Brenda
User
A Juvenile Earthworm
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Worms still sick - calling it quits. - 2009/02/15 17:37
So sorry for the long message, but it may be helpful to others and I can hopefully find a good home for the worms I have left. I'd rather give them to someone with experience rather than list it on a "free stuff" website.
So, yes...Sadly, I'm calling it quits. It all started so well, but is now exhausting me. Trying to save the worms is taking time that I should be spending elsewhere.
If anyone lives in or knows someone who lives in the dfw area, I have a bin of worms for adoption. No fees, no catches. It will take some time and work to sort through the bin, but may be worth it for someone.
There are a lot of hatchlings and juveniles who seem to be very healthy, if someone is willing to spend the time sorting them and bathing them. I started this on a small scale: I wanted just enough worms to have a enough castings for my plants and garden.
This is what's going on with the worms:
It sounds sci-fi, but as best as I can tell, this is what is happening. I'm still not exactly sure what's going on with my poor herd. I found a few sick worms and isolated them to see what happens. It's a pretty fast cycle from what I can tell.
I'm not sure if these symptoms happen in the order I'll list, but it's likely.
When teh worm shows signs of illness, it becomes pale and less active, hanging out on or near the top of the bin.
At first, the only physical mark I can see is a small ulceration on the ciltellum. Then the tip of the tail seems to be paralyzed, with the worm dragging it along. When touched, there's no response. It's just limp. It looks like the "paralysis" progresses from the tip upward toward the tail.
The worm begins to look flattened-out, like it's been ironed. It also begins to develop bruised-like spots that look pinched, mostly around the ciltellum.
The major vein becomes a dark, bluish-color and is visibly prominent over the length of the worm. I isn't the digestive tract - I can see that at the same time, and it's usually empty. The head will sometimes swell and turn a very dark red. I've seen one worm tie itself into a knot, thrash around and then die. The hatchlings and juveniles seem unaffected. It's the breeders and cocoons that are targeted.
There are very tiny translucent white worms in the bin. These are not hatchlings, as I first thought. They are thinner than a human hair and only 3-4 millimeters long. I have seen one burrowing into the ciltellum of one worm. The red thrashes when it's happening...I tried to squish the tiny worm, but it disappeared. Don't know if it fell into the bin or if it made it into the red.
I have also seen these things burrowing into cocoons. Instead of the cocoon hatching, it becomes a gel-like, shiveled ball of goo.
The first time I saw one of the tiny worms burrowing into a cocoon, I thought it was hatching. I put it in a jar to observe it what emerged was 20 or so of the tiny worms. They cling to the side of the jar and avoid the soil and bedding on the bottom.
I've been putting bread, banana peels, orange slices, damp paper towels with jelly on them, etc...on top of the bins and they are all covered with very small red mites. There are some brown and white mites there also, but the red ones are a little smaller.
I don't know what the white worm-things are, but I wonder if they could be larvae of the red mites? Whatever is going on, if it's the tiny worms, red mites, a disease, or some combination, it's wiped out almost the entire herd in the bin. I have a second bin that seems healthy, so I assume I've introduced whatever it is, maybe by dead, rotting plants (caught by a hard freeze) or perhaps leaves I've gathered from outside.
Has anyone ever seen something like this happen? They don't develop the blister-like growths often seen in protein poisoning. I had p.p. once before I divided the bin into two and the symptoms are entirely different. I have not added anything with protein since the transfer...except for the slices of bread that I started laying on top of the bin a couple of days ago (trying to catch the mites).
I've fed canned pumpkin and I gave a couple of banana peels yesterday. Other than that, they've been eating just the bedding and leaves.
So...the offer is on the table. I'm in FW. If anyone wants them, reply in the thread and let me know. We'll go from there.
Bren
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