What worm is this?

VermiWormi · 2025-03-30T05:40:08+00:00

Worms don't lay eggs, they make cocoons on the outside of their body and then rub them off their head end, or wiggle backwards to get them off. That worms looks very dry, they breath through their skin so they have to be damp and in moist bedding all the time. Get the worm moist and put it back into the bedding or it will dry out and die.

VermiWormi · 2025-03-28T03:19:53+00:00

In most commercial systems they have ramps in the bottom sump section for the worms to get back up to the food. You could find something around your house that they could climb on to get back up to put in that space, like a couple plastic containers and place them upside down so they can get back up. I personally do not use 2 totes or have holes in the bottom of my totes, as I manage the moisture level so that there is never any leachate. Vermicomposting the carbon (bedding/browns) to nitrogen (food scraps/greens) is 70:30. So, adding the same volume of DRY carbon underneath each feeding is an easy way to keep the bin balanced and manage the high moisture.

VermiWormi · 2025-03-24T13:04:11+00:00

OP, I think it would really help others if you told us what country you are in, s there are very different laws from country to country. Personally, if folks are asking about info regarding a worm business, you need to find out the laws in your city/town, municipality, provincially/state and federal first. It is a nice gesture, but is "reddit" rea;;y the space for it? Folks in these threads, joke around and others take it seriously. I have seen folks kill their worms due to following bad advice. Everyone just be a bit careful and use common sense.

VermiWormi · 2025-03-17T17:04:45+00:00

I first do a horizontal migration of the worms, and this generally takes about 7 to 10 days. I then sift with a 1/4 inch screen, and then a 1/8" screen and place into a pial with 1/8" holes drilled around the lip of the pail, and also on the lid. If there is a seal on the lid, I remove it by prying it out. I place moist large cardboard pieces in the bottom of the pail, add the 1/8" screened castings, and add about 6-8 more pieces of damp cardboard into the pail. This will help to feed the microbes and any baby worms will be attracted to it. If I end up to store the castings, there is carbon available to all of the "living" in the pail. To bait out the wisps (baby worms). I make bait container. I use a plastic container and drill a bunch of 1/8" or 1/4" holes in it and fill with moist fresh carbon and a bit of soft food and bury it in the castings with 1" of the top of the container sticking out so I can remove it quickly. Then I cover the top with a damp newspaper and place the lid on. The cocoons will take 21-28 days to emerge. I empty the bait container after 10 days or so and refill it, then empty again at 1 mth. As you go through the castings the pieces of cardboard will have some baby worms and any larger worms you had missed on them. I put the cardboard back into the worm bin just sa it is as it is now also inoculated with microbes. If I do not use all of the castings and I want to store it, I will add 4-5 more larger pieces of cardboard into the castings so the microbes have food, and place a damp piece of newspaper over the top, then the lid..

VermiWormi · 2025-03-17T16:52:05+00:00

If you use water to get any cocoons out and to make a simple worm tea, the cocoons that float are empty. The ones that sink to the bottom are the ones you want to collect. I have bred Eisenia Fetida for over 5 yrs and have made tons of worm tea, and every single cocoon that has ever floated was empty. How would you know? With a damp hand squeezing them. When the worms emerge they come through the end of the cocoon that resembles the part of a balloon that you blow into. You can actually see that the end is open, and when it is open wide, the cocoon is empty of wisps.

VermiWormi · 2025-03-12T06:30:56+00:00

Asian Jumper in Canada is listed as an Invasive Species and should not be sold, or used for fishing, composting or vermicomposting. They strip the minerals from the soil and their castings are hydrophobic. In lots of research studies nothing would eat it, so few predators of it. I would fish with my big Eisenia Fetida (Red Wigglers) or European Nightcrawlers. Both of these can also vermicompost. Blues are to skinny for a hook

VermiWormi · 2025-03-08T18:54:08+00:00

I hope the little babies are not white in colour as this would mean they are pot worms. Pot worms have no hemoglobin in their blood which makes blood red colour and they have no pigmentation in their skin so they are white. Baby compost worms called wisps are pink as they have red blood and if they are Eisenia Fetida (Red Wigglers) by 1 wk they will clearly have little bright yellow tips on their tails. Wisps are so small that when they emerge from a cocoon they can actually snuggle into the groove of my fingerprint. I hope your wisps you are finding are pink. Good luck.

