| think again! In my experience these things are | | | | experimented with worms for composting and |
| scams. The people selling you this package do not | | | | while it does work it does not work fast enough |
| provide you with the correct information to grow | | | | to break down the large amounts of waste they |
| the worms. In fact it is extremely difficult to | | | | have to deal with. Most local authorities have |
| grow worms. Worms will not thrive unless the | | | | dismissed vermicomposting as a solution to large |
| conditions are exactly right. What is more likely to | | | | scale waste management. |
| happen is that the worms will crawl away the first | | | | These schemes are often targeted to farmers |
| night of heavy rain. Or they will come to the | | | | who are seeking to diversify from more |
| surface and die because the bedding is toxic for | | | | traditional farming. Many of the farmers who |
| them. Growing worms is an extremely specialised | | | | embark on these schemes do so without |
| occupation and people who know how to do it | | | | conducting adequate market research. They do |
| are not likely to give their secrets away. | | | | not for example realise that every tackle shop in |
| The market is not as wide as these scams would | | | | their area will already have a supplier of worms. |
| have you believe. The market for worms is | | | | Many people have had their fingers burnt with |
| generally restricted to anglers and anglers do 80% | | | | these schemes. So our advice to would be worm |
| of their fishing between June, July, August and | | | | growers is think long and hard before moving into |
| September. The point being that it is very | | | | this industry. Despite the sales pitch worms are |
| seasonal. I am not aware of any football pitch | | | | not easy to grow. If you do decide to go ahead |
| ever having used commercially grown worms to | | | | with such a scheme do not buy in large quantities |
| irrigate their soil. In fact, the worms used for soil | | | | until you are confident your investment will not |
| improvement (lobs) are a completely different | | | | crawl away. And check out your market and |
| species to those promoted in these schemes | | | | competition before parting with your hard earned |
| (dendrobaena's). Local authorities have | | | | cash! |