Burn worms: Symptoms, Pain, Redness & Swelling
BRISTLE WORMS | Serpulidae | Bearded Fireworms Stinging Facts
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Bristle Worms
Bristle worms (Serpulidae) are typical free-living segmented Polychaetes which are usually seen living in rocks or in the substrate of the sea floor.
They are seldom seen in daylight (nocturnal) unless they are disturbed.
Their elongated bodies range from a few centimeters in length up to 30 cm long.
Each segment of the bristle worm’s body contains twin appendages and covered with bristles or tufts called setae.
Large bristle worms tend to be brown or dark gray in color whereas the smaller species are usually bright pink with white flecks.
Bristle worms are meat scavengers feeding on almost anything that dies near its habitat. Their preferred diet is dead fish, often bigger than they are, and clams.
BEARDED FIREWORMS (Hermodice carunculata)
The Bearded Fireworm or Hermodice carunculata is the fascinating creature resembling a pinky-brown furry caterpillar in the picture.
Bearded fireworms are found cleverly camouflaged in coral systems chiefly in the Caribbean and the tropically warmer regions of the Atlantic Ocean.
They are brightly colored to match their reddish and brown coralline surroundings.
For the most part they thrive best in shallow waters but they have been seen in depths deeper than 40 meters.
Bearded fire worms grow to four inches on average with the largest species measuring around six inches.
Your biggest concern should be not touching the fuzzy bearded fire worm’s bristles. The white bristles contain formidable venom which burns human skin and are as sharp and brittle as porcupine quills, although much smaller.
The worm puffs out its bristles to deter danger. Although they are infrequently considered to be aggressive towards scuba divers, the best advice is not to touch them, particularly with your bare hands.
Surprisingly, some are capable of piercing human skin but you should find pierced or stuck bristles relatively easy to remove and peel away from your skin using strong sticky tape.
Larger worms have the largest bristles and in fact they also have jaws with which they can bite.
The worms are nocturnal and usually hide asleep under rock crevices and rubble deposits in the daytime. Nevertheless, beady-eyed divers may see a furry bearded fireworm siphoning small animals from rocky coral turning the tip to white color as it dies.
BEARDED FIREWORM BURNING STINGS
You should not be surprised to learn that the bearded fireworm is so-called because of the burning venom from its stinging hairs. If it stings you the area feels like it is on fire and usually lasts for a few hours.
The hollow spiny hairs snap off really easily and become stuck to your skin. They release a neurotoxin which creates the sting and flaming sensation. Other stung symptoms are rare but include skin irritation, dizziness, inflammation, numbness, swelling, and redness around the affected area.
First aid for stings from bearded fireworms means first removing the spines from the injured area.
The hairs are minutely small and almost transparent.
If your diving first aid kit has tweezers you may be able to remove them individually but if not you could use sticky tape to strip them from the skin – similar to skin waxing.
Vinegar, hydro-cortisone cream, or rubbing alcohol may help to reduce the burning sensation. Use a topical antibiotic if you suspect infection and ibuprofen should reduce the pain. If you wound deteriorates you should consult a medical expert in marine life injuries.
Facts |> Marine Worm Reproduction |> Cristmas Tree Worm Feeding |> S. giganteus Video |> Terminologies |
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Burnscar | Worm Wiki | Fandom
in:
Characters, Females, Shakers,
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| “ | Burnscar was more sensitive, in many respects. She had to be managed, provoked or set up to use her power so she remained in a more dangerous mindset. Too much one way, and she became depressed and scared, vulnerable. Too much the other way, and she became reckless, potentially attacking him or one of the others and sparking disaster. | ” |
—Jack Slash, Interlude 12 | ||
Burnscar
Illustration by LinaLeeZ on DeviantArt
Civilian Name
Mimi
Gender
Female
Age
Twenty-ish[1][2]
Classification
Shaker[3]
Mover (Speculative)
Alignment
Villain
Status
Deceased
Teams
Slaughterhouse Nine
Base of Operations
Itinerant
Parahuman Asylum (Formerly)
Worm Debut
Parasite 10.6 (Mentioned)
Interlude 11c
Ward Debut
Last 20.e4 (Mentioned)
Mimi, publicly known as Burnscar, is a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine.
Contents
- 1 Personality
- 1.1 Relationships
- 1.1.1 Elle
- 1.1.2 Shatterbird
- 1.1 Relationships
- 2 Appearance
- 3 Abilities and Powers
- 4 History
- 4.1 Background
- 4.2 Post-Leviathan
- 4.3 Post-Timeskip
- 5 Chapter Appearances
- 6 Fanart Gallery
- 7 References
- 8 Site Navigation
Personality[]
Burnscar’s mental state was influenced by her power; if she didn’t use it, she would become depressed, but the more she used it the more reckless she became.[4] She felt guilty about the things she had done when she wasn’t using her power and would use her power to escape that feeling.[5]
Her test for prospective members of the Nine was to force them to face their greatest fear, although that wasn’t always possible.[6]
Mimi liked reading graphic novels.[7]
During her time with the Nine, she did a lot of drugs; however, she always went off on her own to do it.