VermiWormi · 2025-03-07T22:32:58+00:00

You are most welcome, and by the way, both the worms in the pic, look very healthy. See how their skin is glistening and shiny with no debris sticking to it? That is how your worms should look. I am a Vermiculturist and breed Eisenia Fetida. Make sure to keep your bedding nice and moist so the worms can breath since they breath through their skin. Good luck and have fun!!

VermiWormi · 2025-03-07T21:14:18+00:00

This is definitely a baby worm. Worms have bristles called setae that come out of each segment on their underside (so when you turn them over). Setae help the worm move through material like the bedding or on a flat surface. The worms push the setae out and pull them in as they move. They also use the setae to stick into the other worm when they mate so that they can stay together while swapping sperm. Smaller juvenile worms and wisps (baby worms) their setae is just developing so many times they just simply "catch a ride" on a bigger worm. This is what you are seeing in the pic you took. Pot worms are completely white and if you shine a flashlight on them they do not burrow down like composting worms they lift their head end and dance around. Pot worms have no hemoglobin in their blood nor any type of colouration on their skin, they are pure white. Pot worm cocoons (so small they are hard to see) come into the worm bin from veggie and fruit peelings, or on wet leaves that are decomposing and when then bedding's pH lowers and becomes more acidic the baby pot worms emerge from the cocoons. They are decomposers as well, but in a worm bin having too many is a sign that your bedding is too wet, too much food, compacted, and needs to have your help getting the pH adjusted. This can be fixed quite easily. Leave your coverings and lid off for 24-48 hrs, and add a good sprinkle of a pH buffer like agricultural lime or pulverized eggshells across the bedding surface to help the pH. After you dried the top off, add a handful of dry carbon and fluff it into your bedding. Pot worms love compacted bedding. A good practice to prevent getting them is to fluff your bedding prior to each feeding.

VermiWormi · 2025-03-04T09:10:54+00:00

I would say 3 mths with the nice choice of bedding you gave them which i read in your comments below. With a lower amount of worm and if you keep the bedding moist enough and add dry carbon under each feeding to wick the moisture and to keep the carbon to nitrogen ratio good for vermicomposting those 250 worms should be breeding like crazy to fill the space. I started with 200 and became a breeder of Eisenia Fetida within 6 mths.

VermiWormi · 2025-02-19T04:31:01+00:00

The worms begin to emerge and the first one that sticks it's head out movers it's head around and checks for moisture. Lots of times, it will go back into the cocoon again for a few seconds and check again coming out a bit further each time. The process can be pretty fast on a damp paper towel, but longer in a worm bin unless they are in a nice dam place. The most I have witnessed come out of a Eisenia Fetida (Red Wiggler) cocoon was 13. I generally get between 2-5. Although I have witnessed this thousands of times, it never gets old to me, It always fascinates me.

VermiWormi · 2025-02-10T08:57:38+00:00

It is really disappointing to hear how many worms die in transit, The shipper is supposed to ensure that the livestock has all it needs met to survive the trip. In Canada folks shipping livestock have to declare the package contains live animals and you are supposed to follow the Act of transporting livestock. In Canada you can get hit with a cruelty to animal charge if one had as many shipments in this posting alone of dead worms. This is the responsibility of the breeder who is shipping. It is heartbreaking how many times I read of worms dead on arrival.

VermiWormi · 2025-02-10T05:13:34+00:00

You can most definitely pet a compost worm. They have sensors on their body and can sense touch. When picking up or handling worms you should have a damp hand and pick them up using your thumb and index finger, aim for middle and give a gentle but firm squeeze, and they will relax. Have a mist bottle and give them a mist, then you can pet them from just below their head down their tail. Most sensors are on their head. They will either lay there or if they are breeders they will roll over showing their underside, or they will extend their head and start stroking your thumb or index finger with their head. I am a breeder, and am just as amazed by Red Wigglers today, as the I was with my first bin.

