Green Grrls’ Excellent Eco-Adventure

The Grrls received the following from one of their internet friends:

“Is my wife freaking nuts for wanting me to reuse Ziploc baggies she puts my snacks in?

She bugs me to reuse baggies, BAGGIES!!!! Anything that a sandwich went in is a non-starter, but she wants me to reuse baggies that she sends my snacks in, like pound cake (home made heaven), cookies and such. What the &^%#!?! How much could a baggie cost?!?! Isn’t this a food poisoning risk? What is next? Erasing paper plates!?!? Should I have her committed?

–Ali”

Ali, Ali, Ali. Your wonderfully green wife is just trying to save the planet. You should give her a tender kiss and thank her for being such a thoughtful person… then you should cook her a romantic dinner and give her a foot massage, and treat her like the treasure she is.

But don’t berate yourself, dear Ali, for the Grrls harbor several dark ungreen secrets themselves, with Ziploc bags possibly being our very very very very very darkest. We love them. We adore them. We are addicted to them. They are so versatile, and oh so cheap, especially if you buy the monster packs at Costco, like the Grrls do (in sandwich, quart, AND gallon size – the confessions are neverending with us today).

But, the Grrls have had to face it: Ziploc – and other brands of resealable bags – are an environmental nightmare. They are made of #4 plastic, which means that they basically can’t be recycled, so they get tossed out, where they’ll sit for eons, crowding landfills, littering parklands and beaches, and endangering both us and wildlife. They really suck.

So, the Grrls looked into what we and our Gentle Green Readers could do to at least cut down on our Ziploc consumption:

• Just as Ali’s wife does, reuse the baggies – Grrl2 especially does this, reusing the baggies she uses for work snacks like carrots and nuts. Baggies are easily washed out and dried, and can be reused many times, although we think it’s best to not reuse ones that have held raw meat.

• Buy the new Ziploc Evolve bags – They are made of 25% less plastic, the box is made from 100% recycled paperboard, and the baggies are partially manufactured using wind energy, which makes them kinda green. Until you have to throw them out, when they once again become ungreen garbage. It’s at least a step in the right direction.

• Don’t use baggies at all – Oops! Grrl2 just fainted! Take snacks and other food to work in an insulated lunch bag or box, marinate your proteins in a bowl, use reusable plastic boxes (still not green because of the manufacturing process, but it’s the lesser of two evils) for storage, use empty jars to store screws, etc.

The Grrls promise to try to stop our Ziploc addiction. We know we can’t be 100% clean, but baby steps, Gentle Green Readers, baby steps. We would also love to hear any other tips you may have for steering clear of Ziplocs (including you, Ali’s Wife!).

The Grrls are continuing our quest to ban plastic water bottles from our lives, as introduced in this thread (link back2tap thread). Our latest step is installing a faucet filtration system from PUR (website). As stated, our main reason for installing one was to be green and ban bottled water from our lives, and since our tap water is a bit icky, we needed a filtration system. After reading the PUR literature and doing some Googling, however, we are horrified at what’s coming out of the taps in many homes in America. Even though we knew lots of nasty things were in our water, it turned out to be much worse than even we thought. And, the Grrls have very active and far-reaching imaginations.

We bet most of our Gentle Green Readers know about the harmful chemicals in our groundwater, but did you know that there’s a huge concern over the amounts of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) that are appearing in water samples? Drugs such as antibiotics, mood control meds, birth control pills, cancer treatments, and pain killers are showing up in more than trace amounts. But wait – don’t quit shuddering yet. These drugs are sharing room in that nice cool glass of sparkling water with harmful personal care product chemicals, like nitro musk.

How does this junk get into our water? From hospitals, factories, and regular people. It gets thrown out in the trash, flushed down the toilet, and carried via human poo. Wait, you ask, doesn’t all of this get processed and filtered at the treatment plant? Yes, but not all of it can be removed.

EEK!

Scientists being scientists, some say the amount of this gunk in our water isn’t bad for us, the environment, and wildlife. Some say it is harmful. The Grrls say we are thoroughly grossed out and that PUR filtration system is staying on our faucet until the Apocalypse.

There is a site you can check that’ll tell you how your water stands up. Unfortunately, it’s only for certain Metro areas (the Grrls’ isn’t included), and not all contaminants are listed. But, it’s a good resource for many of you.