[8]
Relationships[]
Elle[]
One of Burnscar’s treasured memories was talking with Labyrinth at the Parahuman Asylum during their “good days.” She saw Elle as a friend. Burnscar didn’t seem to notice when Elle was being sarcastic.[5]
Burnscar wanted to come to the Bay in order to meet her former friend Labyrinth, but didn’t want her to actually join the Slaughterhouse Nine, as she was fond of Labyrinth. Her feelings were not reciprocated by Elle.
Shatterbird[]
Sat close together when they had time to themselves. They got along well.[9]
Appearance[]
Mimi is described as twenty-ish, with badly cut dark brown hair,[1] green eyes, and cigarette burns from the bottom of each eye to her jaw. Her skin was pale.[10][5]
Taylor described her voice as being “like an actor reading the lines from a script without actually emoting them.”[10]
On one occasion, she wore a red t-shirt and black jeans.
[10] On another, she wore a red dress and went barefoot.[5]
Abilities and Powers[]
Mimi is a pyrokinetic who can teleport herself freely through flames. She becomes increasingly psychopathic the more fire is nearby. She is also completely fireproof.[5]
Mimi’s pyrokinesis is extremely versatile. She created concussive fire blasts capable of knocking over the Undersiders and Bitch’s dogs,[11] shot twin flamethrower-like streams of fire from her hands,[5] and could send fire “snaking” across water.[11] She could put out her fires at will,[7] create walls of fire,[7] and leave burning footprints that widened into a trail of fire.[5] She could also throw fireballs[4] that could punch holes through walls[5] by summoning fire to her palms and hurling it. Out of battle, she shaped her fire into foot-high images of characters from her comic books[7] and from her memories while reading.
[4]
Using her power adjusts the chemical balances and connections in her brain to reduce her empathy, impulse control, and emotion, so she “can’t help” using her power if there’s fire nearby. This creates a cycle where Mimi is increasingly unlikely to stop using her power the more she uses it.[5]
Mimi’s eyes glowed[1] and would occasionally flash orange when her power was active.[5]
Bonesaw also modified members of the Nine with various “safeguards”; sheathing their vital organs and major arteries in a protective sub-dermal mesh, further wire reinforcement was put into the skeleton to avoid broken bones,[12] with special attention was paid to the organs and spine to keep them functioning.[13] She also rendered her teammates resistant to her pathogens,[13] and granting them artificial neurons which allowed them to make plans Cherish could not see, it is unknown if this could be adapted for other Master powers.
[14]
History[]
Background[]
Mimi was a patient at the same asylum as Labyrinth. She looked back on their conversations as treasured moments and saw her as a friend, although in reality the guards used Elle as an enticement to make Mimi cooperate. When Labyrinth was freed by Faultline’s Crew[15], Mimi escaped as well, spending some time on the streets.[5]
When she used her power to scare off a pimp who was harassing her, she lost control of her emotions, killing him and trapping herself in a feedback loop. Shortly thereafter, the Slaughterhouse Nine found her during one of her psychotic episodes. With her conscience and empathy being suppressed, she found them good company, by the time Mimi cleared her head however she had a kill order.[5]
Post-Leviathan[]
Burnscar visited Brockton Bay as a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine. She didn’t nominate anyone to join.[4] However, she was excited to come,[16] hoping to meet Labyrinth there.
[5]
She rescued Mannequin when he was losing against the Undersiders and had him forfeit his turn, ending his testing phase and beginning hers.[17][11]
When Grue second triggered, Burnscar’s head was crushed by Grue’s manifestation of Siberian’s power, killing her instantly.[18]
Post-Timeskip[]
Burnscar was cloned as part of the The Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand, although the clones were never shown in combat.[19]
Chapter Appearances[]
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Parasite 10.6
Interlude 11g
3
Prey 14.11
Monarch 16.1
Interlude 18.x
Scourge 19.7
Cell 22.5
Cockroaches 28.3Fanart Gallery[]
Illustration by CPericardium
Illustration by LinaLeeZ
Image by Jellytier on tumblr.
References[]
- ↑ 1.01.11.2 “Burnscar.” Younger, maybe an older teenager or a young-looking twenty-something. She looked almost normal, with her dark hair badly cut, but then I saw the vertical row of cigarette burns marking each of her cheeks, and a faint glow to her eyes. – Excerpt from Parasite 10.6
- ↑ stolas: On labyrinth in interlude 5. probably the most definitive you’ll get – she’s young, maybe prepubescent, but that’s still a wide range of age, anywhere from like 9-15
Wildbow: She’s twenty-ish, yeah.
stolas: oh, of worm or ward?
do you mind if i cite your message for the Word of God repository on space battles?Wildbow: Should be ok. My concern with citing Worm WoG at this point is I’ve mostly offloaded it from my mental RAM, so I’m less on the ball with some things- so am just going to say I’m not 1000% sure.
