Question about my red wigglers

My husband bought me some red wigglers through the mail last year for my birthday, since I was trying to go greener by composting and wanted to start a organic garden. Well before I recieved the red wigglers I was driving and saw a small fishing store that advertised red wigglers as well so I decided to buy a container of red wigglers from this guy to try them out. When I received the package of red wigglers that my husband had ordered through the mail I saw that they were smaller and that they had a more bibrant red color on them, my thoughts were that maybe they would get bigger and fatter like the ones I purchased from the sports fishing store, so I decided to place both worms together. At first everything was going well but now a year later everytime I look to see how many worms there are on my box I keep seeing less and less and sometimes I see a fat one just like the ones I purshased in the fishing store plus it takes a long time for the worms to digest the food. I guess my question is, what is going on with my worms? Are the big worms killing the red wigglers? and If so should I just start another container and order more red wigglers and throw this one away?

thanks

Carmen

Ps: I live in florida and have the box of worms in my laundry room so I know that it's not the cold that is killing them

I don't think the store-bought worms are hurting the mail-order ones. Worms just eat decomposing matter. If the number of worms is decreasing, and you know they aren't too cold, (or too hot) check on your moisture content, too. Also, do you chop up the food that you give them? The faster it begins to break down the faster they will eat it.

Have you noticed any baby worms? By now you should have newbies hatching. If you aren't finding any babies or pods, perhaps they simply aren't reproducing for some reason.

On a different note, I have found that if I throw in large chunks of eggshells I will later find 'nests' of baby worms in them. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but it has happened more than a couple of times.

Good luck,
Julia

It's two different species of worms, most likely. The thinner ones are supposedly more efficient at composting, so are sold for that purpose, the fatter ones are more attractive to fish. Although either type obviously works at the other purpose, and they live together fine out in the world. The only time I had a problem with competition was one time I got some sort of bright orange, non-native worm (from eggs in a vegetable peel, I imagine), and did have to sort them out and start over.

I don't know how constant the temperature is in your laundry room. My experience is that the worms are happiest right around 75F, so they're just eating and reproducing away in the spring and fall. In the winter it's cooler, so they just do everything slow. In the summer it's warmer, and they get kinda lethargic. So I have cycles in population, and I adjust the amount of food I add proportionately.

If there was something horribly wrong, I don't think your colony would have lasted a year, more like a few weeks. So maybe check things like moisture, and investigate around to see if the worms are crawling out, rather than dying, something they do if conditions seem less than ideal to them. Maybe note where in the bin they're hanging out, and try to make the rest of the bin more like that.

Hope any of that helps!

Thank you so much for all your responses, they really help, I will check and see if there are any bay worms in my bin. I do think it might be a little damp so I added more newspaper to try to dry it out a little bit.

Thanks again.

On another note, do you usually use all your vegetable scraps for the worms or do you have another method of decomposing all the vegetable peels? sometimes I end up throwing some of my vegetable left overs because I don't want to overfeed the worms. I read somewhere that it is bad to over feed them.

If you don't want to waste your scraps you can compost them. I don't know how much yard/plants/garden you have, but it doesn't take much space to compost-even just a trash can will do. There is a great compost site here at Dave's that covers all the needs of a healthy compost batch. If you enjoy vermicomposting, it's only a small step to the other form:>)
Julia

Hi, I was just reading another thread and the person freezes the extras and thaws them for the worms as needed. I'm thinking of doing it because in the spring time mine are gonna need more when I dump them in my new garden.

CAUTION IN BUYING THESE WORMS,Eisenia foetida, or"European Night crawlers."are non native worms,
Eisenia foetida, or"European Night crawlers."are non native worms,This is why we

with any non-native species, it is important not to allow them to reach the wild. Their voracious appetites and reproductive rates (especially among the red wigglers) have been known to upset the delicate balance of the hardwood forests by consuming the leaf litter too quickly. This event leaves too little leaf letter to slowly incubate the hard shelled nuts and leads to excessive erosion as well as negatively affecting the pH of the soil. So, do your best to keep them confined!

Eisenia foetida

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eisenia fetida, known under various common names, including redworms, brandling worms, tiger worms and red wiggler worms, are a species of earthworm adapted to decaying organic material. They thrive in rotting vegetation, compost, and manure; they are epigeal. They are rarely found in soil, instead like Lumbricus rubellus they prefer conditions where other worms cannot survive. They are used for vermicomposting. They are native to Europe, but have been introduced (both intentionally and unintentionally) to every other continent except Antarctica, occasionally threatening native species.

Please when composting with worms ,find worms that are nartural your area. To be green is to do what is natral in your region.
Thanks Hongkongwillie