If you want to follow the Grrls’ green footsteps and get a faucet filter, we suggest the PUR. It’s about $10 more than some, including one from a well known company that we bought first. It was difficult to install, and almost literally fell apart in our hands. The Grrls don’t believe in being tattletales, so we won’t tell you the (Brita) company of the filter we returned. So, we scampered off to Costco, and for $35, we got the PUR horizontal three-stage faucet filtration system and two filters.

It’s a really nice and easy-to-use system:

• Unfiltered water comes out as usual; for filtered water, you just turn a little knob and a smaller stream of filtered water comes out.
• It has a fancy green (!) blinking light that lets you know the filter is working (PUR calls it the Filter Life Indicator).
• It really does install easily within minutes, and without tools!
• You get approximately 100 gallons of filtered water per filter, approximately 2-3 months worth.
• The filter gets out 99% of lead, while keeping any added fluoride.
• The literature says it can filter out 99% of 12 pharmaceuticals (although we looked hither and yon on PUR’s website, and couldn’t discover WHICH 12 pharmaceuticals it filters out).

The Grrls have been using the system all weekend, and we give it TWO Green Thumbs Up! PUR also sells a Brita-like filtration pitcher, if you’d rather not attach something to your faucet.

(Aren’t the Grrls punny today? Yes, we think so, too!)

We have horrible news for Dunkin’ Donuts fans: not only is their coffee not as good (according to Grrl1), but Starbucks is kicking their beans in greening up their business.

The Grrls readily admit that there are some things Starbucks Corporate has done (and does) which we dislike, but we are both very impressed with the effort they are making in greening up their stores and other facilities. We wish more businesses would do the same.

The Grrls first want to make sure all their Gentle Green Readers know what LEED is, as it’s a wonderfully green and nifty program: LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design,” and is THE Green Building Rating System. It was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). You may have noticed “LEED Points” on literature or packing for green building products like flooring or windows; a building project has to have a certain number of points before it is LEED certified, and there are different levels of certification available. Each state has USGBC chapters, and their websites are great places to find green contractors and architects.

So what does this have to do with Starbucks? Several things!

Starbucks recently opened a LEED Silver-Certified coffee roasting plant in Calhoun County, SC, and some of the green features the facility includes are: efficient lighting and water fixtures, drought tolerant landscaping, building material made from post-consumer recycled products, and operational power partially generated by wind energy. It’s enough to make a Green Grrl swoon. We may have to stop on the way home and get an Orange Mango Banana Vivanno to celebrate.

An added bonus is that the plant has opened up over 100 full-time jobs in an area devastated by the outsourcing of the U.S. textile industry.

Starbucks has declared their intent to have ALL new WORLDWIDE company-operated stores be LEED Third Party-Certified by the end of 2010. This amazes and pleases the Grrls to no end. We wish retail sprawl would majorly slow down or evaporate, but we are realistic enough to realize that won’t be happening any time soon. This helps take the sting out of over-development just a bit.

Some green features of the new stores will include:

• Air conditioners will be set at 75 degrees Fahrenheit

• Water-conserving, high-blast nozzles will be used to clean pitchers, and low-flow valves will be installed throughout the stores

• Cabinets will be made of non-toxic, 90% post-industrial materials (the Grrls are so jealous of this!)

• All wood used will be FSC-certified (except in stores located in China – no FSC-certified wood is available there – big surprise!)

• Recycled flooring

• Low or non-VOC paints

• Dual-flush toilets (the Grrls want one of these so badly!)

Recycling will be available in all stores by 2015.

We know some of you Dunkin’ Donuts fans are grimacing and clutching your DD travel mugs as tight as you can. That’s okay, the Grrls understand. We adore the often quite ungreen IKEA. Perhaps you can write to Dunkin’ Donuts Corporate and implore them to not allow Starbucks to show them up. Tell them to green up the Big D!

It would thrill the Grrls so to have a Battle of the Green between Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. The thought is so dazzling, we may have to get a Petite Vanilla Scone along with our Orange Mango Banana Vivanno.

