Worm Digest - Re:&quot;Regional&quot; Redworms

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1) General Earthworm Discussion Forum

KatJ75
User

A Fertile Cocoon

Posts: 8

"Regional" Redworms - 2006/05/01 13:56 Here is my question/situation. I recently hit the mother load of worms from my future MIL's horse manure pile. I had found a few worms in a load of manure the other half hauled home one day, so I decided to go out there and poke around a bit. Well this past Saturday I went out and sure enough I found the sweet spot. Each handful/scoop had tons of worms, I would guess a hundred per two fistfuls, it was fun to see so many.

I know these are still manure/compost worms and should probably be fine in my outdoor worm bin. The question is how would I go about finding out what variety these worms might be? Is there a particular redworm that is native to the Pacific NW? Is there a reference guide that some one would recommend that talks about this, or shows pictures?

Truely this is just my curiosity getting the better of me. I have no intention of selling these or marketing, just need them to eat poop, but I like to know useless information, so am curious to know what type of redworms I have. The look the same as the redworms I previously purchased and have in my indoor bins.

Kat

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Worm Police

User

A Mature Breeder Earthworm

Posts: 96

Re:"Regional" Redworms - 2006/05/02 12:20 Hi Kat,
I live in the Pacific NW as well, about 80 miles south of Seattle. My worms came from my out door compost bins and manure piles. They have adapted very well to indoor worm bin composting. Initially though, it took time to adapt them to a bin set up, as they had to get accustomed to the new food. I did that by keeping them in their natural food source, and slowly added kitchen food waste, and gradually increased it. They are very domesticated now.
Your manure worms might be a domestic species that went wild generations ago, as these worms are very adaptable.
Connie

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KatJ75
User

A Fertile Cocoon

Posts: 8

Re:"Regional" Redworms - 2006/05/02 14:23 Thanks, that was pretty much my assumption. I was just curious if there specific types native to certain areas etc. And if there were any major differences from the red worms you buy. Curiosity is a killer, or so the cat says.

I am approaching these new worms with an ounce of prevention. I put them into my new outdoor worm box (previously empty), with almost entirely the material they came from, the only food I have added was partially decomposed material from my compost bin. Basically it is stuff that I had excavated from my compost bin when I moved it recently. I found lots of "red worms" living in the material that was decomposed to a certain point, so I scoop that out, worms and all, and fed it to only one end of my bin. The new worm box, outside, is about 2' x 5'L and about 24" deep. Checked them last night (their 2nd day in the box) and alot of the worms had moved into the compost material.

For the mean time I am going to run these guys a bit differently then my other bins, as far as bedding is concerned, as I have an unending supply of there preferred manure. It will be intresting to have some side by side comparisons. I love a good experiment. I have a couple in mind.

Mostly I really want to gets these guys reproducing so I can transfer some to a windrow set up at a friends farm.

Kat

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jlance
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 114

Re:"Regional" Redworms - 2006/05/03 21:11 hi kat
I got my worms the same way down here in va.I put them in bins inside right away with the usall bedding paper etc.they have done a good job liking all kinds of conditions but the best seems to be real wet and stinky but making it hard to harvest castings.
I bought some encs which are twice the size and efs that area little smaller to make compare.Tryed to treat the efs like my manure worms and about lost them all, now the encs seem to like about the same conditions but a little dryer.
john heal the earth with worm farming.
John Lance Indain Valley,virginia

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