But IIRC my intent was for her to be a middle-to-older teen or twenty something. I’m reasonably sure she’s twenty-ish because Burnscar saw her as a peer & potential friend. – Conversation with Wildbow on Discord, archived on Spacebattles
- ↑ Shaker.
All capes ‘break’ physics to some extent. Breakers break the rules as the rules pertain to them (and maybe their immediate surroundings/possessions).
Grue, Labyrinth, Shatterbird, Lady Photon/Laserdream/Shaker, Fog, Stormtiger, Cricket, Rune, Burnscar, Narwhal and Skidmark are shakers. You might be able to divine the common theme, there. – Comment by Wildbow on Queen 18.
5 - ↑ 4.04.14.24.3 Burnscar was more sensitive, in many respects. She had to be managed, provoked or set up to use her power so she remained in a more dangerous mindset. Too much one way, and she became depressed and scared, vulnerable. Too much the other way, and she became reckless, potentially attacking him or one of the others and sparking disaster. – Excerpt from Interlude 12.x
- ↑ 5.005.015.025.035.045.055.065.075.085.095.105.115.12Interlude 11c
- ↑ “Don’t really care. Bitch, the test is an old one, but it’s good. We don’t get to do it often enough, because it requires research. Got to do it with Cherish because she gave us the necessary info. Wasn’t very bright, but she did. Now that she’s on the team, she can give us all the info we need.”
“You talk too much,” Bitch snarled.
“Get to the point or go the fuck away.”“You’re going to have to face your greatest fear. Destroy any hold it has on you with violence, blood and death. I don’t want you to just conquer your fears. I want you to murder them, before anyone else can use your feelings for them against you.” She put a special inflection on the word ‘murder’, making it clear she was being quite literal.” – Excerpt from Snare 13.4
- ↑ 7.07.17.27.3Interlude 13.5 (Donation Bonus)
- ↑ He hadn’t engaged with her for the entire drive, and he was still tense. It was a bit disappointing. She wondered if she’d gotten her hopes up from watching movies with the wise old stoners and talkative stoners. She wasn’t sure she’d ever spent time around anyone who did a lot of drugs. Burnscar had, but she’d always gone on walks or went off on her own to do it. – Last 20.e4
- ↑ Ridtom:
She and Damsel of Distress would be best friends if they didn’t kill each other.Wildbow:
Shatterbird touts herself as an intellectual, but she’s closest with fellows who walk the path of ruin and madness.Yes, I very much agree. She would get along with Damsel in much the way she got along with Burnscar. – Comment by Wildbow on Spacebattles
- ↑ 10.010.110.2 Burnscar stood with Mannequin just behind her, sporting a red shirt and black jeans, cigarette burns running down her cheeks, and a dead look in her eyes.
[…]
Burnscar’s voice was flat, without humor, like an actor reading the lines from a script without actually emoting them. “I am following the rules, now. Let’s see. Trying to remember how this is supposed to go. Test you, you pass or fail, and then I kill you.” – Excerpt from Snare 13.4
- ↑ 11.011.111.2Snare 13.3
- ↑ “You’re not really in a position to be making demands,” Trickster said. “You’re bleeding to death, and we do have the ability to hurry the process along. ”
Cherish shrugged. “Bonesaw gave me the works. Mesh sheaths for every major artery and organ, wire reinforcement for my skeleton. It’s not going to kill me anytime soon.”
I made a mental note of that. Chances were good that Jack, Bonesaw and the other more vulnerable members of the Nine had some similar protection. How differently would things have played out if Ballistic had used his power and blown them up?
“I could,” Trickster threatened. “Or we could wait and see which happens first: Either you agree to share the information we want or you slowly bleed out.”
“A game of chicken? I’m down.” Cherish prodded her injury with a fingertip. It was clear it hurt, but she still stuck a finger into the hole and investigated some. “The auto-injection pump is dosing me with painkillers and antibiotics now. First time feeling this stuff work.” – Excerpt from Snare 13.7
- ↑ 13.013.1 “A benefit of little Bonesaw’s smoke,” Jack answered. “If I recall correctly, it’s something of a safeguard in case she accidentally deploys a concoction she hasn’t immunized herself or the rest of our team against. The fact that it works against bugs and small rodents is a side benefit, rather than the intent. Bonesaw’s work has made us members of the Nine more or less immune to disease anyways.”
“And the gunshot?”
