To start with I dug up about 2 dozen worms from around the base of a compost pile. If it's the kind that thrash around instead of going limp, they've proven good to go in a bin. It was pretty amazing how fast even that small amount went through food and started getting their freak on. I was pissed off at myself for selling a small wood chipper before I got interested in vermiculture, because I have access to cardboard packaging all the time, but now no way to rip it up easily for bedding. My worms did great for months in some damp brown cardboard I tore up by hand, and with the pail they were in it was easy to sift out a small amount of castings at a time, since there wasn't much bedding. I made a larger wooden bin for them from some scrap, but I didn't have enough worms for it, and it became a pain in the ass to shift so much bedding around for very little castings. I think smaller containers and a little crowding are better for their breeding rate, judging from from that attempt, so I moved them back to the pail until I could buy a pound or two. I had two problems with the pail after that. One involved a piss ant invasion, and the other a recommendation to add crushed eggshells. I only added about 2 tablespoons worth, but either the ph change or the ants killed them all very rapidly. Things like that are why I didn't want to start off by buying a pound of them at first. Go real light with the eggshells if you use them to boost calcium in a small bin, just in case. I wondered if the nutrient value of castings that were mostly made from cardboard (and small amounts of veggie scraps) would be low, but as far as I can tell they work great dry, and as aerated tea with some molasses. I know of someone that killed some sprouts with the tea, but I think he accidentally let it ferment and didn't know to toss it out, or else it was an overnight bug problem. My philodendron, orchids, and other plants all like the tea just fine. I didn't notice any problem with smell, but I fed lightly, kept the food covered in bedding, and had a small bin. As far as refrigeration goes, I think that is to keep the commercially sold worms dormant in their small containers, so they don't eat up all the food or overheat. I had the bin inside in temps that were comfortable for me, and they were fine. If I went a little long between feedings they ate the cardboard.

Soil is supposed to be a bad bedding for wigglers. In soil they get stressed out from fighting their way through it, so they breed at a higher rate. Then their eggs hatch and the second generation is more acclimated to the soil, but they are tiny and barely eat or make any castings. When the tiny worms and their tiny egg casings get put back into cardboard bedding it's like they've seen the promised land. All those eggs hatch and become full sized worms that eat and shit normal amounts. It's supposed to be a good way to raise a population quickly, but inefficient when you already have a good amount of worms and want castings. All that info is from a breeder's site called The Burrow, where he tells the whole saga of taking them from soil to cardboard and back.

There was an interesting site where a guy wanted to get a patent for castings from worms that were fed high percentages of chitin. The chitin is the same material bugs use to make their shells. When the worm eats the chitin it turns into an enzyme that basically dissolves bug exoskeletons, so the bugs avoid it. When a plant is fed high chitin castings it's supposed to take up this enzyme, and prevent or stop an occuring bug infestation. In Iceland they make chitin by processing shellfish shells, but you can't give worms shrimp shells or whatever because it has too much protein, stinks, and will probably attract rats. However, fungi cells are also made of chitin, so at the moment I'm seeing if the worms are ok with eating some bracket mushrooms growing all over an old woodpile. If the test batch doesn't have any problems I'll start adding wild mushrooms to their feed regularly, and test out the castings next spring on some garden plants crawling with japanese beetles. With any luck there won't be any effect on taste with edible plants.