My Pet Worm

Right away I'll admit I'm into unconventional pets. I have allergies, see. I spent my entire childhood with pet cats and a constant stuffy nose. Age has not made those allergies any better. As much as I love my kitties, I love breathing even more, so cats are out.

Dogs though, dogs are so much work with dependence on you for multiple daily walks and potty breaks on the lawn. Until recently, I haven't had the lifestyle that would make having a dog a possibility. And the trouble is, my favorite breeds are the short coated, shedding, allergy causing kinds.

But then I'm a committed animal lover, so I have to have pets. I solve this problem by having pets that are 1) out of the house, like the horse and pony, or 2) not furry, like the bird, the fish, the turtles and the lizard or 3) keep their furry allergen covered bodies in a contained area, like our pet rats. Dogs and cats usually get free run of the house, so if I start having allergy issues, I've got nowhere to go but outside. With the rats, as long as they're in the kids' bedroom, I can pop in for a quick snuggle and leave the room for some breathable air.

Now I have to admit that, technically, many of the pets are my daughters', but since I'm the one that does oh, roughly 90% of the pet care, I feel I can claim some ownership. I guess the truth is that I'm just an unpaid hired hand. Or is that slave? Do they have that in the Webster's Dictionary definition of "mother?"

And then there's the green living issue. Pets make a lot of waste. There's pet bedding and of course the... um... excrement. You have to get rid of that. The rats I've got recycled newspaper pellets for bedding. You can flush that, so much as it wastes water, at least it doesn't end up in a landfill somewhere. The lizard lives on a bed of ground walnut shells. That can go in the compost pile. The bird cage is a problem. I line that with old newspaper. At least I'm reusing something, but then I just roll the paper up, seed hulls, bits of fruit and veggies, excrement and all and toss it in the garbage.

That's got to change.

This brings me to my first project as a Chicago Conservation Corp leader: Vermiculture. I want to get the neighborhood doing vermiculture.

"What -i- culture?" you may ask. Vermi = Worms. You can create a composter where worms do the work for you. They work faster that traditional compost, you keep them in the basement where they don't freeze so they can work year 'round and the worms can eat things that you can't (or shouldn't) put in the backyard composter like newspaper and meat scraps.

Yuck, I know, but so easy and that yuck factor is something kids can get into. All you do is shred up some newspaper toss in some worms and some food scraps and the little wigglers eat it all up. In return you get worm castings (another word for manure... but we like to call it compost.) That's a terrific a terrific fertilizer for your garden.

I'll be pulling together a group to spread the word. Any takers?