“Subdermal mesh. There’s more protection around the spine and organs, and you landed that shot pretty close to my spine. It hurts quite a bit.” – Excerpt from Prey 14.10
- ↑ Jack paced back and forth, two or three steps at a time, gesticulating with his knife. “I was looking forward to Cherish’s attempt. Bonesaw and I even had a plan in mind. I wanted to see what she did, how she worked around Siberian’s immunity to her power… then the safeguards Bonesaw implanted in us would have kicked in and released us from her thrall, and oh, the look on her face. To have seen that would have been so very worth all the trouble. And that girl just spoiled it all.”
[…]
Jack was getting heated, talking mostly to himself. “That was the whole point! To see how long we could go without tipping her off.
Bonesaw helped with some surgery, even some artificial neural connections that Cherish wouldn’t be able to see. So much work and preparation ruined.” – Excerpt from Plague 12.4 - ↑ Interlude 5
- ↑ Interlude 11g
- ↑ “You can’t assist him. They’re your rules.”
“Jack’s rules, not mine. But fine,” Burnscar said. Something about the tone in her voice: it sounded casual, but there was something in it that reminded me of Shadow Stalker and Sophia. It wasn’t angry like Shadow Stalker was, but it had the same emptiness. I just hadn’t really picked up on it in the past.
Burnscar gave Mannequin a hand in getting to his feet. Cracks marred his lower body, and his left arm was a mess of cracked ceramic and pale gray organic pulp. I heard her murmur something.
Mannequin shook his head. Burnscar said something else.
He raised one hand, and Burnscar slapped it in a lazy high-five.
She turned towards us. “There. He just tagged me in.
Forfeited his turn.”She cracked her knuckles, and every flaming piece of debris on the street became a pillar of fire, stretching vertically for the sky. The fire snaked over the surface of the water to cut off our avenues of retreat.
“My go. I’m taking round two.” – Excerpt from Snare 13.3
- ↑ Snare 13.9
- ↑ Interlude 25
5
“Get to the point or go the fuck away.”
”
The fact that it works against bugs and small rodents is a side benefit, rather than the intent. Bonesaw’s work has made us members of the Nine more or less immune to disease anyways.”
Bonesaw helped with some surgery, even some artificial neural connections that Cherish wouldn’t be able to see. So much work and preparation ruined.” – Excerpt from Plague 12.4
Forfeited his turn.”Site Navigation[]
| v • e | |
|---|---|
| Leaders | King † • Jack Slash |
| Members | Bonesaw ‡ • Breed † • Burnscar † • Cherish ‡ • Chuckles † • Crawler † • Crimson † • Damsel of Distress † • Gray Boy † • Harbinger ‡ • Hatchet Face † • Hookwolf † • Mannequin † • Miasma † • Murder Rat † • Nice Guy † • Night Hag * • Nyx † • Psychosoma † • Screamer † • Shatterbird † • The Siberian † • Skinslip * • Winter † |
| Bonesaw’s Hybrids | Hack Job † • Laughjob * • Murder Rat † • Nighty Night * • Pagoda † • Snowmann † • Spawner ‡ • Tyrant † |
| Clones | Damsel of Distress II ‡ • Damsel of Distress III ‡ • Harbinger Clones ‡ (Harbinger I ‡ • Harbinger II ‡ • Harbinger III ‡ • Harbinger IV ‡ • Harbinger V ‡) |
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how to assemble a waste recycling apparatus with worms
Ecology
At home with special worms
Irina Kozlovskikh
got worms at home
Author profile
Worms live in my house. I feed them potato peels and pear cores, and they make fertilizer out of them.
This is called vermicomposting. Worms live in special installations and feed on almost any organic waste: peels from fruits and vegetables, tea leaves, cores, tops, paper and even cardboard.
Vermicompost does not smell, does not make noise, does not require daily maintenance, and is easy to assemble by yourself. Thanks to him, I practically do not throw away food waste and take care of the planet.
In the article I will tell you why you need to process organic matter at all and how much it costs to do it at home.
My vermicomposter.
Black mass is vermicompost: the result of food processing by worms and natural fertilizer
Why I recycle food waste
Unlike plastic, banana peel and tea brew seem to be safe waste: I threw it into the bushes and after two weeks everything disappeared.
But they are brought to the landfill mixed with other garbage and compacted. Without the right bacteria, heat, and oxygen, organic matter begins to rot and release methane, a gas that affects climate change.
In addition to methane, landfills emit carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, which poison the air in high concentrations. In 2018, dozens of people, including 76 children, were poisoned in Volokolamsk, near Moscow, due to a sharp release from the Yadrovo test site: they all complained of nausea, headaches, rashes, and spots.
Previously, organic matter was not a problem: in the villages, leftover food was fed to livestock, paper was burned, waste from vegetables and greens was composted. In cities, Russians annually throw out 65 million tons of garbage, a third of which is organic.
