The Feeding Frenzy, Day 31

The worms have consumed my time, body, and soul over the past 15 days. When once I had hours to write, I currently spend mornings and evenings in the worm room. For that 8 to 12 hours a day with the worms, there is a cycle of what the worms need in tending in care. Of course, the worms must eat and eat they do well. With eating comes the reactive of the other end of the worm, and that must also be tended.

Cat, how have you escaped the mad feeding frenzy of the worms this morning? I will return to them soon, I was up at 4:30am for family medical needs, allowing this already long June day to be some of the longest of my life. I suspect I won’t sleep till tomorrow, it is the height of worm feeding frenzy.

At least a few dozen worms cocooned before a great storm blew through on Wednesday, day 29 of the worm feeding cycle. The cocoons are smaller, and hang lower in the feeding cages. The worms seem to have reacted to the pressure drop before the storm in some fashion. It was a whooper of a thunderstorm, tornados all around. The worms acted unusual all that day, hardly eating while waving their heads around in the air like they were looking for a branch to climb. None of the thousands of worms made the final cocoon slumbering climb on Wednesday. Something about that thunderstorm. But on day 30, Thursday, they made up for lost feeding time! Eat, and eat, and eat! Then today, they began the frenzy.

Before the exciting conversation of escaping worms adventuring for a cocooning home, I must cover the importance of clean living with worms. They can not live in their own excrement, the worm casings must be removed from the area! My worms live on wire floor, I simply unhook the tray from their cages and dump into my garden. The pepper plants especially love worm poop. Leaves and droppings build up on the floor of the cage, a dangerous area for growing mold at the feet of the worms. Gently, I scoop my hand under the heaps of worms into the humid, moldy leaf mass in their cage, shifting the fertilizer through into the dump tray. In this end phase, the worms poop so much that I find tray dumping to be a daily chore.

A word of worming to the keepers of moldy cages. Worms crawl towards the smell of the leaves, they love the smell of their food. Interestingly, I found that worms in a moldy cage flock towards the allure of the smell of the mold, and not towards their meal. It is an easy accident to miss a moldy spot in a cage, its not unsurprising to find the moldy area as a worm sauna. But those worms do not grow, they look as deathly as the mold. Best not to test fate, clean up after your worms. A broom and pan are key tools.

The feel of the worms on the day they begin to excrete silk in quantity, is to touch a wiggly, gooey candy in a hot car, but so very soft and not sticky. Like petting gooey velvet.

I’ll have worms at a demo, “pet them, pet them!” I’ll beg the children. Many little friends all squeal in delightful worm petting zoo style entertainment, the adults will take part in the worm pets with much commotion about the unexpected texture of the worms. Always be a yes girl, pet the worms. The few hours before the worm begins the cocooning process, those worms are the softest things I have ever touched in my whole life.

The worms are cocooning, now. They had breakfast, a light meal to tide them over in the afterlife. Maybe, I will go to bed after the sunsets. Happy Summer Solstice to me. I expected the worms to eat for several more days, they hit peak capacity far earlier. The weather and the leaves were rich this spring, I was blessed by the season. The worms grew fast and strong this year.

Some worms climb endlessly till they seem lost, that is the place they make a cocoon. Many worms find leaves between branches, wrapping the leaf around the outer framing of their cocoon like a sort of camouflage. Clusters of worms form at the end of branches, then they all cocoon end to end. I’ve used these cocoons in reeling just like any other cocoon, they unravel all the same. Some worms weave cocoons in the spaces of the wires, others on the floor of the cages. To each their own in preference for their eternal slumber, who am I to be the boss of worms.

Soon after the worm finalize their cocoon, the cocoons will feel firm to the touch. I spend a day on the porch picking all the cocoons out of the cages and leaf matter, then the exciting moment of counting the cocoons. I am still several days out from the cocoons final weavings.