[Stoves] Engine oil, Earthworms and Biochar

[Anand Karve]

Dear Kobus,
earthworms are nocturnal creatures. Theycome out of the soil in the night
and wqnder around in search of new habitats. However, before daybreak they
go back into the soil to escape from the early birds that catch the worms.
It is likely, that the earthworms that you observed under your char heap
found themselves on asphalt in the dawn and because they could not bore
through the asphalt layer, they sought refuge under the charcoal that you
had heaped there. It was most probably the darkness that attracted them to
the char heap.
Yours
A.D.Karve
On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 4:37 AM, Kobus Venter <vuthisa at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I had a fascinating experience concerning biochar and engine oil. I
> spilled some oil from an oil change onto asphalt and poured some char over
> it to see if it would soak it up. Today about 6 days later whilst brooming
> it off I found probably 10 wriggling earthworms in it working away trying
> to make compost. I was amazed that earthworms could thrive in that
> environment. There was no soil present whatsoever. Now I know most of us
> have their own secret spot in the garden for disposing with their engine
> oil. Do the right thing, fess up and rehabilitate it with biochar.
>
> Regards
>
> Kobus
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device www.vuthisa.com
> _______________________________________________
> Stoves mailing list
>
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> stoves at lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
>
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
>
> for more Biomass Cooking Stoves,  News and Information see our web site:
> http://www.bioenergylists.org/
>
>


-- 
***
Dr. A.D. Karve
Trustee & Founder President, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20111231/ad50e730/attachment.html>