll eat our worms
    http://www.allthingsorganic.com/How_To/12.asp
    http://wormmanswormfarm.com/?p=239
    • Iona Bayley > Megan May 9, 2010 at 1:02pm
      In that case I'll have a dig through the bedding and see if there are any more tomorrow. The worm population seems to be thriving.....there are tons of them now so if I have lost any it can't be many.
    • Megan > Iona Bayley May 9, 2010 at 1:34pm
      my worm population is thriving too - have just moved some into the upper tray, the bottom one is already full after just a few months. Hope that they continue to thrive, we've already had a couple of mild frosts. Have put a generous layer of leaf mulch on the top tray as insulation. So looking forward to being able harvest the vermicast.
  • Iona Bayley April 15, 2010 at 5:01am
    I have just found a centipede in my worm farm.....are they harmful to my wormies?
  • Laine March 19, 2010 at 9:56am
    Do you lime your worm farm? I was told they don't do so well otherwise as it gets a bit acidic. Apparently this is when the pests most often get in. When I started liming mine once a week or so (just a sprinkle on the top) the worm numbers definitely hiked up and the pests down over the next few weeks...

    Smiles

    Laine
    • Vicki Hill > Laine March 19, 2010 at 10:16am
      Thanks Laine! I was liming regularly when I had a problem with fruit flies but when they disappeared I stopped when I finished the bag. I'll pop out and get some more tomorrow and give that a go. Cheers!
    • Megan > Vicki Hill April 29, 2010 at 11:30pm
      Hello Vicki, crushed eggshells are just as effective as using lime, ask your friends to keep their eggshells for you, dry them off in a low oven & crush to make storage easier.
  • One20 Farm March 16, 2010 at 1:21am
    Not sure if one of the blog sposts on pests wll help
    http://www.one20farm.blogspot.com/
    • Vicki Hill > One20 Farm March 16, 2010 at 3:06am
      Thanks for that - very interesting reading! I don't think my little bugs are mentioned in there - I've since found big black beetles running around amongst the 'red's' as well and tried to google them - it looks like they might be ground beetles. Reading up about them has me worried now though - apparently they eat worms! Any ideas?
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