All About Worm Composting

Red worms, Composting, Worm bin & Vermiculture

Posts Tagged ‘Eisenia foetida’

Red Worms in Worm Composting

July 15th 2010 Posted at Compost Worms, Vermicomposting
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Red worms, or Eisenia foetida, are a species of earthworms that are adapted to survive in decaying environment. This is unlike the other species of earthworms, which are more suited to live in common soil. In another words, Eisenia foetida are the species of worms most cut out for the job to produce worm castings!

So, how do red worms actually convert organic waste to castings? Red worms do so through a process known as composting. These composting worms would eat and digest the organic decaying matter that is available to them, and the ‘poo’ that is pass out is known as worm castings. Thus, you could see how easy it is to do worm composting, as the red worms would do everything for us! Our task is to provide a proper and suitable environment for the worms to live, reproduce, and thrive in.

Red worms are hermaphroditic, which means that the worm has no sexes, and each worm have both male and female organs. However, it still requires two worms to reproduce. Each pair of worms produces white cocoons that contain many eggs, which would later turn brown when a few worms hatch from their eggs. Do not worry about red worms reproducing too much, as they reproduce according to the amount of space they have. If the population is overcrowded, they will simply stop laying eggs.

Red worms’ form of defense mechanism is to produce a pungent liquid when threatened. Therefore, when roughly handled by humans, they may release this pungent liquid to ward off predators. To humans however, this pungent liquid is barely noticeable and will not cause any odor issues within the home.

Red worms are native to Europe, but have been brought to other parts of the world, including Singapore. Companies like us breed red worms for sale for people who have a heart for nature and would like to do their part in recycling.

Do contact us for more information if you would like to purchase red worms for your composting purposes.

Great Worm Composters Makes For An Efficient Worm Bin

July 12th 2010 Posted at Compost Worms
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The most commonly used worm composters today are the Red Wigglers, also known as Eisenia foetida or Eisenia andrei. In many parts of the world, this species or red worms will be the easiest to find, and the most widely used both by home gardeners and even for on a commercial scale purpose. If you know more about the Red Wigglers, the reason should be obvious. Red Wigglers are one of the best worm composters because they can live in a variety of conditions and can suit a fairly wide range of temperature. Whether you are in cold climates like US or in tropical countries like Asian countries, the Red Wigglers will serve its purpose well.

The next most popular worm composters are the blue worms, also called Perionyx excavates. These blue worms known as Malaysian blue worms or Indian blue worms are more suited for warmer climates in tropic areas rather than in temperate countries like during the winter months of Europe or North America. Not surprisingly therefore, such blue worms are commonly found in Asian countries like Malaysia, India, Australia, Singapore and other South East Asian Countries. They are longer and bigger than their Red Wigglers cousins and handle the composting job as effectively, if not more so, than the common used red worms.

To house these super worm composters, it is certainly advisable to use the Can-O-Worms composter system. This user-friendly worm composting system can get you started on the composting process immediately without much hassle. The Can-O-Worms composter is made of plastic and has a three tier stackable system to continually add food and organic waste to it. Start by filling the bottom tier with organic matter and watch as your composting worms eat their way up the worm bin, leaving their precious castings behind for you to harvest easily.

If you have just started on this hobby, you may prefer making a home-made worm bin to house your worm composters. A self-made worm bin is actually very easy to make. (Find out more on how to make a worm bin here.) Find a suitable container with surface area of at least 2 ft by 1ft, and 1ft in depth. Most containers from your neighborhood DIY store should do the trick. Drill holes all around the container, including the bottom so that air can circulate around the bin. Fill it with bedding, add your worms and you are on to this wonderful eco friendly hobby!

Worm Composting

July 8th 2010 Posted at Compost Worms, Vermicomposting
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Composting is the process of breaking down organic matter through aerobic decomposition. This form of decomposition makes use of bacteria, heat and oxygen to decompose plants, leaves, wood, paper, animal dung and other forms of organic matter. Worm composting therefore is composting with the aid of composting worms. This is also known as vermicomposting or vermiculture. The advantage of vermicomposting over that without the use of composting worms is that the worms speed up the composting process. However, composting can at times be as fast, if not faster than vermiculture under optimum conditions. This is usually only achieved in industries that specializes in making organic compost for sale.

