Pets wriggle for giggles

By Andrea Makshanoff, On-line Forty-Niner

April 1,1998

 

The preschoolers of the Isabel Patterson Child Development Center will now join in the care and feeding of tiny, scarlet, wriggling creatures.

 

These creatures are the pet project of Fred Sanchez, assistant director of Associated Students Inc.

 

Sanchez's project is a 3-foot by 4-foot box on the lawn of the Recycling Center filled with crumpled newspaper, fruit and vegetable scraps, and 10 pounds of Red Wriggler worms.

 

As the A.S.I. director responsible for the center, Sanchez has introduced vermicomposting, the recycling method of using worms, food scraps and woody fiber, to the CSULB campus.

 

"This is a demonstration project,"

A.S.I. director brings vermicomposting to campus, preschoolers

Sanchez said, "and an ecologically sound way to eliminate food waste. It is big business in the Central Valley, but I believe we are the first campus to try this."

"It is simple," Sanchez said. "Make a bed of newsprint, lay down vegetable and fruit scraps, and put in the Red Wrigglers. The wrigglers eat through the food and through excretion, reduce the trash down, and create a nurturing environment in order to reproduce."

NightCrawlers can be also be used, and meat and dairy scraps should be avoided, Sanchez said.

Sanchez set up the box last summer and now it is filled with soil, ready to be returned to the vegetable garden at the Child Development Center.

The worms have doubled in reproduction, so even with retaining the 10 pounds needed for the next box, there will be 10 pounds of Red Wrigglers to be given away as gifts, Sanchez said.

Eggshells are added monthly as well, which allow the worms to reproduce.

Some of the food waste had been supplied by the preschoolers, who helped to feed the worms on their visit to the Recycling Center

The preschoolers' teacher, Tami Bennett, said the staff is excited about getting the kids involved, and that they want to make their own box.

"We are feeding them some of our lunch," Bennett said. "We used to have worms at the center, and the kids could view the process of the garbage rotting and turning into dirt, and then the worms died."

Once each child held a Red Wriggler in their cupped hands, they did not want to let them go.

"Mine's a little wild," 4-year-old Calvin said, giggling as he watched his worm do a somersault down his wrist.

Bronte traded her worm for a handful of the much hardier sowbugs that also live in the box, and called them "roly polys."

Vermicomposting is being promoted by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works through their recycling hotline at (800) 552-5218.

According to the department, the box and worms must be kept damp and covered.

Food scraps should be buried in the upper part of the bedding, and the outside of the box should be kept clean to discourage spiders.

Besides fruit and vegetable scraps and eggshells, coffee grounds can be added to the box. With huge appetities, the worms eat half their weight per day.