More Worm Tales

I got an email from my friend Pam telling me she had about 15,000 worms doing their magic at her house. I knew Pam was a multi-talented person—singer, drummer, great raconteur, and co-owner with her husband of the Sea Solar Store in Dover, New Hampshire. But I had no idea that worms were eating her garbage too. Pam also sent me a picture of the Can-O-Worms, a round version of my worm hotel,  and told me it was one of several systems now available. I had no idea.

Up until I got the hotel years ago, all the systems I’d read about were homemade ones and that’s what I started with. My first makeshift plastic container version wasn’t nearly as grand as that of a former student whose construction skills far exceeded mine.  It took her a while to get the right garbage-to-paper ratio so the system worked, but once she did, it was not only efficient but also convenient because she kept it under the kitchen table. After dinner, she’d just have one of her kids crawl under there and dump the garbage in.

Unless they had guests. In that case, they’d wait until after the guests were gone. Unless, of course, they didn’t want the guests to come back.

You don’t get those kinds of social benefits from a garbage disposal.