Keeping Worms Alive

As a worm caregiver, you need to manage six things correctly:

1. Darkness

Make sure your system has opaque sides. Light may be used over the top to keep worms inside the system during the first weeks as they adjust, but a lid of some sort is usually preferred to maintain darkness.

2. Moisture

Too dry: If your worms dry out, they will die quickly. Humidity within the system should ideally be between 70-80% for happy worms. Make sure any added bedding is suitably moist. If you're having problems maintaining a moist-enough environment, you may have too much airflow within the system. Do not add water directly to the system; use a mister to add moisture evenly.

Too wet: Worms love water and are attracted to moisture. Although they won't die if moisture is too high, overly-wet conditions can be a cause for concern. The system could become anaerobic and overly-acidic, especially if also overfed. It's harder to harvest castings from a wetter system, too. For best results, the system should look like a salad, not a soup.

3. Temperature

Worms thrive in much the same conditions as we do: in a range between 15 and 30 Celsius. The more stable the temperature, the better composting and reproductive efficiency. Although worms can survive down to 5 degrees, they stop reproducing below 10, and compost much less efficiently.

4. Bedding (carbon-heavy materials)

Composting worms need a steady carbon diet to thrive. These can include wood chips, brown leaves, dead grass/straw/hay, compost, shredded cardboard, shredded paper, coco coir, pre-composted manure (ensure it has passed the hot composting phase). The amount of bedding material should outweigh the amount of food material within the system by 2:1 at least.

5. Food (nitrogen-heavy materials)

Although wigglers can survive on bedding alone for quite some time, they will need a regular supplement of nitrogen to stay healthy and reproduce quickly. Food can be any green or fresh organic material, or pre-composted manure. These ingredients will break down quicker and release moisture as they do. At the start of your vermicomposting journey, you shouldn't need to feed very much, making sure the food is at least mostly gone before adding more. Over-feeding can lead to hostile bin conditions and worm death.

6. Oxygen

Ensure the worms have access to oxygen when they need it. This is easily managed by leaving a good amount of space between the bedding and lid, and creating at least two airholes if using a closed-bin system. Maintaining the correct level of moisture will prevent most problems with oxygen.

Species Info

The life-cycle of a red wiggler (eisenia fetida) has four stages: cocoon, wisp, nymph, and adult. Cocoons typically take 2-3 weeks to hatch and contain multiple tiny worms called wisps. Wisps are miniscule, thread-like, transparent or white beings that eat ravenously and grow quickly. Nymphs are much larger than wisps and have turned pink, but have not yet developed the fleshy clitellum collar that signifies a mature adult, the only stage capable of reproducing. Altogether, the journey from wisp to adult takes around 40-60 days. Worms usually live 2-3 years, but can sometimes live as long as four or even five!

Although there are a few different species of composting worm, red wigglers are the most popular due to their hardiness, quick composting, tolerance of human handling, and a fast reproductive cycle that will get your composting operation booming in no time!