I stopped throwing away food waste in 2014. First, I dried them on a battery and took them to the nearest ravine, and in 2018 I assembled the first home vermicomposter. It’s not as time-consuming as it seems: instead of throwing leftover vegetables in the trash, I put them in a separate container. And I spend a couple of hours a year cleaning out the composter.
How a vermicomposter works
A vermicomposter, or vermifarm, is a few boxes with compost worms and a substrate: a filler where the worms live. They eat organic matter and digest it into biohumus and vermicai, a natural fertilizer.
What is vermicompost – Wikipedia article
There are several levels in vermicomposters: a colony of worms lives in the upper, working tray, and the liquid that is released from vegetables and fruits during composting flows into the lower one. There are holes on the bottom and on the cover of the working tray for liquid drainage and air exchange.
A composter requires a minimum of two crates, but work trays can be added if you need to process more than 500 grams of organic matter per day. I need one tray.
Composters are ready-made and homemade. There is not much difference in them, but ready-made ones are usually bought for a summer residence or a vegetable garden in order to receive enough fertilizer or breed worms for sale. New ready-made plants cost about 10,000 R, a used one can be found for 1500-6000 R.
Further in the article I will tell you how to save money and assemble the composter yourself. We will need trays, compost worms and a basic substrate.
This is how the ready-made large Wormcafe vermicomposter looks for 9500 R. Source: imperia-sadovoda.ru You can find vermicomposters cheaper on Avito for vermicai – a liquid that remains in the process of processing organic matter.
The size of the containers depends on the amount of worms and waste. For example, for one person there will be enough boxes with a volume of 5-10 liters.
If there are very few worms, smaller containers will do: for example, a couple of liter buckets in which they sell sauerkraut or mayonnaise. As soon as the colony grows, you can move it to a larger container.
Containers can be purchased at any hardware store or hypermarket. For the first composter, I took 99 R in two plastic containers with a lid in the Fix Price. Similar ones can be bought at Ikea for 99 R, the lid is sold separately for 60 R. I bought my two containers for 249 R. a and on the lid needs to make holes for air exchange. I used a heated thin screwdriver, a hot knitting needle, a thin awl or a drill with a thin drill will also work.
Opaque plastic is better: compost worms live in darkness. If there are only transparent ones, you can cover the composter with a thick cloth or hide it in a closet.
Two of my containers from Ikea. Holes are made in the top drawer and in the lid. The diameter of the holes should be such that worms cannot crawl through them.
Yes, this can happen, but in rare cases
Base substrate
Substrate is a filler in which worms live: sawdust, foliage, torn paper, cardboard. It retains moisture and provides air exchange. It is also a source of carbohydrates for worms: over time, they eat it.
It is not necessary to purchase the substrate specifically. Any natural or recycled cellulose will do: leaves, paper napkins and towels, undyed cardboard, sawdust, paper. I use egg cartons – they don’t get recycled so it’s a double benefit.
Do not use soil and sand as a substrate: they are too dense and cannot be eaten. Painted cardboard is also not worth it, since it is not known what the paint is made of.
How much time and money is needed for separate waste collection
How many worms do you need and where to get them
For home composting, you need California worms, prospector worms, compost worms, or dendrobena worms for fishing.
Ordinary earthworms that appear on the roads after heavy rains are not suitable: they are not so voracious.
Everyone else copes with food in about the same way.
There are several ways to get worms.
Buy from the hands of – you can search on “Avito” and “Yulya”. They cost from 3 R apiece, sold by the piece or by weight, you can find it in almost any region. You can also ask for more worms in the Vkontakte groups dedicated to composting. The largest and more or less active community is Compost Worms in Your Home.
Worms can be bought at Avito or Yulia – at least one can, at least a kilogram at once
Buy at a fishing store. But the necessary worms are not sold everywhere and often self-delivery – online stores offer mostly artificial baits. You can find a package with 5-10 worms for 50 R, and a pound of worms for 700 R.
50 R
there is a package with 5-10 worms in a fishing store
Dig up yourself. An option for the most economical: find a compost or manure pile in summer and dig up a dozen worms.
All you need is a spatula and the ability to distinguish a compost heap from any other.
The hardest part is calculating the number of worms for your containers. It is believed that in a day one worm eats waste half its weight. That is, 500 grams of worms per day will be able to process about 250 grams of organic matter.
If you want to start processing right away, collect the organics that you have accumulated during the day in a separate container, weigh and multiply by two. The amount received is the weight of the worms you need.
An easier option is to buy 50-100 worms and grow a colony of the desired size by trial method. The worm population doubles every few months, so it can take six months before you know how many you need.
I live alone, cook small portions and eat apples with cores, so I get only 100-150 grams of organic matter per day. To cope with this amount, about 200 grams of worms in a colony is enough for me. I bought them at Avito. 300 pieces at 3 R per individual cost 900 R.
If I wanted to save money, I would take 50-100 pieces: if there is food and space in the tray, the worms multiply rapidly. Do not worry that there will be too many worms: they will multiply as long as they have enough food and space. As soon as the population reaches the limit, growth will stop.
