McVety: She'll worm her way into your heart photo: Joseph Yarmush

"It's something that I enjoy," explains McVety, whose day job and degrees in molecular biology and genetics have nothing to do with worms. "I feel like people need me."

McVety began advertising on Craigslist last year and has a MySpace page devoted to worms and vermicomposting. When she wanted to start vermicomposting - a practice any yard-less apartment dweller can indulge in, to turn kitchen waste into high-quality soil for your houseplants - she found companies advertising on the Internet were charging $80 for worms and wouldn't deliver in February. Calls to different Éco-quartiers finally yielded one that sold worms. But getting there wasn't easy. "I was working 9 to 5," says McVety. "I had to take half a personal day to go and pick up worms because I was so desperate.

"Not everyone's going to take a day off work to go pick up worms," McVety says. "So that's why I'm offering this service. It's sort of complementary to what the city is offering, which is very limited."

For Worm Girl's MySpace page, got to www.myspace.com/wormgirlmontreal.

 
 

		Write your comment on this article!

Vermicomposting     Nice job Worm Girl! I totally agree with Worm Girl that in Montreal the services or resources related to vermicomposting are limited and could be improved, but at least there are a couple of Éco-quartiers or other organism working in vermicomposting, like www.ecojm.org, but I agree there a lot todo. So that's why we have to work this on! Nevertheless, the price for worms is almost always to expensive and it's really something that must go down if we want vermicomposting become more popular, which is at my point of view the best solution for discarding organic matter generated in your house, more especially when you live in an appartment and you don't have access to a yard. Actually, at my point of view, only worm you get for free or a couple of dollars are logic way todo, I know it's utopic, but that's it. That's why, I've launch a web site (for french community, there's already a lot for english speakers) in order to let people see where are the other people that are doing vermicomposting, if they are ready to help, to give worms, to give vermicompost, a forum to discuss vermicomposting, glossary, and so on. Take a look at http://www.lombricompostage.org
Eric Lajeunesse		March 29th, 2009
S.A also needs a "worm girl"     Hello, I'm in the West Coast of South Africa in a small fishermens village called Paternoster. I'm the editor of my own newspaper and I love to see this new worm farming thing. Please let me know where I can get worms. OR..you can come and visit us in Paternoster in our guesthouse and bring me some "golden worms" with.
Esther De Goede		July 9th, 2008
Vermicomposting: a new challenge     Vermicomposting (VC), after some research, is the best method of composting and seems to be the most sustainable for one who doesn't have a yard. Those who opt for a wormless method uses a powder referred to as a "compost activator" or "starter" which just end up costing you money over the long run. Vermicomposting, if done right, should only cost you the intial money to setup the bin and for the worms themselves. Of course, the food scraps you use as worm feed costs something, but they feed you first. If you're making your own bin, it could cost as little as $5 but if you're buying a pre-fab home for your squirm it could cost over $100, if you want to get fancy. I started a worm bin in August, and purchased my worms from Eco-quartier at $15 for half a pound. They were open late one Thursday and they came home with me in a yogurt container. There were mites too, but I had read that they are a normal occurrence in VC, so I dumped all of the contents into my bin (their new home). I'm not sure exactly how many worms there were, possibly 30. That was over priced. A month or so later, I felt that I needed more worms. I saw Susan's ad and they were delivered in several days. I opened the container and the poor worms were clinging to the top. It smelled like wet-dog, a sign of too-moist conditions. At this point I decided to protect myself from unprotected bin-on-bin action and dumped out the contents of container onto a tray. I started to pick out the worms and worm eggs with latex-gloved hands. What was left on the tray? Several sugar ants, a few flies whose wings weren't fully dry to allow them to fly away. Gross. To her credit, there were *a lot* of worms at $10 per half pound. But this was a lesson learned: no matter how reputable a worm source may be, be aware of what you're introducing to your own worm bin. There is lots of great information on VC on the Internet, including the plans for my OSCR Jr. 2-tier bin. There's also help to be had on online forums.
Cynthia Eng		October 27th, 2007
Go Girl!     Go Girl!! Grow Girl!! I actually think the article could have said more about the ecological and horticultural advantages of vermicomposting. You grow tomato trees!
Chris Mergaert		October 5th, 2007
yay- worm of the month club     my girlfriend is famous...looks so cute!
Mario Rizzi		October 4th, 2007

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