When Neglect Is Good

I love to harass my worm bins. I figure they are mine to harass, so I do. I like to see how they are doing, how the food is decomposting, and to generally be the busy-body nosy pest as they have come to know me to be. It's my way to learn and to be a better worm farmer. I am sure they don't mind, at least there has been no verbal protest as of yet.

I also like to scan the Internet and see what others are finding. I found a great web page on daily maintenance. It was published by the Trinity Ranch Worm Farm owner. (Article).

Within the article I found a cool list of 5 things that worms need to thrive:
Air, Water, Decaying organic matter (OM), Time and the big one, Neglect.

I have found that the bins that I leave alone, do just as well as my favorite ones I like to harass, if not better. I've noticed that when the outside air temperature was hovering in the single digits this winter and I knew the heaters were on by the signal light I could see form the back window, and I decided to not venture outside for a couple of days- the worms were just fine with it.

I've noticed when I don't bother my inside bins for a couple of days- they don't mind either. Apparently as long as I give them enough munchies, they don't miss me at all.

Lesson learned- Don't sweat it! Take some time off. Leave town for the weekend. Stay inside and keep warm. As long as they have what they need (which is not generally you)- they'll be fine. Neglect is more than OK with them- it's preferred!