A worm blanket sits on-top-of the soil, kitchen scraps, and worm chow. This allows the earthworms the ease of moving upward to collect their food just as they would in nature while also protecting their tiny bodies from dehydration, light, and dryness.
Earthworm Blanket
Earthworm blankets are not for tucking-in the little guys at bedtime, but for round-the-clock protection from light, moisture level fluctuations, and air flow.
Earthworm Blankets from Dockery Lane Gardens are specifically designed to encourage an ideal earthworm environment that is temperature moderated, air flow controlled, dark, and moist. An ideal earthworm habitat provides for efficient earthworm farming which rewards you with more compost, castings, and earthworms.
DLG Earthworm Blankets are made from 100% natural fibers which allows for both air movement and moisture retention. Each size fits a bin of that same size or smaller – trim to fit if desired.
Features:
- All natural fibers which are fully biodegradable and breathable. These are first class fiber products and minimally processed by the textile industry. No offensive chemical or industrial odor. These are not recycled or reprocessed fibers. Jute burlap is a woven fabric made from the outer skin of the jute plant whereas muslin is made from the cotton plant.
- Jute burlap and muslin both wick water which means that capillary action moves water from an area of high concentration to a lower level area. This keeps the moisture even throughout the bin.
- DLG worm blankets have a 3-layer thickness. This is to allow for more wicking, increased UV light prevention, and better temperature regulation. The burlap is inside the outer layers of muslin.
- Each worm blanket can be trimmed to any shape or size. The three layers are sewn together (using cotton thread) with a wide margin. This allows the blanket to be trimmed for a custom fit. Alternatively, an oversized blanket can be wrinkled and fluffed over the bin’s contents. An oversized blanket provides a longer lasting food source.
- Lasts a minimum of 3-6 months. The timing of replacing a worm blanket depends on how preferential your earthworms are to natural fibers and ongoing moisture levels. Some worm farmers prefer to add a new worm blanket to the older one on a regular schedule while others wait until the older blanket deteriorates and reveals too much soil. Either way, just add a new blanket to the top of the older blanket – no need to toss it out!
Sizes:
34"x21" fits most 27-35 gallon tubs
25"x18" fits most 28-32 quart long tubs and most 52-58 quart tubs
18"X13 " fits most 12-20 quart tubs and smaller
DLG Earthworm Blanket:
- Protects earthworms from UV light. The sensitive bodies of the thin-skinned earthworms are susceptible to the damaging rays of UV light. Additionally, by keeping the earthworms protected from the bright light, they will also be encouraged to move around and be more active.
- Regulates moisture by retaining water to slowly release into the bin. This keeps moisture available for the bin’s micro-environment without making the bin too soggy for worm happiness.
- Provides a physical barrier. This barrier makes it harder for fruit flies and other insects to access table scraps and soil. This, in turn, discourages the insects from inhabiting the bin and laying eggs.
- Absorbs and retains excess moisture if over-watering occurs. If you are a generous worm farmer and overly charitable with the water, the worm blanket tempers your benevolence by keeping the soil from becoming a mud puddle. Too much water will make for a soggy micro-environment, drowning your worms, and encouraging the prolific growth of both mold and fungi.
- No need to bury food in the soil. Just pop scraps and worm chow under the blanket! Instead of digging a hole then adding kitchen scraps, all you need to do is lift a corner and drop the scraps on-top-of the soil. This prevents the need of disrupting the earthworms in the soil. And, no need to get your hands dirty!
- No additional dyes or chemicals added. These fabrics are a bland, beige color. This is their natural coloring from the jute and cotton plants. No additional dyes or markings were added to make them pretty.
Ingredients:
Even though this is a textile product to us, to an earthworm, it is a food source. Therefore, a list of ingredients should be considered:
100% Burlap Jute fabric. No dye added. Processed with vegetable oil rather than petroleum based mineral oil. (The hydrocarbons off-gas that offensive kerosene odor.)
100: cotton muslin fabric - unbleached. fashion quality fabric with a tight weave.
100% cotton thread
100% nontoxic ink
Installation:
Step 1 – optional – if desired, dry fit the blanket into your bin or bag then trim the edges with scissors to fit.
Step 2 – soak in water completely. Then wring out completely or air dry until saturated but not soggy and drippy.
Step 3 – lay blanket on-top-of bin components.
Maintenance:
Mist the worm blanket each time you feed your earthworms. Misting is ideally done with each feeding.
