Compost worms: species, function & Reproduction

• Types of compost worms
• What do compost worms do in the compost?
• Compost worms in the worm box
• Buy or attract compost worms
• Propagating compost worms

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Compost worms help to quickly turn your organic waste into fertile compost. We explain which worms you can buy and multiply for this.

Worms don't just inspire children with their meandering, glittering bodies. They hire themselves out in compost heaps, large composting facilities or private worm boxes as useful composters. In this article you will get an overview of the most suitable species, their activities inside the compost, the general structure of a worm box or worm farm and some tips for obtaining and propagating your own worms.

Compost worms are those specimens that occur in compost heaps or are even deliberately used in compost heaps or worm boxes. They are multiplied by the thousands in so-called worm farms and are also used in large, professional composting plants.

Types of compost worms

The term "compost worms" covers more than just one type of worm: Basically, a wide variety of worms can help with composting - some are more effective than others though

We will introduce you to the small, useful companions in more detail:

Eisenia fetida (compost worm/dungworm/stinkworm): This worm is one of the most common worms in Europe. He likes to stay in compost waste, but also under the turf of natural meadows. It lives more in the upper soil layer, where a lot of fresh organic material can be found. Every day he can devour half his body weight in compost and excrete a preliminary stage of worm castings. This makes Eisenia fetida one of the hardest-working compost helpers, which is why it is often used to speed up composting. The dungworm usually has lighter and darker "ringlets".

Eisenia andrei: This earthworm species is closely related to Eisenia fetida and is therefore often confused with it. Size and lifestyle are identical, the only difference between the two species is their coloring: The species Eiseniaandrei is mostly colored dark red throughout. However, these differences are not always clearly pronounced, which increases the likelihood of confusion.

Eisenia hortensis (European earthworm): This is also an earthworm native to Europe. It is blue-grey, ringed with pink and often has yellowish ends. Previously it was only used as a fishing bait, but it is now also valued as a compost helper. Its peculiarity is that it prefers coarse, woody material. This is rather spurned by Eisenia fetida and Eisenia andrei , so that the species complement each other well. According to experience reports, it reproduces a little more slowly than the two species mentioned above and also gets a little bigger.

Collect and breed earthworms yourself?

There are plenty of worms in he althy soil and, what's more, they're free: couldn't you just collect and multiply them yourself? Surely that possibility exists. However, it is better to search in a well-established compost heap, because here you will find worm genera and species that seem to like to live in loose, nutrient-rich substrate.

Earthworms in Germany can belong to one of 15 genera and 47 species - each of them is adapted in one way or another to a special habitat and not every earthworm feels comfortable in the composter or in the even smaller worm box. In particular, the representatives that burrow deep in the ground often die in small worm boxes.

Summary of Compost Worms:

• Common compost worms are Eisenia fetida, E. andrei and E. hortensis
• They differ slightly in appearance and lifestyle, but all three are effective compost helpers
• Collecting worms for composting is difficult, as there are many different types of worms with different needs

What do compost worms do in the compost?

Compost worms have no extremities, eyes or tentacles - but they do have a particularly large appetite. The compost worms eat and digest something differently than we humans do: their front gullet is completely surrounded by a kind of upper lip. From the mouth opening, the intestine leads once from the front end to the back end of the worm. It is not surrounded by a skeleton or cartilage, but only by other organs that are supported in a sheath of muscles. Of theSkin-muscle tube protects to the outside and also helps to hold everything together.

The intestine begins with the pharynx, called the "pharynx", which is very muscular. When the worm eats, it opens some soft compost material with its upper jaw and then simply pushes against it with its mouth open, filling its pharynx. Small stones and sand are also swallowed. Everything together passes through the esophagus into the gizzard, where it is kneaded together and crushed by the stones. This is followed by further transport into the midgut, which is very long and has indentations to increase the surface area for nutrient absorption. The digested compost then leaves the worm through the anus. In doing so, it excretes calcium, which neutralizes acidic material and ensures that the worm excrement is putty. This creates the worm mounds that a keen observer can find with the naked eye wherever worms live.