For the home garden purposes, worm composting will almost certainly be faster in producing compost. There are three main types of worms that are suitable for worm composting. In layman terms, they can either be classified as ‘red worms’ or ‘blue worms’. The red worms consist of two species, the Red wigglers (Eisenia foetida or Eisenia andrei) and the European Nightcrawlers (Eisenia hortensis). The blue worms (Perionyx excavatus) are known either as Indian blue worms or Malaysian blue worms. Blue worms are more suitable for tropical countries as they live and thrive in temperatures between 20 – 35 degrees Celsius (70 – 90 degrees Fahrenheit). 

All these composting worms belong to the earthworm family, and as such are hermaphrodites. Each worm has both the male and female reproductive organs. Hermaphrodites do not have males or females, but simply mate with one another to reproduce. Each cocoon produced contains about 5-6 eggs on average, depending on the environment and diet of the worms.

Worm composting is a very simple and eco friendly project that everyone can adopt. The main tools required are simply a worm bin to house the worms, the worm themselves of course, food to feed the worms, and knowledge on how to ensure that are constantly producing compost, also known as worm castings, for you. You will also be interested in knowing how to breed your worms so that your worm population can multiply and your worm farm can work at its optimum capacity.

One common question asked is do worms breed to fast, resulting in an overpopulation scenario? The answer is that worms know how to regulate their population in terms of the space and food available to them. If conditions are not suitable for a larger worm population, they will not reproduce.  Therefore, you do not have to worry about an overflowing worm bin! What you are likely to have instead is a very active worm farm continuously converting your waste products to useful castings that can be used as a fertilizer for your garden and potted plants.

Compost Worms

July 6th 2010 Posted at Compost Worms, Vermicomposting
10 Comments

Compost worms are worms that are suitable for worm composting or vermicomposting/vermiculture as some people call it. Either way, it is the same idea of using worms to convert organic matter into worm by-products. Such by-products are called worm castings are they are an excellent source of fertilizer for gardens and plants. There are three kinds of compost worms popularly used by the home farmers and garden enthusiast. They are the ‘red worms’ known as European Nightcrawlers (Eisenia hortensis) and the Red Wigglers (Eisenia foetida or Eisenia andrei). The third variety of compost worms is the ‘blue worms’, scientifically called ‘Perionyx excavatus’. Compost worms belong to the earthworm family, known as ‘Lumbricus terrestris’.

The Eisenia foetida is a species of compost worms that is commonly known as Red Wigglers, brandling or manure worms. This is because such worms can often be found in cow and horse manure. If you want to get started with buying any worms, you may want to dig through a pile of manure in the hope of finding some compost worms! The Red Wigglers is the most common compost worms because they can suit a variety of conditions and weather temperature. Do note however that they are still very sensitive creatures and would need the right environment to live and thrive in. For starters, this is usually the worms that are recommended.

The Eisenia hortensis, European Nightcrawlers, is the other red worm species suitable for vermiculture. They are darker in color and can grow to a bigger size than the Red Wigglers. Because of this, fish enthusiasts may like to rear these kinds of worms to feed their fishes or for their fishing trips, though this is a very expensive option! However, they do seem to have a lower reproduction rate therefore they should preferably be reared only by experienced vermicomposting enthusiast. Having the right knowledge will enable the European Nightcrawlers to breed and thrive in the worm bin environment.

The third breed of compost worms is the blue worms, known as Perionyx excavates. Blue worms are also known as Indian blue worms or Malaysian blue worms because they are found in such tropical countries in Asia. They can also be found in tropical areas like South America. Compared to their European Nightcrawlers cousin, they are smaller in size. It is so named as blue worms because it has a tinge of blue over its red body. As they are found in tropical areas, they are very suited for keep in countries where the climate is warm. They are excellent breeders who can multiply easily under the right conditions. They are also very good worms for composting and are highly recommended for starters.

The life span of compost worms is about 1-2 years. However, they have been known to live up to 10 years. Every 2lbs (910g) of worms can eat about 1lb (450g) of food daily! This is about the amount of waste (not including cooked food waste) produced by an average family. Compost worms can actually eat up to their own body weight daily.

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