Saving my Worms!

18 years ago

We just had the remnants of Hurricane Gustav come through here, and it dumped 8 inches of rain on us in as many hours. Where I live, we have mainly a heavy clay soil (except for my raised beds). One bed is not raised and it has quite heavy soil, and it was "bleeding" worms as they were trying to escape being drown in the saturated soil. I saved dozens and dozens of worms, and have them in a big bucket in my Garden Room and they are in ordinary potting soil (which was all I had). They don't seem happy and keep trying to get out. I'm worried because the forecast is calling for still more heavy rains over the next 2-3 days, so it will be a while before I can put them back. Will they be all right in the potting soil mixture I have them in, or should I try to feed them something? I have lettuce (and I can chop that up quite finely). I also have plenty of tomatoes I could use. If I should attempt to feed them, should I just lay the food on top, or mix it into the soil? I just don't want them to die before I can put them back into the ground!

I was very interesting in the "Worm Dude" nightcrawlers I read about in another of your posts. It sounds like just the ticket for my heavy soil. Next spring, I am going to rake off all of the mulch, and then lay down a heavy layer of well composted cow manure (which I can get very cheaply - I live in farm country), and I was thinking that would be a good time to introduce these worms to my garden. Or do you think I should do it in advance, so they have a chance to multiply? Do they multiply over the winter -- it's gets very gold here in Wisconsin, you know! One other thing -- would they "out-compete the worms that are already there? I have a lot of worms there already, and don't want to compromise that population. Any advice would be most appreciated. Many Thanks! MacThayer

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (3)

mbetts
18 years ago
Boy that's a lot of rain.
Here's the question: What kind of worms are you saving? Some worms live in bins filled with kitchen scraps and bedding made of paper or peat moss or something like that, and other worms live outside in the soil and tunnel up and down finding their own food.
Sometimes the "worm bin" type worms (epigeic) will show up outside in a manure pile or somewhere that there is a great deal of decaying organic matter.
Which kind do you think you are rescuing?
If they are epigeic worms they would rather be in peat moss and garbage than in soil. And they don't actually eat the garbage; they eat the microbes that are consuming the decaying stuff. (You can find out all about how to maintain a worm bin with this kind of worm on this forum.)
I'm afraid I don't know much about how other worms might be maintained in a bucket. If it's only for a few days I would think they could survive.
I can't see how it could hurt to put some chopped up lettuce in the bin, no matter who is in there.
Failing all else, you should remind yourself that worms all over this part of the world have been surviving storms and floods and all types of weather conditions for a long time without our help. Your little guys can probably survive on their own, and if they can't the eggs they leave behind will hatch and their legacy will continue!
Good luck.
mbetts
fosteem1
18 years ago
You said that you have raised beds. Are you loosing worms from them? I not you should be able to put the worms in the raised beds and they will be fine.
Related Professionals
Gloucester Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Lima Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Rapid City Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Little Rock Landscape Contractors · Muskegon Landscape Contractors · Pittsburgh Landscape Contractors · Oshkosh Landscape Contractors · Wenatchee Landscape Contractors · Indianapolis Stone, Pavers & Concrete · Baton Rouge Stone, Pavers & Concrete · Lawrence Stone, Pavers & Concrete · Beatrice Stone, Pavers & Concrete · Napa Stone, Pavers & Concrete · Palm Desert Stone, Pavers & Concrete · Reno Stone, Pavers & Concrete
macthayer
Original Author
18 years ago
Hi, and thanks for all the advice! As it turns out, the forecast changed, and we had sunny weather for the next two days. So what I did was to release the worms back into my bed. Most survived the experience -- I did lose a couple. I am trying to keep as many worms as possible in that bed because it is so heavily clay -- good rich soil, but very heavy. (This is a ground level bed that I had dug out and replaced with what was supposed to be "good soil". It is better than what was leftover from building the house, which was red, hard clay after they scraped the topsoil off the side of a rock hill -- couldn't even get a fork into the stuff! But I was hoping for better.) Anyway, every spring for the past 3 years, I have carefully raked all of the mulch off this bed, and then covered it with a very thick layer of composted cow manure, and then put the mulch back. I can already see progress -- the soil is improving. I don't know how long I will have to keep this up, but I can tell you the worms are loving it! The more compost I put on, the bigger my colony of worms! And I want the worms there to move the compost around, which is why I went to all that trouble.

On the other hand, picking them up and putting them in my raised beds really sounds like a terrific idea. Any bed could use more worms, and I use plenty of compost on them as well. And no, even the shortest ones were not losing any worms in that rain. They all have special drainage built right into them, pea gravel to keep the soil loose, and the soil is really terrific. So from now on, I will save the worms and put them right back into the raised beds. Thanks for giving me such a good idea! MacThayer