How to assemble a composter
When assembling, you need to insert one box into another, fill the upper box with the substrate, sprinkle it with water, put worms and some food, close the lid and put it in a dark place. Everything, the composter is ready.
1149 Р
I spent on a vermicomposter
With all the manipulations, the assembly takes about an hour.
The cost of my vermicomposter is 1149 R
| California worms, 300 pcs. | 900 R |
| Two containers with lid | 249 Р |
| Substrate | 0 R |
| Worm food | 0 R |
California worms, 300 pcs.
900 R
Two containers with a lid
249 R
Substrate
0 R
Food for worms
0 R 90 003
What worms eat and what not to give them
Compost worms are predominantly vegetarian. They have no teeth, so they prefer soft plant foods. They are not fed with the remains of meat and fish: they destroy such waste for a long time, and the stench will be unbearable.
You can permanently put into the vermicomposter:
- Leftovers and skins of vegetables, fruits and berries. In addition to onions, garlic and citrus fruits: they have a lot of odorous essential oils, worms do not like this. From one orange peel, the worms will not die, but they will not be delighted.
- Coffee grounds and tea leaves. The exception is antibacterial medicinal teas based on chamomile and sage. They can harm the friendly flora of bacteria that ferment organics in the composter.
- Remains of lettuce and greens, trimmings of house flowers, except for poisonous ones.
- Dry and fresh leaves of trees and shrubs.
- Shredded paper, cardboard, paper napkins.
- Dried, rotten, moldy organic matter. Bacteria have already begun to destroy such products, so worms deal with them faster.
You can put seeds from berries and fruits, but hard bones will be processed by worms for years, and soft ones can germinate – this is how I grew dates, mangoes and avocados.
About once a month you can add to the compost:
- Crushed eggshells. It is a source of calcium for worms. I put a shell from a dozen eggs. It is better not to overdo it: too much shell will make the soil heavier and disrupt the outflow of moisture from the composter.
- Starchy foods like pasta, porridge and bread. Often you can’t put it – such food quickly turns sour, and in large quantities leads to the death of worms.
- Thermally processed food. The worms will cope with the leftover soup at the bottom of the plate or a serving of half-eaten falafel.
It is strictly forbidden to send the contents of animal toilets and antibacterial medicinal herbs to compost: chamomile, wormwood, plantain, tansy, motherwort and others.
How I’m trying to live an eco-friendly life
How to take care of my vermifarm
You don’t have to take care of your composter every day. Periodically, you need to put food and a substrate, drain the vermicai and remove the humus a couple of times a year.
Keep track of the amount of food. The main rule of keeping a composter is better to underfeed than overfeed. If there is too much feed, it turns sour and oxidizes the environment in the composter, and the worms feel uncomfortable.
New food should be added when the worms have eaten at least ⅔ of the previous food. Up to this point, organics can be put in a separate container and stored in the refrigerator.
Hard potato skins will take a few weeks to clear up, but soft cucumber leftovers will be eaten in a couple of days.
To make the worms eat faster, organics can be finely chopped, frozen or boiled. I do without it.
If you go on vacation, the worms will survive a couple of weeks without you, the main thing is to leave food for them. A kilogram of organics is enough for my worms for a two-week vacation.
Place substrate. The litter must always lie on the surface of the composter, without it the habitat of the worms will deteriorate. It is not necessary to specially moisten it, since there is a lot of liquid in organic matter.
Maintain a comfortable temperature. Worms feel good at room temperature – +15-25 °C. In autumn, spring and summer, I take the composter to the closet on the balcony, and in the winter I keep it in a drawer in the kitchen.
Drain the vermicai. Vermicay is the liquid that remains from organics during processing, it flows into the lower tray. It needs to be drained about once a month. This is a good fertilizer for flowers, so they can be used to feed houseplants.
Clean trays. Worms secrete vermicompost – this is, in fact, worm manure. It must be periodically removed from containers to free up space.
This is what harvested humus looks like. It smells like ordinary earth
I collect vermicompost about once every six months. To do this, in a couple of weeks I start putting food in one corner – the worms crawl there, and I take out the humus from other corners with a spatula or an ordinary spoon. Then, just in case, I pour it out onto cardboard and check if there are any worms left in it.
Biohumus, like vermichay, is an excellent fertilizer, so it is placed in indoor plants, carried to flower beds or lawns near the house, or taken to the country house.
Nothing else to do. There is no need to remove the dead worms from the trays: they themselves decompose perfectly and become part of the humus.
What can go wrong
Problems can arise if the composter is not cared for correctly. Here are the most common ones.
Fruit flies. If you have ever left sweet fruits in the kitchen for a long time in the summer, you are probably familiar with fruit flies. They can settle in a composter if there is too much food, especially sweet: the remains of plums, peaches, watermelons, bananas.
