Comments on: What Do I Do With All My Extra Worms??

By: Bentley

Bentley — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 04:49:37 +0000

Hi Kim,
Sorry for the delay. That DOES sound a little odd. Like Vermiman (not to be confused with ‘Vermifan’ – haha) says, there should always be a variety of sizes given the continual reproduction of the worms.
What sort of system are we talking about here? (indoor worm bin?)

By: Vermifan

Vermifan — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:52:56 +0000

When I had an excess of worms last year I gave them to my mum who put them in her compost heap.
My mum says they are still in there doing their stuff!

By: Nolan

Nolan — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 08:35:54 +0000

Could be that the younger generation is more prevalent up top.
I’ve just started to harvest my one bin (Attempting the Garbage Bag solution down in the basement with a Pure White Florescent Bulb – Hope it works), and at first all I saw were the young’ns.

Once i scooped the top 2-3 inches into the bag, I started to notice a HUGE population of Big’ums from what was remaining – all the way to the bottom. It was actually kinda scary seeing soooo many of them (I think I could fill 3/4s or more of a Ziploc Freezer bag with just the worms – 14Gallon Bin).

By: vermiman

vermiman — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:13:15 +0000

Kim,

It’s seems you are doing something to cause a total crash of worm population, leaving the egg capsules there to repopulate the bin.

See worms lay egg capsules about every week. If their lifespan was a year and a half, once that year and a half time span was reached, you would have worms of various ages. Since worms reach maturity rather quickly, there should be a sustainable population of adult worms.

By: Kim from Milwaukee

Kim from Milwaukee — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:24:54 +0000

Bentley, don’t worms have an approximate year and a half lifespan?? I’ve noticed that every two years or so I have a new batch of babies, but not many adults still squirming around. This kinda keeps the numbers in check naturally, it seems.

Or am I killing them prematurely?