Vermiculture in Egypt: - FAO - Regional Office for the Near East and

2.3.4. Moisture
Photo 2.9.
The locally manufactured shredding
machine.
Source: Author
The rule of thump is to check manually for moisture on a daily basis to ensure that is
not too dry, and when watering it is important not to make it too wet. Only fresh water
was used. The breeding boxes were rearranged to make the first on the top to become
the first from the bottom in order to avoid moisture variations between the boxes.
The instructions were:
- Water little and often – only the newspaper on the surface should be wet.
- Water after checking the bed surface – if already damp, skip one watering.
- Water should be used to supplement existing humidity and replace evaporation.
- Use a spray or mist, not jets of water.
2.3.5. Aeration
The aeration was maintained as the bottom of beds or boxes has sufficient bedding
material, and the surface is only shredded newspaper. The aeration could be a
problem mainly if watering is not done properly leading to too wet conditions.
Only the newspaper on the surface should be wet, and as mentioned earlier, water
should be used to supplement existing humidity and replace evaporation. Beds
must be mixed if:
- The bed smells bad.
- The bed is too wet.
- The bed is hot or lukewarm to touch.
- The worms are not distributed evenly on the surface.
- The section of bed turned only when there is no food on the surface of
the bed, and to a depth of 10-15cm only.
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