To get rid of flies, you need to reduce the amount of food and sprinkle it with the substrate. You can also add an extra layer of sawdust, close the holes with a mosquito net, or put a small container of water in the composter – the flies will drown in it.
Mold. From the point of view of the ecosystem, the presence of mold is more of a plus than a minus, as it helps organic matter to decompose. But it doesn’t look aesthetically pleasing, so if mold bothers you, you can remove it and later add food with humus or a substrate, and not leave it on the surface.
Flight of worms. Worms may try to climb out of the container if they are short of air, too humid, or run out of food.
If you notice suspicious worm activity, check:
- Are the drain holes on the bottom clogged?
- Are there enough holes for air.
- Are there food and substrate in the composter?
Worms may try to escape in the first days after settling in – this is normal, then they will get used to the new place.
To understand that everything is ok with the composter, it is enough to make sure that:
- Worms are visible near the feeding places, they do not gather in balls in the corners.
- From time to time cocoons appear in the composter, which means that the worms are multiplying.
- No strong odor.
Mites, springtails or fungi can also be found in the container. They do not pose a threat – in the natural environment, they also process organic matter, like worms.
Where to look for information
The most active community in Russia is the Compost Worms at Your Home group on Vkontakte.
There you can find detailed instructions for assembling a composter, help with calculating the number of worms, and tips on how to get rid of mold or insects.
In a separate discussion in the “Separate Collection” environmental movement group, you can find a composting friend to give him organics or share worms.
Course: how to sort garbage
In St. Petersburg there is a project “Organics is not garbage”. Their group also has information on how to store organic waste and where you can take it if you don’t have your own composter.
I also recommend reading the book Earthworms Eat My Trash.
Where to put food waste in Russia except in a vermicomposter
There is no organized organic collection system in Russian cities. Abroad, for this, either landfills for industrial composting are created, or systems are installed for collecting landfill gas: it is burned and used to generate electricity. Here are the options in Russia.
Install a food waste disposer or disposer.
It is installed in the sink, it grinds organic matter and sends it to the sewer. At treatment facilities – digesters – biogas is made from it.
What a dispenser looks like – an example from Ozone. The remains of vegetables, fruits, eggshells, flowers and other organic matter are thrown into it. You can send chicken bones, dried bouquets and fruit bones to it.
There are methane tanks only in Moscow and in some areas of Yekaterinburg and Naberezhnye Chelny. Theoretically, it is possible to install a disposer in other cities, but there is no environmental sense in this: at treatment facilities, organic suspension from sewers will simply be burned or sent to a landfill.
“I don’t know how to live without this friend”: 17 things that should be in every house take out.
Buy an electric garbage disposal. This is a device that grinds and dries organics without worms, reducing the volume by ten times. It does not need to be mounted under the sink, and at the output, organic matter looks like granulated tea.
You can pour it on the lawn or feed it with indoor flowers. Such a utilizer costs around 40,000 R.
Make a compost pit. Those who live in their own home can set up an outdoor composter in the backyard, organize a compost heap or compost pit. A compost heap is haulm, twigs, leaves, unfit vegetables, and other garden waste.
The principle is the same as with a home composter, only the main work is done not by worms, but by microorganisms, so the process is slower. Periodically, the compost heap must be turned to ensure the supply of oxygen necessary for decomposition. The finished product will be compost or humus.
Outdoor composter for processing food waste in the village of Morshchikhinskaya, Kenozero National Park, Arkhangelsk region Several containers in the village
Prepare organic matter at home and compost in the forest. This is what my friends who have dachas do: they accumulate organic waste and take it to compost in the dacha once a week. For this, the waste is dried on a battery or frozen. Flies don’t start, it doesn’t smell, pets don’t show any interest.
For this method, you don’t need to buy or make anything special: put the container on the battery and dry it. Cons: gives a contradictory impression, and this does not inspire others. If there is no dacha, you can dig in the waste in the front garden or the nearest forest park, but if everyone does this, nature will drown in garbage.
On the battery, organic matter dries up and decreases several times in volume My friends put several trays on one battery
If you are worried about the problem of garbage, but you are not ready to process your organic matter, here is what you can do to reduce food waste:
- Plan menus and portions so that you can buy and cook exactly as much as you need, and not throw away the half-eaten.
- Eat and cook first of all what can soon go bad.
- Save food. Withering fruits can be put into compote or cut and frozen for a pie, pancakes can be made from sour milk, and pasta leftovers can be added to scrambled eggs.
- Do not peel young vegetables and fruits.
And if you live in Moscow or St. Petersburg, there is an option to join a food sharing group and share food that you do not need.