(The Grrls are very, very, very embarrassed. Dare we say we are even chagrined? Yes, we do dare to say that. The promised worm composting finale is several days overdue, but it’s not our fault. No indeed, it isn’t. It’s the fault of the weather: it’s just been too darned nice the last few days ( after a long and cold winter that never seemed to end) to sit in front of the computer. Mea culpa to our Gentle Green Readers.)

The Grrls arrived home from work and squealed in excitement when they saw the following on their front steps:

THE WORMS HAD FINALLY ARRIVED — albeit a week later than promised!!!! (Disclaimer: Only Grrl1 really squealed. Grrl2 smiled weakly. The Grrls are all about the truth.) The Grrls were a bit scared by the “live animals” note taped to the top of the box. We fervently hope that live duckies are NOT shipped via Fed-Ex in a little box. But we digress. It was time to make our worm composter!

Yes, that really does say “Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm.”

Materials needed:

• One lb. of Red Wigglers (Eisenia foetida) or European nightcrawlers (Eisenia hortensis) — the Grrls have Red Wigglers

• Two biggish plastic bins with lids, NOT clear or opaque

• Drill ( a “spade” bit works best)
  

• Newspapers (we read all our news online, so we had to cadge some from GreenMom1)

• One TV and DVR (for Grrl2 while Grrl1 makes worm composter)

Cost: Approximately $35-40 (depending on worms), compared to $80-200 for “store bought” worm composters

We used two 10-gallon bins — notice ours are made from recycled plastic. Extra Green Points for the Grrls! They were also on sale.

Drill about twenty 1/4″ holes in the bottom of each bin. These are how the icky composting juices drain out, and how the wormies will crawl into the second bin when it’s time to switch out bins when the first one becomes full of nutrient-rich worm castings (ie worm poo). Don’t make the holes any bigger, or the wormies may escape.

Drill about ten 1/4″ holes around the top border of each bin. These are ventilating holes. DON’T MAKE THEM ANY BIGGER, lest flies invade and taint the compost.

Although worms don’t get to relax in nice IKEA beds, you can make them wonderfully comfy bedding that is just like home to them. Just shred your cadged newspaper into 1″ strips and MOISTEN them, not soak them, with water. Just like you, worms don’t like to sleep in wet beds, so squeeze out any extra water. Place about 4-5″ of “just right” moist newspaper into Bin One.

Place one pound of worms and their shipping dirt mixture into their new home. Give them an hour or two to explore their new home. The dirt helps them digest their food — they have a gizzard system similar to chickens. One pound of squirming, wiggling worms equals about 500 individual worms. From what we’ve read, worms multiply like bunnies, so the Grrls should have many more worms very soon.

Place Bin One in a well-ventilated place like a garage, utility room, etc., or outside in a shady, protected area (which is what the Grrls did). We put the bin on top of two extra pavers we had so that the compost juices can drain (icky, but a fact of composting). We put the lid of Bin Two underneath to catch the icky juices. One site Grrl1 found calls this juices “worm tea.” Grrl2 still hasn’t recovered from being told this.

These little devils can chomp through about four pounds of scraps in a week. That’s a heck of a lot, huh? But, like the Grrls’ good friend Kristi, worms do better if you keep them vegan, so be careful what you feed them. They don’t do well on dairy or any animal protein, nor are they found of oils or wood (wood is technically vegan, we guess, but worms don’t like it). They adore their caffeine, so coffee grounds and tea bags are terrific, as well as any type of fruit, veggies, or grains. The worms need calcium to make more worms, so the “worm tea” site (link) suggests giving them ground up eggshells — or a Tums, if YOU are vegan.

Okay, this is how vermicomposting works: place your kitchen scraps into whatever composting collector you use. Try not to gorge the worms, as too much food will only rot instead of composting. Trust us, the worms will breed really fast, so more food can be added pretty quickly, and you can use extra worms to fish, like Grrl1 plans to, or, free them into the wild. The Grrls have read that it’s best to bury the scraps in a different part of the bin every week, so the worms will travel around their home and compost more.

When Bin One gets full of castings and empty of scraps, place new moist bedding and food scarps in Bin Two and place it directly on top of Bin One. The wormies will be so thrilled at the sight and smell of new bedding and snacks that they’ll crawl right up through the holes into their new home. When are the worms are relocated, collect the wonderfully rich castings and compost your garden, shrubs, etc. A caveat: the worm relocation may take a few weeks.

