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Old October 18, 2007   #1
happychick
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Default Worms for a worm bin

I wasn't sure where to put this.

Do I need to special order worms for a worm bin? I'd like to start one and my compost seems to have tons and tons of tiny worms in it. They look like what I'm imagining the red wriggler type worms do - they're small, red and they wiggle like crazy when you pick them up. But for all I know about worms, maybe they're just baby night crawlers in my pile. I have no idea. Can I use them - they're in there by the thousands, I think! - or should I order some?
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Old October 18, 2007   #2
Worth1
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They are babies and are the right kind, no need to order worms I have the same thing in my pile and they are BIG.

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Old October 19, 2007   #3
dice
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From what I have read at a local vendor's
site that specializes in earthworm compost,
earthworm compost tea, and earthworms,
"Red wigglers" are "manure worms", they
seek out manure piles, pastures, and fields
that have had manure spread on them.

If you drop them in your compost or garden
beds, they'll hang around as long as there
is manure there, but they'll freely migrate
elsewhere looking for it if there is none.

Regular yard/garden worms of whatever kind
you find digging around in the yard, underneath
stones or cardboard or whatever after a rain, etc,
generally do fine in worm bins and compost piles.
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Old October 19, 2007   #4
Worth1
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Red wigglers are fine in a compost bin.
They tend to stay at the surface and deposit their castings at the surface.
Night crawlers and what some may call yard worms burrow deep and deposit their castings deep in the ground.
Red wigglers are not the kind of worm to feed your snakes and such as I have read they are poisonous.
All of these links and more say the red wiggler is the right worm to use as a compost worm.
http://www.cityfarmer.org/wormcomp61.html
http://www.taunton.com/finegardening...omposting.aspx
http://members.tripod.com/~AngieCooks/index.html
http://www.cathyscomposters.com/worms.html

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Last edited by Worth1; October 19, 2007 at 06:17 PM. Reason: borrow/burrow:>(
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Old October 20, 2007   #5
dice
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Earthworm biology:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in047
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Old October 29, 2007   #6
the999bbq
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you don't want the earthworms for your wormbin; dig in any healthy compostbin and you will find thousands of the right kind, just borrow some of these and they will procreate fine ;-)
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Old November 1, 2007   #7
dice
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(re: red wigglers, found the link I quoted above)

http://www.kitsapezearth.com/fact.html

They say that red wigglers don't digest tomato
seeds. Big deal, something else will (bacteria,
etc.) They say "no eggshells". I always add
eggshells to compost. The worms do not seem
to mind, and the plants likely appreciate the
calcium source, but then I add whatever worms
I find to the compost pile, not exclusively red wigglers.

Maybe compost piles and "worm bins" (for specifically
making and collecting worm castings) have slightly
different requirements (maybe they mean "you do not
want undigested tomato seeds and chunks of eggshell
in your worm castings", although I do not see why that
would be a big problem for the plants that are eventually
fertilized with the worm castings).
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Last edited by dice; November 3, 2007 at 05:01 AM. Reason: typo
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Old November 3, 2007   #8
Worth1
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No egg shells
I wonder where my egg shells went?



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