Tip: In the soil, worms are considered to be the most effective mixers of mineral and organic soil components: Since they also take in clay particles, small stones and other soil components in addition to their food, they knead all these elements together in her stomach. The excreted calcium forms stable bridges between organic and mineral components. All feces are held together by a layer of mucus. Further processing by bacteria and fungi results in porous, stable humus crumbs

Function Summary of Compost Worms:

• Compost worms feed by ingesting surrounding material, including pebbles, sand and other soil minerals
• During excretion, calcium is added to the worm droppings and it is surrounded by a layer of mucus; both hold the pile together
• Bacteria and fungi can convert the worm excrement into humus crumbs

Compost worms in the worm box

As I said, worms do not only go about their daily work in the compost heap or composter: Keeping worms in boxes has various advantages for you:

• Compost worms accelerate composting and stabilize the resulting humus crumbs with their calcium and mucus excretion
• In worm farms - i.e. propagation boxes for worms - so much offspring is produced thatthat you can profitably sell it to composting plants and private compost owners
• Anglers often run their own worm farms to ensure they always have enough fresh bait available
• Some compost owners multiply worms in order to be able to provide freshly started compost heaps with a large quantity of the useful helpers; composting is started quickly
• Worm boxes for indoor composting can be operated directly in the apartment and compost waste that otherwise ends up in the bio bin

Basically, worm boxes are always large-volume boxes made of plastic or wood, which are usually divided into at least two chambers. The subdivision is always easy for the worms to overcome - it is realized by perforated boards or grids. The box made of untreated wood is the simplest variant, but it also places the highest demands on the operator. Sophisticated plastic boxes divided into tiers with a tap to drain the resulting liquid - the "worm tea" - make it much easier for the user. However, what happens in the box does not differ: At the beginning, a mixture of different compost material is placed in a chamber together with the worms. Gradually, the chamber is filled with material until nothing more can go in. In the case of multi-chamber systems, the operator now begins to fill another chamber. In the case of single-chamber systems, the rotting material is regularly pushed together in “heaps” in order to separate fresh and old material from one another. Once the worms have worked through an area and find less promising food, they start migrating to where “the grass is greener”: they go to the fresh compost in another area of the worm box. When all the worms have moved there, you can remove the finished vermicompost.

Summary of compost worms in the worm box:

• Worms are kept in boxes either for targeted reproduction or to produce vermicompost
• Worm boxes can be very simple or divided into several chambers between which the worms can move; they follow the freshest compost so that finished vermicompost can be easily removed
• In addition to the functional worm boxes, there are now also those available that look more like a piece of furniture in the interior

Buy or attract compost worms

As mentioned in the description of the compost worms, there are big differences between the deep burrowing earthworms under meadows and beds and the shallow living, hungry compost worms. “Catching”, identifying and propagating suitable worms can certainly become an instructive and exciting long-term project. On the other hand, the purchase is worthwhile, of course, above all because of the great time and work savings. As a rule, several hundred worms are offered at once. When shopping, you should make sure that you choose a mixture of different types of worms. Since these each have a certain food preference, the species most suitable for you will dominate in the long run.

The vendors of live worms depend, of course, on their worms reaching their destination alive. For this reason, an order in the dead of winter or in the height of summer may not be immediately successful: since the worms arrive in the shipping package, shipping has to be postponed to a more convenient time. You can run a normal compost without any additional worms if naturally occurring worms can migrate from outside. However, you should only start using an indoor worm box once the worms have arrived.