The Grrls have only been doing this for a few days, but we’ve already cut down our garbage, especially since Grrl2 drinks about a brazillion cups of tea a day.

We hope our Gentle Green Readers give composting a try, either with or sans vermis.*

*Grrl2 has been taking a bit of ribbing from Grrl1 and family and friends about her vermicomposting squeamishness. She wants all Gentle Green Readers to know that she is not alone! Her Youthful Green Colleague, who is very green and not a prissy miss, is also squeamish about a huge wiggling mass of worms. Grrl2, however, promises to give her a gift of worm castings after the first “harvest” as a house warming present. Sans vermi.

The Grrls have changed their theme! We still have some font tweaking to do, but what do our Gentle Green Readers think??? The theme we really wanted to use had to be scrapped, alas, as it isn’t compatible with the new WordPress widgets and plug-ins, but we do like the new one, too. It should be tweaked green by this evening.

The Grrls hope their Gentle Green Readers are having a fantastic Earth Day (even though we know most of you are toiling away at work right now). Many of the Grrls’ friends are honoring Earth Day in some way, even their fashion-forward buddy BudgetGirl – she semi-dedicated her blog post today to yours truly.

Today, the Grrls wish to honor the late, and very great, Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI), the founder of Earth Day, and, some say, the founder of the modern environmental movement. Senator Nelson had a keen interest in Zero Population Growth, knowing that our planet was starting to bulge at the seams where resources were concerned. He thought it would be terrific to designate a day to be an “environmental teach-in,” both locally and internationally. His dream became reality, and now April 22 is officially Earth Day (except for the United Nations – those rascals celebrate Earth Day on the Spring Equinox) in many parts of the world.

The first Earth Day in 1970 helped bring together eco-activists from many POVs, and every year Earth Day is used to focus on pressing needs in our environment, such as oil spills, global warming, and clean water.  After his retirement, Senator Nelson served as Counselor for the Wilderness Society, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, in recognition of his commitment and work concerning the environment.  UWM has named their Environmental Studies Institute in his honor.   So, hurrah for Senator Nelson’s vision! The world – and the Badger State – lost one of the good guys upon his death in 2005.

And, Senator Nelson also did one other great thing for us: he insisted on a Congressional investigation into the safety of the oral contraceptive pill, resulting in side effect disclosures by the Pharmacist to the patient being made mandatory.

*The worms have finally arrived! Expect a new vermicomposting post very soon!

The Grrls are so excited! Days are getting warmer and longer, and soon it will be time to go swimming, drink lemonade, and slather dixoybenzone, oxybenzone, ethyl dihydroxy propyl PAB, digalloyl trioleate, oxybenzone, menthyl anthranilate, and octyl methoxycinnamate all over our faces and scarily white bodies. Wait, what was that Gentle Green Readers? You would never, ever slather your bodies with such horrible sounding compounds? If you’ve used most popular brand sunscreens, then the Grrls bet you have.

This Greenterlude was inspired by our very dear friend, BudgetGirl. Being a very active California Girl, she and her beau are always doing something outdoorsy and fun. And, being fair skinned, she always (being a very smart woman) uses sunscreen. But poor BudgetGirl recently had a horrible reaction to some national brand sunscreen: she sprouted hives all over her body and swelled up like a balloon. After reading the above ingredients contained in most regular sunscreens, the Grrls see why. We promised her we would do some research and post about it, so that she and everyone else can have a safe and hive-free Summer.

The Grrls discovered the most amazing resource during their research: the Environmental Working Group. They are like a Green Consumer Reports. They did an exhaustive study of sunscreen last year, and the results were rather appalling. The Grrls are totally icked out that we’ve been putting this garbage on our skin all these years.

To begin, there’s one important fact you all need to know: the US Government has NO MANDATORY SUNCREEN REGULATIONS AND GUIDELINES, only voluntary ones. The Grrls laughed at that “voluntary,” since we all know what manufacturers think about that. By contrast, the EU has quite strict mandatory guidelines for sunscreen manufacturers. Basically, sunscreen manufactures can put almost anything in their products, and then legally make snake oil claims (ie all day coverage, waterproof, blocks all dangerous rays). The FDA started drafting mandatory regs 30 years ago. The Grrls know the Government moves slowly, but this seems a tad ridiculous to us.

