Back to Eden after 1 year

[flowerbug]

I stopped at a bait shop once and asked for a couple containers of worms. I happened to mention that I was going to toss them in my compost pile. The owner swore up an down that these were not the right kind of worms to compost.
I know pretty much nothing about worms... but I was pretty sure that a worm was a worm was a worm and that they all would do their little wormy thing in the dirt...
Guess not... I didn't buy them. (mostly because she was so rude and made me feel like a some kind of nut)

they are a great subject to study.

if you can pick up what are called Belgian Night Crawlers they make a very good mixed purpose worm. they will live in the upper layers of the soil and be happy eating about any kitchen scrap you throw at them. they are not native here and won't survive high heat or the winters, but are fast reproducers inside in the worm farm. i use them in my mix of worm species because i don't want just compost worms, i also want natives and worms that will live down deeper too. i keep 50,000-200,000 worms (depending upon what time of the season it is) and they provide me with about 200lbs a year of reconditioned garden soil and fertilizer for the gardens from our food and paper scraps.

she was kinda right. you do want compost worms if you are going to aim them at a primarily organic material compost pile. red wrigglers will do for that.

i just do things my own way and use some dirt too so that is why i used mixed species.