If you prefer to collect and breed worms, here are some tips:

• Search in places where the food supply for worms roughly corresponds to what you will later put in the worm box - for example in compost heaps
• You can also set out bait made from your kitchen scraps. If checked regularly, you should soon find some worms - and other beneficial organisms as well
• Make sure to start the reproduction with as large a flock of worms as possible: Otherwise, reduced activity and viability as a result of severe inbreeding can cause composting to stall. Start with at least 50 Worms
• If you have friends who also run a worm box, they can certainly offer you some worms as well

Summary Buy or Attract Compost Worms:

• Buying compost worms is a huge time saver
• Choose a mix of different worm species
• Shipment must be postponed in case of very cold or very warm temperaturesbecome
• Compost heaps can also be prepared without compost worms, worm boxes are better not
• It is best to collect worms where the food supply corresponds to their future diet
• Do not start propagation with fewer than 50 worms

Propagating compost worms

If you have enough he althy worms available, you can start breeding. You can do this in your worm box or other container. However, the following conditions must be met:

1. The place of propagation must be sufficiently well ventilated. Poor oxygenation causes worm food to ferment, rendering it unusable. Also, the worms can suffocate.
2. The place of reproduction should always be around 20 °C, because at these temperatures the worms are most active and most eager to reproduce. Temperatures should never be less than 0 °C or more than 30 °C in the box - that would kill all microorganisms and worms in the medium term.
3. The contents of the box should be kept constantly moist and at the same time must not be saturated with water. Regular wetting with a spray bottle or careful watering may be necessary if not enough water gets into the box with the worm food. A pad made of cardboard, felt or hemp fibers - also moistened - can minimize water loss through evaporation. If it does get too wet, you should drain off excess water, which many worm boxes allow using a tap. If one is missing, you can counteract this by mixing in absorbent paper and cardboard remnants.
4. The contents of the box - both food and habitat for the worms - must not become too acidic. You should therefore not add leftover citrus fruits or rhubarb. If a pH reading shows a value close to 6.5, you should use lime to neutralize the acid - boiled egg shells are also suitable here. The regular addition of wood chips can also help: their conversion produces alkaline substances that counteract acidification.
5. Since worms usually live in the ground, they like it dark. A cover should keep out all the sun and predators while also providing good ventilation.
6. The amount of food should be neither too small nor too large. A worm can eat and digest maximum half its own weight daily. ThatWeighing the worms initially will tell you how much food to feed. Too much unused feed material can lead to the proliferation of unwanted bacteria and eventually to rot and foul odors. In order to disturb the worms as little as possible, you should concentrate on adding the food to one day a week.
7. If you intend to run the worm farm in the long term, it will be necessary to supply trace elements in the form of rock flour or special worm-mineral mixtures. If you use rock powder, you should pay attention to the parent rock: granite and diorite, for example, produce acidic rock powder that lowers the pH value. Sprinkle once a month is enough.

Tip: Like all worms, compost worms are hermaphrodites, also known as hermaphrodites. They have both male and female sex organs. These are located in the clitellum, the wide belt that every adult worm wears. During mating, the sexual organs come into mutual contact, so that in the best case both worms are fertilized. In fact, this succeeds in only 50% of all mating attempts. If fertilization has taken place, the clitellum constantly migrates backwards on the worm body in the coming days and is finally stripped off. It now forms a protective cocoon around the worm eggs, from which small worms soon hatch.

Food for Compost Worms

What is the favorite food of the worms? If you have collected your worms yourself, you should use the bait used or the place where you found them as a guide. Worms from a thick layer of leaves probably love leaves, worms from the dung heap prefer manure, and those from a compost pile full of kitchen scraps love kitchen scraps. In this way, you can even succeed in sorting: if you put all the collected worms in connected chambers with different compost waste, after a few days they will have sorted themselves according to their preferences. Below is a table that gives you an overview of suitable and unsuitable worm food.

Suitable as worm food	Unsuitable as worm food
Raw leftover fruit and vegetables	Cooked leftovers (only if nothing else is available)
Crumbled Stale Bread/Buns	Banana peels (smallest quantities only)
Boiled Egg Shells	Meat (never)
Tea and coffee grounds	Citrus fruits, rhubarb (only small amounts)
Cardboard and Paper	Garlic (smallest amounts only)
Wood chips, other wood scraps	Raw eggs (never)
Cotton, Linen	Dairy products (never)
House dust, hair, fingernails	Printed paper, fruit and vegetables contaminated with pesticides

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