Just like us, worms like to feel nice and comfortable in their homes. Maintaining the right vermicompost temperature in the middle of a hot summer or a freezing winter can be tricky.
If you don’t get it right you might open up your worm farm to find them very unhappy, or even worse, completely dead.
Vermicompost temperature is an incredibly important part of vermiculture, so here are a few tips to help you maintain a worm-friendly temperature.
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How to Keep Your Vermicompost Worms Cool In Summer
A hot summer’s day can really knock a worm community around. It can make them slow, sick, and unable to do any of the processing we want them to do.
Depending on where you live will dictate how extreme you need to be with keeping your worms cool in summer, but there are some basic principles that will apply no matter where you live.
Location
If you live in an area with hot summers, and a hot day is forecast, the easiest thing you can do to keep your worms from getting too hot is to move them to a cooler location.
Keeping containers out of direct sunlight is a great start. You could move them undercover or under a shady tree.
If you can’t move your worms, consider bringing some shade to them. A large beach umbrella or shade sail over them can take the edge off the sun and help keep them cool.
Go easy on them
If you know it’s going to be hot, ease off your demands for a few days.
Worms can get a bit tired during extreme heat and are less likely to want to eat all your scraps. Give them less food and let them burrow nice and deep into your container where it is the coolest.
Keeping food scraps out of the bin also helps to avoid excess heat being generated as they decompose.
Types of worms
If you know you get hot summers in your area, consider using a worm that is used to hot temperatures and comes from tropical regions.
If you use a cooler climate native worm, then obviously they’ll struggle in the hot.
Water them like your plants
Keep moisture levels up before and during hot days. As the moisture in the soil evaporates it cools the surrounding area and can help maintain a comfortable temperature.
In extreme cases, you can also use tricks like buried ice blocks, fans, or even moving your worms inside.
How to Keep Your Vermicompost Worms Warm In Winter
Just like hot days, cold days can cause serious damage to your worms, but there are things you can do to help, and some are basically the exact opposite of what you did in summer.
Location
Consider moving your worms to a place that will get warm winter sunlight to help warm the container. Keeping them in a spot sheltered from any cold winds is also a good way to prevent them from getting too cold.
If you can’t move them to a sunny area, you could move them into a garage or garden shed.
Wrap them up
It’s good practice to give some insulation to your worm farms during winter. Depending on how cold your winters get will determine how much you need to use.
Placing a few straw clumps around your container can help retain heat and block cold winds. Straw is great because it still allows good airflow in the bin.
You could use things like blankets, bits of carpet, or proper insulation if it gets really cold. But be mindful of suffocating your worms, and be ready to rip them off as soon as the temperature starts to rise again.
Add a little extra bedding and food
As organic matter decomposes it creates heat. By adding more food than the worms can eat straight away, you can sometimes get a temperature rise as the food begins to rot before they get to it. The same applies to bedding. Bedding also helps insulate the container by holding more moisture which absorbs heat.
Be careful with this approach though, as this can encourage unwanted organisms, vermin, and potential diseases.
Where Is the Best Place to Store a Vermicompost Bin?
Planning is really important when it comes to maintaining vermicompost temperature because worm bins can be heavy and moving them around all the time can be difficult.
The best place to store your worm bin is in a location that will be protected from extreme elements. This might be a shady corner of your yard that is protected from the hot sun or a sheltered corner that is protected from cold winter winds.
If you can find a sheltered location under a deciduous tree that is cool in summer but bathed in sun during the winter, then you’re set.
Realistically though, the best place to store your worm bin is in an area that is accessible and helps you keep the vermicompost temperature stable, whether that be during the hot or cold.
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