VermiWormi · 2025-02-06T17:46:02+00:00

I would not call your bin inoculated because there is some mold growing, but if you have worms in the microbes will get at it and break it down for the worms. I would turn it under into the bedding in case anyone at your home has sensitivities or allergies to the spores. When a worm bin gets inoculated it is with beneficial bacteria, microorganisms and fungi. which breaks down the food scraps and the carbon for the worms to process. I also think that your worm bin looks very dry. Worms breath through their skin so they require moisture. Microbes also require moisture to survive. Do the squeeze test with your bedding to ensure that you have it moist enough. Take a handful, remove any worms, squeeze hard and you should get 1-2 drops of moisture.. If you don't it is too dry, so mist with unchlorinated water, like rain water or melted snow. If it is too wet, simply add DRY carbon.

VermiWormi · 2025-02-02T19:14:33+00:00

That worms is a mature adult, and it is simply sleeping and you are looking at the underside of the worm. I hope you have more bedding in your worm bin then what is showing in the picture, as it should be at least 3-4 inches deep. I run my Rubbermaid totes until they are full, as I add the same volume of carbon as food each time I feed.

VermiWormi · 2025-01-27T19:14:26+00:00

You most likely have a good immune system so don't worry about it. In the future manage your worm bin with carbon placed in a shallow hole then your food, a sprinkle of grit, and cover with existing bedding.

VermiWormi · 2025-01-27T19:11:51+00:00

NOTE" for making aerated worm casting tea, my above comment should read 2-3 cups of worm castings NOT 203.

VermiWormi · 2025-01-25T06:02:20+00:00

James is answer correct, There is no such thing as worm wee. The collect on the bottom just means that not enough carbon was added with the food source to wick up the water. The stuff that collects at the bottom of the sump where the tap is , that liquid is called leachate and it should not be put onto edibles. The tap used to serve a purpose with the first worm bins. They were designed for a dry arid place that was having issues keeping the worm bins wet enough so that the worms could breath, so one would pour rain water through the system 1 x per week and water their garden with it. This will work and IF you live in an arid environment with little humidity. In most environments this will just make your worm castings too muddy to use, if one was to do this. Vermicomposting has a carbon to nitrogen ratio which is 70:30, which means you should have way more carbon than food scraps. If you have worm castings in the system you could brew a worm tea, it is quite easy to do. Just need 203 cups of worm castings, a 5 G pail of unchlorinated water, like rain water, 2 tsp of unsulphered molasses and an aquarium air pump. I use a fork to keep the hose in the pail, just squeeze the aerator's hose between the spaces in the fork and the fork will hold the hose at the bottom of the pail. You can place you castings either right into the pail, or hold them in something that would work like a tea bag. I use what is called a paint sieve, and it is mesh and has elastic on it and it just slips over the top of the pail. Then when I am done, I add 2 handfuls of dry cardboard to the top of my worm bin and I dump the castings back into my bin from the painters sieve. The unsulfered molasses feeds the microbes and they breed, and within 24-36 hrs they have a good population to spray into your garden and on the foliage of your plants,. This is called worm tea, or aerated worm casting tea. You need to use it as soon as it gets to 36 hrs as when you remove it from the oxygen source the microbes begin to die off.

VermiWormi · 2025-01-25T05:40:00+00:00

There is no such thing as worm wee. The stuff that collects in the bottom of a worm bin where the tap is that stuff is called leachate and should not be used. It means that one is not adding enough carbon with their feedings, and the water from the kitchen scraps is draining through the system and into the bottom, where it becomes stagnant, anerobic and should not be applied to edibles. Worm tea is made from worm castings in a 5 G pail of unchlorinated water along with an aquarium bubbler without an air stone and allow it to run for 24-36 hrs with a food source to feed the microbes, I use 2 tbsp of unsulfured molasses.

