Place your VP’s in a small bowl or cup.

 

 

(May be kept in your Refr. for up to 3 mos)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add some water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In just a few minutes they will look like this

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may swirl the water around a little if you like

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After soaking for one hour, pour them into a strainer and spray material away from the cocoons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gently tap the cocoons onto a wet paper towel

 

It has been know that a baby earthworm might even have hatched while they were soaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Place your washed earthworm cocoons in the Earthworm Nursery(tm) and watch them hatch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complete Instructions & Guide

Caring for Your Earthworm Cocoons

 

 

When your earthworm cocoons arrive

 

Open your Earthworm Cocoons mailing container immediately. If for any reason you cannot prepare your cocoons right away, you can place them in the refrigerator for up to one week.

 

Preparing your Earthworm Nursery™ to receive your earthworm cocoons

 

Place the soil brick into a plastic bag and add four ounces of water. Let the special growth soil absorb the water, (this may take up to three or four hours) then crush the soil brick by hand.  After crushing, stir the soil to help the water absorb into the soil. If there happens to be any excess water, open the bag and squeeze the soil so any excess water dribbles out.

 

Remove the inner tray from the Earthworm Nursery™. Fluff the soil and empty it from the bag into the tray.  Take a piece of paper toweling, fold it in half three times.  Saturate it with cold water.  Hold it up until water stops dripping from it.  Place this wet towel on top of the special growth soil.  Keep the towel wet while your worms are growing up.  Change as needed. Put the tray back into the Nursery and replace the lid, making sure the lid is secure so the Earthworm Nursery™ retains its moisture.

 

Place the Encapsulated Earthworm Cocoons™ into a cup of cold or room temperature water and let them soak for at least 15 to 30 minutes or even up to one hour.  This will help to dissolve the protective coating that covers the cocoons.

 

 Next, remove the top from the Earthworm Nursery™ hatching chamber.  Add enough water to cover your cocoons. ¼ inch to ½ inch is fine, but you can fill the hatching chamber as full as you like. Filtered oxygenated water is best, if available. Worms breathe through their skin and get their oxygen from the water. If the earthworm skin dries out, they will die. Moisture is very important... worms need oxygenated water to live.

 

If you like, ask Mom for one round cosmetic cotton pad, and place it into the bottom of the hatching chamber. Cutting a piece of paper toweling to fit will also work. Note, if you do this, sometimes the baby worm will crawl between the fiber of the paper towel or inside the cotton pad. If this happens and you can’t get them out, just place the pad or paper with the baby worm inside the Nursery.  The will eventually crawl out into the soil.

 

Removing the cocoons from the VermiPod™

 

Go to the kitchen sink and pour your soaked VermiPods™ into the rinsing net.  Using the sinks sprayer, spray away the coating material from the cocoon using cold water.  If all the coating material does not rinse away through the rinsing net, tap the cocoons back into the cup.  Any excess coating material should remain stuck on the rinsing net.  Clean the net, and repeat the process until there is no longer any more coating material left.  DO NOT put any coating material inside the hatching chamber along with the cocoons.  You are now ready to turn the rinsing net inside out and gently tap the cocoons onto the pad in the bottom of the hatching chamber, replace the top on the hatching chamber. You may also use the included paint brush or soft-touch forceps to gently place your cocoons into the water in the Earthworm Nursery™ hatching chamber.  Once they’re all in the hatching chamber, replace the top.

 

Catch 22

 

While we need to keep the cocoons wet during their incubation period/hatching period, water slows this

 

process down.  If you use the cosmetic pad and are careful to keep it real moist with just enough water to almost cover the cocoons, is the best way, and will hurry the process up a little.

 

The cocoons need to stay wet throughout the earthworms’ hatching period, so be sure to check the water level daily during the hatching period.

 

It is also important to have as much oxygen in the water as possible.  By pouring the water back and forth between cups to get it bubbly, will help oxygenate it.

 

Hatching Your Earthworms

 

If you are unable to add water to your hatching pad for a day or two, it is ok to put an inch of water over it until such time you can remove the excess water.  Remember, if you use only the pad or paper, be sure to keep it nice and wet!

 

Your cocoons may hatch overnight; some may not hatch for weeks.  Expect that some of your cocoons will hatch before others.  This is perfectly normal.  When worms hatch, remove the domed top.  Wet the brush, and use it to lift or gently brush the worms onto the special growth soil in the Earthworm Nursery™.

 

You can put your newly hatched babies into the Earthworm Nursery™ any time after they hatch.  If you like to continue observing them, they can be kept in the hatching chamber as long as there is oxygenated water and see that they are active and healthy.  They may even start to consume the hatching pad until you place them into the Nursery with the soil.  It’s not yummy, but it won’t hurt them to eat it.  If you see the water becoming scummy and need to change it, putting the cocoons back into the rinsing net and spraying them again to keep them clean, is ok.  This extra spraying will not hurt them.

 

Feeding and watering tips for your earthworms

 

Feed your baby earthworms very sparingly.  Place the earthworm food underneath the wet paper toweling and put no more then just a few granules of the special feed everyday - like the amount you would shake from a salt shaker.  Do not feed any more then they can eat in one day.  If feed starts to accumulate, stop adding any until it is all gone, and then resume feeding.  Use the enclosed pipette to squirt fresh water onto the toweling. Don’t over water – just keep the toweling wet. The capillary action between the toweling and the soil should be just the right moisture for your baby earthworms.  If you feel the soil need watering, by all means give it a squirt or two.  If you see fog, condensation, or water droplets from on the insides of the Nursery, it’s a good sign that your soil is moist.  Don’t let your earthworms cocoons get too hot, or allow the Earthworm Nursery™ to sit in direct sunlight.  For instance, you’d never want to leave it on a window sill, outdoors or in a car.

 

Releasing your earthworms

 

You can keep can keep all the earthworms that may hatch in your Nursery as long as you have food or until the soil becomes moldy or begins to smell.  After three months they will be fully grown and you can release some of your earthworms outdoors in flower patches or into a garden.  If temperatures are really cold, you may find some warmer ground nearer a building or even indoors, if there’s an atrium filled with plants nearby. 

 

When you’re ready to release them, take the Earthworms Nursery™ outdoors, remove the top of the Nursery, and deposit the earthworms and special growth soil near a plant that looks like it needs some love and nutrition.  The plant will appreciate the healthy soil you’ve created and the work your earthworms will do to aerate the ground around its roots!