EWG’s study investigated over 1,000 national brand and specialty sunscreens, and only approximately 5% passed their metrics. Our jaws dropped when we read that figure. Their metrics included:

• Level of SPF protection

• Stability in sun

• UVA and UVB protection

• Is product easily absorbed into the body or easily inhaled?

• Does product contain potentially unsafe ingredients?

Their findings showed that the huge majority of tested sunscreens:

• Had an insufficient level of SPF

• Contained chemicals that actually BREAK DOWN when hit by sunlight, thus drastically lowering protection

• Many offered insufficient UVA protection and no UVB protection

• Many were chockfull of icky chemicals and fragrances, some of which get absorbed into YOUR BODY or are inhaled, and, as per the CDC, can lead to allergies, hormone disruption, or even cell damage

• Many did not live up to their hype (i.e. waterproof)

In a nutshell: you’re pretty safe if you stick to sunscreens with zinc or titanium oxide, a high SPF, UVA/UVB protection, no fragrances, and apply liberally and often.

The EWG has a database which tells you which sunscreens are naughty and which are nice.

You won’t have to spend a fortune on fancy sunscreen you’ve never heard of. Some of the safe sunscreens include CVS with Zinc Oxide (SPF 45), most of Blue Lizard products, Badger products, and Walgreen’s Zinc Oxide for Face. Check out the database for a full list. Just don’t be too disappointed if some of your favs didn’t make the list: quite a few national brands have NO sunscreen that passed the test, including Banana Boat and Coppertone. Grrl2’s favorite Bullfrog didn’t make the cut, either.

You can also make your own sunscreen. We Googled, and there are quite a few recipes out there made with all-natural ingredients. There are also quite a few organic brands like Soleo, many of which are included in the EWG’s database.

Please, Gentle Green Readers, always apply sunscreen to yourself and your kids, especially if, like Grrl2, skin cancer runs in your family. The Sun is a source of life and fun and vitamins, but its damage can be harsh and irreversible. Be careful, and enjoy your Spring and Summer!

What a nice weekend it’s been in the Grrls’ hood. It is so strange to be running around in shorts and feeling the nice Spring breeze on our scarily white legs.

The Grrls had so many nice Eco Adventures to post about this weekend, but fate intervened: the worms haven’t been shipped yet, even though we received an email saying they had been. We have, however, been assured that they WILL ship tomorrow. Grrl1 thinks Grrl2 bribed someone to “misplace” the worm order. Grrl2 insists Grrl1 is just being paranoid (wink).

The Grrls went to IKEA yesterday. We adore IKEA, even though it’s filled with many, many ungreen things. They had free breakfast for everyone yesterday, so the Grrls Hoovered down plates of eggs, potatoes, and bacon (Grrl2 ate Grrl1’s bacon — yum yum) before they braved the IKEA Marketplace for some new juice glasses. Grrl2 loves their dark-roast coffee, and discovered IKEA sells whole bean bags of it. We are pleased to announce that all IKEA coffee is UTZ-certified. So, we were able to still be green even at IKEA! We were so gleeful at this unexpected event, we celebrated at Starbucks with Mango Orange Smoothies (overpriced but yummy, and full of real fruit, protein powder, and green tea!).

The Grrls have many green surprises in store for their loyal Gentle Green Readers, including a new blog design. We were hoping to have it go live today, but we are having trouble figuring out a glitch in one of the widgets. If any of you are WordPress experts, please contact the Grrls. The design is sooooo nifty. It even has our dear friend BudgetGirl’s stamp of approval, and she has impeccable taste.

Enjoy what’s left of your warmish weekend, and check back often this week to see our new design, the introduction of the worms, and lots of green info about pets and green design!

The Grrls were wondering how many of you drive a Model-T to work? Listen to a transistor radio? Use a Commodore 64 computer (okay, the Grrls knew at least one of you would say yes)? Then, why the heck are some of you still using incandescent bulbs whose basic design hasn’t changed since Edison “perfected” it in 1879? (The Grrls aren’t dissing Edison — he was a Mad Genius, and an adopted Jersey Boy.)

