Every child goes through a worm-loving phase. When the time is right and the worms are out, take advantage of this curiosity and work together to make this simple and education science craft.
A wormery is simply a fancy name for a worm house, something similar to an ant farm, where children can watch ants make tunnels. Worms are also tunnel makers, and by layering dirt and sand in an old 2-liter soda bottle, you can watch the worms at work.
Worms don’t really “dig” through the soil. They have no arms or other ways of moving the dirt. Instead, they slip through tiny cracks or spaces. If the soil is compact, worms actually eat their way through the soil, creating castings which are their waste products. It has been estimated that earthworms in one acre can add over 100,000 pounds of castings, a perfect fertilizer, to the soil every year.
Items Needed To Make Your Own Wormery
- 1 2-liter pop bottle, cleaned
- 1 16.9 oz. water bottle, cleaned
- Duct tape
- Soil
- Sand
- Leaf compost
- Black construction paper and crayons
- Dry baby cereal or breadcrumbs
How to Construct Your Wormery
- Have an adult cut the top few inches off of the 2-liter pop bottle so that the entire neck is removed.
- Cover the newly cut edge with duct tape to prevent cuts, and toss out the neck of the bottle.
- Fill the water bottle with room temperature water, replace lid, and place in the center of the 2-liter bottle.
- Fill the large bottle with layers of sand and soil around the water bottle. Start with a layer of sand around 1 ½ inches deep. Follow with a layer of dirt of the same depth. Repeat until the bottle is nearly filled, making sure that your layers are clearly visible.
- Top off your wormery with a layer of damp leaf compost.
- Add a small amount of water, depending on the moisture content of your soil. You are aiming to have material that is damp, but not wet.
- Go worm hunting and add 3-4 earthworms.
- Cut enough black paper to fit loosely around the bottle so that it can easily be lifted off. Remember that worms prefer darkness. Decorate the paper with light colored crayons and place it around your wormery.
Maintaining Your Wormery
Worms can live in this environment for quite awhile if well cared for. If you plan to keep your worms for more than a day or two, add a sprinkle of baby cereal or breadcrumbs to your wormery. Make sure to keep it out of the direct sun.
The water bottle in the wormery serves a few purposes. For one, the addition of the water helps keep the soil at a pleasant temperature for the worms. Secondly, it forces the worms to make their tunnels towards the outside of the wormery for better viewing. Finally, if you would like, you can uncap the water bottle and add a few fresh flowers, making your wormery quite the conversational centerpiece.
Document the action of the worms by checking on the wormery every so often, keeping in mind that it might take a day or two to see any real tunnels. Worms are mostly active at night, so checking the wormery in the morning can be exciting.
Release your worms when you are ready, preferably near to where you found them or else in a garden. The gardener will be very thankful.
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