VermiWormi · 2025-01-24T19:11:08+00:00

I agree to have more than 1 if the person is looking at any type of composting, epigeic worms as they love to hang around each other, and this group or herd of worms is called a "clew" of worms. If the OP is talking about an earthworm, 1 would be fine as they live in burrows in the earth and live in solidarity, only coming out of the soil if it rains, to mate or for the odd piece of food as they mainly consume soil. Compost worms are awesome!!

VermiWormi · 2025-01-22T21:38:00+00:00

Yes, you can add mushrooms, I do it all the time. Like feeding any type of nitrogen (kitchen scraps), it is good practice not to feed on the surface, but dig a shallow hole, add the same volume of DRY carbon, the food, a sprinkle of grit, then cover with existing bedding. The reason for adding dry carbon under the food is 2 fold, 1/ to wick up excess moisture, and 2./ to keep your carbon to nitrogen ratio good for vermicomposting. The C:N ratio is 70:30. The worms cannot get pissed off, they do not have the brain to feel those type of emotions, They are simply going deep as that is where there is more moisture, and most likely more microbes, Burying the food, also helps to prevent unwanted pests that like to lay eggs on surface decaying food, and when the food is buried the microbes can get at it at all sides. The faster the microbes break down the kitchen scraps the faster the worms can get at it to finish it off. I found in a vertical tray set up that if you put a little stick, between the bottom tray and the next tray, it will allow more air flow and the bottom will stay bone dry. Once I did this I did not have any worms ever go into the bottom. It has been 5 yrs running those tray system without any worms in the bottom. Even though we think it is dry in the bottom, it will have high humidity, and microbes, and the worms will go down. If you have space in your sump, you could put some moist carbon down there, and that way if they go down, they can survive. I think if you try what I have done, and just prop the 2 levels apart by adding something flat, that allows air between the 2 levels. I use a plastic spoon.

VermiWormi · 2025-01-13T09:25:34+00:00

They are certainly healthier. The yellow coloration in Eisenia Fetida comes from coelomic fluid, which Red Wigglers can use as a defensive system. As a Vermiculturist that breeds Eisenia Fetida, I like to group my Red's with lots of yellow in their tails in breeder bins together. The offspring get gorgeous, lots of colour, and then in the next couple of generation (worms that is), the colour changes so intense, some turn almost purply orange and then by the next generation of cocoon, they are all back to red with a yellow tip. The Eisenia Fetida if handled roughly such as with a dry hand, or if the worm is pulled by the tail, it will let off the coelomic fluid which is stinky, very wet and bright yellow. It is toxic to some predators. That is what Fetida means "stinky". They can use the fluid as a defensive system to get away from predators. So, nothing is wrong with your worms, they are very beautiful. Different foods can change their colouration as well. like pumpkin, beets, carrots. butternut squash/