We love the glow of incandescent lights, but their heat-driven light is horribly inefficient and wasteful, and they use two-thirds more energy than Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL). Remember that most electricity is generated by fossil fuels like coal, which are decidedly ungreen, so this isn’t insignificant. To quote Ed, a CFL uses just 18 watts of power o generate 60 watts of energy/light. That translates into immediate green savings, in both power bills and your carbon footprinting.

About 10% of Americans’ home electric bill costs are from lights. That’s a lot. Imagine knocking that down to about 3%, with just a flick of the wrist? Imagine if the entire country did this overnight??? Gentle Green Readers, if you have neither the money nor the time to do anything else green, switch to CFLs. It really does make a huge impact. Many nations and states are realizing how wasteful Mr. Edison’s invention is, and have passed laws that will ban incandescent lights in the near future. Even the good ole US of A has joined in: the Clean Energy Act of 2007 will ban most incandescents by 2014.

The Grrls wish to address the CFL naysayers first. You know who we mean, those people you who roll their eyes over CFLs, and get their talking points from “Big Oil & Coal Journal” (yes, we just made that up).

• The light quality sucks. No, not really. The light quality isn’t worse, just different from what we grew up with. Just like reading glasses, you get used to CFLs really fast. And, you can now buy “softer” CFLs which are less “white” than light from older CFLs (we have one of the “whiter” ones in the overhead fixture of the master bedroom — if you’re standing outside the window at night, the light bleeding from the blinds looks like the Mothership just landed inside).

• I need bulbs for a dimmer/three-way/motion-sensor/candle-shaped fixture. We are pleased to tell you CFLs are available in ALL of these now. Well, our friend Jen isn’t pleased, since she still has a chandelier that takes candle-shaped bulbs, which she loathes, but that’s another story.

• They get so hot, they smoke and cause fires. The Grrls always sob softly when they hear this one. Yes, they smoke when they come to the end of their long lives (see below), but they are extremely safe and as fire-proof as anything can be. They are actually 70% COOLER than conventional bulbs, which can also cut down on your AC use. Think I’m exaggerating? Ever sit under a reading lamp in the summer? Still think incandescent lights don’t generate alot of heat?

• They take forever to warm up. They only take a while in a cold room, and that while is only about a minute.

• They use mercury and lead — they are ungreen! Yes, some CFLS do use minute amounts of mercury and lead, and they should be disposed of properly, but the industry is working on this. Sometimes something good uses something bad in the process: solar panels have all kind of stuff in them, for example, but you get a low-energy light source that lasts over a decade, and reduces fossil-fuel consumption dramatically. The Grrls know our Gentle Green Readers get this.

Okay, now here are some reasons to use CFLs:

• They last up to 7-15 times longer than incandescent lights. Ed Begley, Jr., has some that are 18 years old. Whoa! Yes, they cost about two or three times as much, but they pay for themselves very quickly.

• The obvious energy savings and electric bill savings.

• Many utilities give them to customers FREE — just call and ask! (The Grrls utility, of course, is not one of them.)

• They are MUCH cheaper than they used to be. IKEA has them quite cheap, but, if you can, go to Costco and buy them: they have the best prices, and they take the state rebate off at the register.

The Grrls just discovered that CFLs were perfected in 1973. We had no idea they had been around so long! We first saw them on an “Oprah” show about 10 years ago. We were amazed, but they cost approximately $25 apiece then, which was a decent chunk of Grrl2’s student loan payment. Now, we have replaced all of our interior and exterior lights with CFLs, and the difference has been reflected in the bottom line of our electric bill. The savings are enough to keep Grrl1 knee deep in Red Wriggler worms for YEARS to come!

Something to keep in mind: just like an MG, CFLs have their little operating quirks. Because of the way they work, turning off a CFL less than five minutes after you turn it on can drastically shorten its life span. Try to leave it on for at least 15 minutes.

So, park the Model-T, Freecycle the transistor radio, and give the Commodore 64 to your cousin, and try to make the change to CFLs. It’s the easiest Eco Adventure you can take!

The worms have shipped and are speeding their way to their new home as we speak, nestled all snug and squirming in their special bedding mixture. Grrl1 is as excited as a little green child at Christmas. Grrl2 would rather have a Costco composter and a kitten, but she understands that sacrifices must be made to live green, although she never thought said sacrifices would include red worms.