Experiment: I ate free for a week
WHY YOU SHOULD NOT BURN GRASS AND WHAT IT LEADS TO – News
April 19, 2013, 09:33
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With the establishment of warm and dry weather, the number of fires associated with the ignition of dry grass, debris in rural areas, forest, park areas, farmland and household plots has increased dramatically. So, only over the past day, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations had to go out 61 times to extinguish burning grass. The total burning area covered by the fires exceeded 113 hectares.
WHY YOU SHOULD NOT BURN GRASS AND WHAT IT LEADS TO
1. Grass fires lead to a noticeable decrease in soil fertility. The burning of organic matter is the main factor in reducing soil fertility.
The soil is depleted from the burning of dry grass, the minerals contained in the ash leave quite easily with surface and ground waters, and only a small part of them is absorbed by plants.
2. Fires are one of the main sources of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere associated with human economic activity. With too frequent fires, not only dry grass burns out, but also dead organic matter accumulated in the soil, and carbon dioxide emissions increase accordingly. This means that the so-called greenhouse effect is increasing, leading to adverse changes and climate fluctuations.
3. As a result of burning dry grass, the species composition of meadow vegetation and wildlife is depleted. Wherever the fires have passed, there will no longer be the former herbs, weeds will seize the vacated territory.
4. Many insects, their larvae, pupae die. All living creatures burn in the fire – ladybugs, ground beetles, earthworms and others, exterminating various pests of the garden and garden and participating in the process of soil formation. For earthworms, there is no extra dry grass, they work it together and quickly, turning it into the most valuable fertilizer, introducing it into the depths of the soil to the roots of plants, and at the same time make the soil loose, alive. Last year’s dry grass is not garbage, but priceless food, a house, shelter, living conditions created by nature itself.
5. Burning dry grass causes the death of clutches and nesting sites of such birds as mallard, cracked teal, lapwing, herbalist, snipe, reed and common bunting, field, forest and crested larks, meadow pipit. The nesting period of these birds begins in early April. Birds leave the burnt places, which means they leave us too.
6. In a strong grass fire, almost all animals living in dry grass or on the soil surface (hares, hedgehogs, amphibians) die.
Someone burns, someone suffocates in smoke. Burnt bird nests with traces of eggs, scorched snails, rodents, and small mammals are very often found in conflagrations.
7. During the spring fall, trees are damaged, especially their root neck – a very vulnerable spot right above the ground. Not to mention the fact that trees can simply burn out, the buds that swell in spring can burn out from a strong temperature, which is very harmful to the tree, even if it survives.
8. The smoke from burning grass is acrid, dark, thick. Allergy sufferers can’t stand it. When burning grass in the city, along the roads, salts of heavy metals, which have settled on foliage, grass, also enter the air – such smoke is simply poisonous. Garbage often lurks in dry grass, including plastic bottles that are dangerous for burning, etc. In areas contaminated with radionuclides, radioactive substances get into the air with fire and smoke, which are transported by wind over long distances. In rural areas, the remains of fertilizers and pesticides are burned in a fire, forming volatile toxic organic and inorganic compounds.
9. Carrying out fires often leads to the ignition of peat bogs and forest plantations.
All developed peat deposits, drained lands with peat soils and developed peat deposits are fire hazardous. Wetlands with a disturbed hydrological regime are also among the most fire hazardous areas. A feature of fires in peatlands is the ability of peat to burn at a depth of up to 0.3-1.5 meters.
After the combustion of peat, the remaining ash from the upper 10-cm layer can have radioactivity ten times greater than the radioactivity of the original material. Smoke in conditions of radioactive contamination of peatlands also acts as a possible carrier of radionuclides, which leads to secondary contamination of the territory and negatively affects the health of people in the zone of its distribution.
GENERAL FIRE SAFETY REQUIREMENTS
In accordance with the fire safety rules in forests, from the moment the snow cover melts until the onset of stable rainy weather, it is prohibited:
– make fires in coniferous young forests, in areas of damaged forest (windfall and windfall), peat bogs, in places with dried grass;
– burn grass and make fires in the grass, leave a burning fire unattended;
– leave unextinguished sources of combustion, smoldering (burning matches, cigarette butts, etc.
).
Making fires (including using devices: barbecues, barbecues, grills, gas stoves, etc.) is allowed on equipped sites bordered by a mineralized (cleaned to a mineral soil layer) strip with a width of at least 0.25 m, as well as in places that exclude fire damage to the crowns, trunks and root paws of growing trees, except for prohibited areas. If necessary, the fire must be extinguished until the smoldering ceases completely.
If you notice a fire – do not pass by. You can put out the grass that starts to burn on your own. If you smell smoke, move closer and determine what is burning. Fill the fire with water from a nearby reservoir, cover it with earth. After extinguishing the fire, do not leave until you are sure that the fire will not flare up again. If it is impossible to extinguish the fire on your own, move to a safe place and immediately notify the Ministry of Emergency Situations or officials of the state forest guard.
Unified emergency number: “01” (when dialing from a mobile phone – “112”).