Additional Features:
- Never run out of earthworm food! The blanket provides an ongoing source of food for your worm farm. No worries about leaving enough food when you go on vacation.
- The earthworms may use the blanket to lay their cocoons. The constant moisture and natural fibers make an ideal nursery for your growing worm farm!
- Having a blanket in your bin will discourage migration and especially discourage the block parties that occur around the bin’s lid. The blanket keeps the earthworms near the food so they can stay focused on consuming food, pooping out castings, and laying cocoons.
- By protecting for light, temperature, and air flow, the micro-environment becomes ideal for earthworms to proliferate.
- Made in the USA using materials sourced from both USA and other nations.
Pro Tips:
- Use non-chlorinated water when soaking the worm blanket or misting the worms. If you have city water, opt for a water filtration system or purchase distilled water. Alternatively, use a bucket to capture rainwater while awaiting the USPS arrival of your worm blanket.
- Be sure to thoroughly and completely soak the blanket by allowing the fibers time to wick as much water as possible.
- Buy a water sprayer! Don’t dump water in your bins! If you have super-human hand strength, go for the cheap hand-held bottle sprayers. For the rest of us, don’t induce carpal tunnel! Buy a hand-held pump sprayer.! The smaller pump sprayers are measured in ounces and have the sprayer attached to the canister. The larger sprayers are measured in gallons and have a nozzle wand attached by a hose. Either will prevent the onset of crippled hands. Personally, DLG uses a 50-ounce pump sprayer.
- As you may have previously experienced, earthworms migrate inside their bin or box. This is especially true during changes in humidity and air pressure. Once you have installed an earthworm blanket, don’t be alarmed if the most adventurous of your earthworms find their way to the top of the blanket. Just lightly shake them back into the rich soil.
Our Story:
When starting our warm farm, we researched the DIY methods of cardboard, brown paper bags, newspaper, and old t-shirts. We’re DIYers at heart and tried to repurpose materials rather than purchase. Here’s our results:
- Cardboard – absorbed too much water which resulted in mold. Too heavy on top of the soil and less worm activity. The soil was noticeably compacted.
- Brown paper bags – water rolled off the bag and onto the soil making the soil too wet and a decrease in the worm population.
- Newspaper – also, very hard to absorb water. Dried out too fast. When moving wet newspaper, it falls apart into a goopy mess. It was very heavy and compacted the soil.
- Old t-shirts – very little water retention. The bin was drying out too fast. And, there was not enough protection from light.
Since the DIY thing didn’t work so well, it was off to the commercial offerings. When searching online to buy a blanket for our earthworm bin, I noticed the fiber choices were burlap, coir, or recycled textiles. The prices were similar, but the coir had the shortest life expectancy of the 3 materials. The additional chemicals used in recycling fibers and remaking them into a material for earthworm blankets was not an acceptable risk to us. We strive to reduce as many synthetic chemicals from our home and gardens and do not knowingly bring in highly processed products.
With burlap blankets in hand, we soaked the blankets then snuggled them into the bins. During the stormy week that followed, I was disheartened to find many smaller worms trapped in the dense, prickly fibers of the burlap. They couldn’t get free and, sadly, dried out and died.
This was completely unacceptable, so I went to my sewing shelf of fabrics and considered my options from natural fibers – burlap, muslin, various cottons, and linen. Unbleached muslin is the least processed of all the cotton fibers, has no dyes or coloring added, has a much smaller weave than burlap, and has smooth fibers. Plus, it is way less expensive than other cottons and linens.
Thus, a new design was created – encase the burlap inside muslin so the benefit of burlap is available without the danger to the earthworms. Over time, the muslin disintegrates and opens up to reveal the burlap. By this time, through continual misting, the burlap fibers have softened and no longer pose a danger to the earthworms.
Success!
Earthworms crawl all over the muslin with ease, then, as the muslin deteriorates, the burlap fibers are moist, smoother, and more relaxed which allows the earthworms to move through the burlap with ease. No other earthworm casualties have been found! Even though we have thousands, every earthworm is valued and we strive to give the very best care possible to our earthworm farm.
DLG Earthworm Blankets in Action
Brand new DLG Earthworm Blanket
This is the dry-fit stage. Next comes a 24 hour soak in water collected in the last rain event.
This bin of red wigglers chewed a DLG Earthworm Blanket over the past 6 months.
The muslin fabric was pushed aside over the past 3 months as this is a very active bin.
copyright 2024 Dockery Lane Gardens, LLC
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.