Worms living in their own poop

17 years ago

Several months back I harvested my worm poop and decided to keep the batch for spring seedlings rather than fertilizing the garden. I sifted it all, took out any worms that were left over and picked out a few cocoons, then I picked out any leftover scraps of food and every tiny little bit of paper (I used shredded office paper as bedding). What I was left with purely dark vermicompost with a few leftover sprinkles of finely ground eggshells and some cocoons. I figured, what the heck, if those babies hatch they'll just die.

Everything I have read indicates that worms can't live in a high concentration of their own waste, not to mention I have no food scraps in there for them to eat, not even any bits of paper.

So imagine my surprise now, several months later, when these babies are not only hatched, living, and getting fat, but now they are mating and there are a ton of new cocoons in my "finished" vermicompost!

What's the deal here? I thought their poop, especially in this concentration, would be toxic to them? What about the lack of food? Even if they could survive long periods without food, why would they be laying cocoons? I thought they self-regulated their population to the amount of available food?

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Comments (5)

denno
17 years ago
I usually gather the castings in March, with the idea that the poop is an insulator during the winter. I keep the wormboxes in my shed. Anyway, after I harvest the castings, I put it in plastic holders. I then use it for planting time. But when I'm applying it into or on top of my garden rows, there's always some worms that I missed, or they hatched. They have been living on the castings which they continue to process. But it is food, because there's loads of bacteria, which is why the worms process it. Anything that is consumed by bacteria, can be consumed by the worms. Hope that helps.
Anisten
17 years ago
Your Vermicompost must of still had plenty of material they could eat and not only that they will digest their waste also and process further. So not it is not toxic but if large numbers of worms are left in there like mine were then eventually they do stop reproducing or their cocoons are smaller from my experience. In close quarters though they can mate easier.
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vislander
17 years ago
After you harvest your worm compost, take a yogurt container and drill a few quarter inch holes in it. Then fill it with corn meal and bury it just below the surface of your harvest. Give it 2-3 weeks and lift out the yogurt container, it will be filled with the worms you missed during segregation harvesting.
takadi
17 years ago
Hmmm...what in particular corn meal makes it attractive to worms? Or is it merely a food source?
tclynx
17 years ago
I've heard that corn meal is a good special treat for worms. I suppose it is because corn meal makes a really good food sources for bacteria.

I always find some worms in harvested castings even after sifting through it really well. I just figure all the better for my garden and seedlings to have some extra worms around.

I suppose the only way to totally kill off all worms in the castings would be to dry them out totally or drown them by making tea (and if it is aerated tea, the worms won't drown.) I've found that composting worms live very happily in flood and drain gravel beds hooked to my Aquaponics system. They help break down the fish waste and make it more available to the plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx