Raising composting Earthworms 101

Red Wiggler composting earthworms are the same all over the world. These small red worms are also commonly called manure worms because they invariably are found in aged manure piles. While night crawlers borrow into the ground, and can easily escape, Red Wiggler composting earthworms are surface dwellers and are less apt to leave their bedding unless it becomes uninhabitable (to wet or to dry). I cover this subject at some length in my best seller The Earthworm Farmer's Bible; however, the important thing for beginners to understand is that composting earthworms are easy to raise and can be placed in almost any container including plastic buckets, plastic totes, stack-able bins, old bathtubs and wooden boxes; in fact their bedding can even be placed directly on the ground or over a slab of concrete or asphalt! The worms I sell commercially are raised in 100 foot long windrows placed directly on the ground. The windrows are covered with a tarp to conserve water and to keep the birds and turkeys out, that's it! You can easily establish a similar, but smaller, windrow in a shady area of your backyard at little or no expense. That's the beauty of raising composting earthworms in your backyard, you can turn your kitchen and paper waste into valuable earthworm casting with little effort and at minimal expense! Composting earthworms will eat almost anything that was once alive, kitchen waste, lawn clippings and tree leaves. You name it and the worms will eat it. Exceptions to this general rule include scented woods and their leaves (redwood, cedar and eucalyptus) and extremely fatty foods like butter and animal fat. In this respect, small amounts of fat are not important and do not have to be separated from your kitchen scraps. You can do this! Have questions? Email me at docmerrill@aol.com. Remember, 50 percent of our garbage, over 500 billion metric tons a year, can be eaten by composting earthworms. Do your part, start composting with earthworms today!