be patient, any newly installed worms will take a while to settle in and start chowing down at max ... concentrate on giving them the right conditions and they'll multiply as the food supply warrants in time

Bill

What are EFs and ESs?

Mine are: Perionyx excavatus (this is what I cut from the local supplier's description)
Our composting worm in Hawaii is Perionyx excavatus, also called Indian blue, Malaysian blue, or blueworm. Although not native to Hawaii, they have been established here for a very long time and are commonly found wherever manure and water meet on pig farms, chicken farms and horse stables.

Perionyx excavatus is the worm of choice for tropical climates and is used extensively for vermicomposting in India, Cuba, Mexico and the Philippines.

Here is a link that might be useful: Waikiki Worm Company: About our Worms

My bin has both Eisendia Fetidas and Lumbricus Rubellus and probably one other variety as well. (sorry my spelling is probably off.) There are quite a few varietys of composting worms that will work. Some might be more likely to try escape than others and some eat more or breed more than others but most will do the job and having some variety means that if the conditions are not quite perfect for one variety, perhaps another type will like it more.

Anyway, if you have just set up your first worm bin (like in the past month or so) then they are still settling in and you should not expect your one pound of worms to be eating 1/2 a pound of food a day. (remember they are only supposed to be able to eat half their body weight per day given perfect conditions and they also eat bedding that is breaking down.) Truth is, the worms don't actually eat the food, they eat the other microbes that are causing the food to rot. A new bin is sometimes slow to get that whole microbal food web going and hence why worms always seem so slow to eat in a new bin.

Be patient, keep the conditions right in your bin and eventually the worms will ramp up to eating their share. If you want, you could add more worms to your bin or even add another bin since it sounds like you have more food than a single pound of worms is likely to eat most of the time.

Here is a link that might be useful: My bins

The worms you folks talk about and have (not my "blue worms" which don't look blue at all) are able to live in bin and in your compost pile/yard?

At the workshop I attended & the literature handed out (and I read) says that my type of worms can only live in a bin? I was thinking of starting my 2nd bin in the courtyard, dig down a little bit (really HARD soil) to set the bin - I know it won't last forever because the UV will crack the plastic - I like the 10 gallon bins. . .

Moliemole: What kind of worms did you end up getting?

Nell

I ended up buying more EFs (Eisendia Fetidas -- sorry the "ES" is a typo, I don't know how to edit the post), they should be arriving this week. I'm vermicomposting inside the house and so far so good. The winters get a bit chilly here (30's to 40's at night) so I want to make sure my first bin survives.

Bill: You are right...I just need to be more patient! I am fascinated/curious and keep going back into the worm bin to nose around -- in the background I hear my husband say "... now don't go naming them ..."

Nell: Thanks for the link, very interesting (wow, $25K fine for importing worms from the mainland!!). The picture on their home page....now *that's* what I think a pound of worms should look like! Your Perionyx excavatus worms are quite long! I read that they considerably faster than the EFs. I'm afraid that they would not fare well where I'm at (California low desert) because of their love for tropical climates (smart worms, who wouldn't love Hawaii?). I learned new words today, "ENDOGEIC" (sub-surface dwellers) and "EPIGEIC" (surface dwellers).

tclynx: The Lumbricus rubellus is the other species that I am very interested in. They sure are pretty (can I say that about worms?) -- nice little fatties :o) From what I have read, they are soil-dwellers and like to burrow so I was thinking that if I had some of these worms, the ones who make it out to the garden would survive and be productive out there (I read that EFs don't stay alive out in the garden). What you say is true....I find larger gatherings in the earlier sections of my bin where the food is decomposing the most. I'm learning...

Worm help is coming...yay. I think I produce too much garbage for one pound of worms to handle! Multiply, multiply, multiply....