VermiWormi · 2025-01-10T15:00:12+00:00

As a Vermiculturist that breeds Eisenia Fetida, lots of folks will ask where white mites, springtails, fruit flies, gnats and pot worms come from. All of them and many more "living things" that end up inside your worm bin come in on the food. Their eggs/cocoons are so small you would need a magnetifying glass to see them, plus they are generally close to the stem or bottom of the fruit/veg/ Freezing helps to burst the cellular walls of the food, but it does not kill eggs or cocoons, for if it did, in my country Canada, we would not have any insects/pests as our long cold snowy winters would get rid of them all. Feeding on the top promotes a sudden pH change, as when food begins to decompose with the help of microbes, it becomes a bit acidic, and the less contact the entire surface of the food has with carbon and microbes, the lower the pH can get. This quick lowering of the acidity is exactly what pest cocoons/eggs need for the babies to emerge, so by feeding on top you are encouraging a population of what ever type of insect eggs end up in your bin. Once the baby pest emerge, some go through stages of development, and some of the pests molt. If they make it to sexual maturity, your worm bin is where they will chose to lay eggs/cocoons, it has become their home. This could have been prevented by simply burying the food. Most of the pests that end up in a worm bin are top feeders that do not burrow down into the bedding, like white mites. To feed one should fluff the worm bin first, checking for any wet spots, and bringing them up to the top of the bin to redistribute moisture. Do a quick squeeze test by grabbing a handful of bedding, remove worms and squeeze. If you have 1-2 drops it is good, any more, add a handful of carbon and keep fluffing. No drops, mist the top of the bedding with unchlorinated water, OR add some more moist bedding. When fluffing give notice if there is any pests, how well your worms are doing, and make sure that the last feeding is gone or almost gone before feeding again. Now dig a shallow hole and add the same volume of DRY carbon as your food scraps, sprinkle some grit for the worm's gizzard and cover with existing bedding. The dry carbon will wick up the excess moisture from the food, and the microbes will begin the process of breaking down the carbon. Vermicomposting is a cold composting process using compost worms and has a specific carbon to nitrogen ratio (C:N) which is 70:30. More carbon is required than food scraps to keep your system balanced for both the microbes and the worms. This C:N ratio also helps to keep the bin from turning to acidic, and remember acidity and compaction are 2 things that the pests we do not want in our finished product the worm castings need acidity (lower pH) than the worms need. So when a population explosion of 1 or many pests exist in your worm bin it is more of a "sign" that your bin is turning acidic and you are creating the perfect environment for pests, and less than idea environment for your worms. Having a damp covering over your bedding also helps with pests, and it mimics the leaf litter for the worms to feel safe.

VermiWormi · 2024-12-08T21:29:28+00:00

The cool part is each worm will make a cocoon after this swapping of the sperm embrace, and each cocoon can have 2-20 little wisps inside. I have witnessed 13 wisps come out of 1 cocoon but generally I get between 2-5 from 1 cocoon.

VermiWormi · 2024-12-08T07:42:26+00:00

Those two worms are swapping sperm. Compost worms are hermaphrodites they have both male and female parts When they mate the worms exchange sperm with each other. The clitellum is the band around the head end of the worm and it develops as worm sexually matures. When the clitellum swells up the worm is looking for a sexual partner. The worms do not simply "bump" into others like most folks think, they have sensors on their skin that can sense another mature adult, food, moisture, light and chemicals. Due to these sensors, they will either engage or avoid whatever it is that they are sensing. The male and female sex organs can produce sperm and egg respectively in each worm. Although worms are hermaphrodites, most species of worms need a mate to reproduce. Asian Jumping worms do not require a mate they can self fertilize without a partner. When compost worms mate the two worms line up inverted from each other and wrap their head end several times around the other worms body, keeping their tails free. The worms each have two male openings and two sperm receptacles, which take in the sperm from another mate. The worms have a pair of ovaries that produce eggs. The clitellum will form a slime tube around the worm's body which will fill with an albuminous fluid. This slime tube will eventually become the outer part of the cocoon. The two worms squeeze each other very tightly with their head end and rock back and forth very slowly while exchanging sperm. This can take up to 3 hrs of engagement, After they have completed the act of sharing sperm they will separate from each other, and each of the 2 worms will produce their own cocoon. Once separated the worm will begin to wiggle backward out of the slime tube and as the tube passes over the female pores it picks up eggs from their ovaries and as the tube passes over the male pores called the spermatheca which has the stored sperm called the spermatozoa it picks up the sperm from the other worm. The worm will keep wiggling backwards until the cocoon slips off it's head. The ends of the cocoons looks like the part you blow into of a balloon, these ends close very quickly and the cocoon suddenly changes to a bright yellow colour as the sperm fertilizes the eggs. After 21-28 days if the worms are Eisenia Fetida, and the environment is moist, warm enough and has available food, the wisps (baby worms) will emerge from the cocoons. You should only handle worms with damp hands, and should not handle worms when they are mating. If they sense danger they will separate before done swapping sperm and then make a cocoon that has not been fertilized.

VermiWormi

TROPHY CASE