Giant Euros?

9 years ago

I originally picked out Euros thinking they could do double duty as composters and fishing worms. I haven't really used them much to fish as the worms in my colony have been pretty small.

I have a homemade plastic bin setup and have the worms in the top bin with two bins underneath that are pretty much doing nothing (the 2nd bin is empty for ice packs when it's hot, and the third bin is just storing finished VC.). Since its been cold I haven't been in either of the bottom bins for months.

Today when I opened them up I found about a dozen large worms hanging out in the 3rd bin. They were easily 2-3 times bigger than the worms in the top bin. This seems completely counterintuitive to me--why would the worms that aren't getting any food get so big? Can anyone explain this? I would like having the occasional batch of big fat worms for fishing,

Thanks

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Comments (4)

11otis
9 years ago
Maybe the worms at the bottom are the older worms ergo bigger?
Although to our eyes there seem to be no food, what we don't see is NO fresh food. There's still lots of MO the worms can live on.
Having no fresh food in the surroundings may cause them less eager laying cocoons, I think.
nexev - Zone 8b
9 years ago
Maybe grow to extent of support of the environment is somewhere in there. Having all that room for just a few worms.

How long have you had them and what kind of size are we talking about in '2 to 3 times' the rest of the colony? I come across a few here and there that are noticeably larger than most of what I see but just figured it is the older worms maturing as I got my first worms around 8 months ago.

I opted for the EH myself as a more suitable worm for the garden though the size for fishing may come in handy some day if I ever have too many I can off them into indentured servitude.
swimslikeshad
Original Author
9 years ago
By bigger I don't mean any longer, just fatter. The rest of the colony has always been pretty skinny maybe the width of a bamboo skewer. I've only had them about 8 months myself as well (and I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that the ones I bought were mature. I've also wondered whether they shipped me EF by mistake).
The bigger ones I came across yesterday looked like proper nightcrawlers but shorter.
nexev - Zone 8b
9 years ago
Ok, I get you now. I have seen that same thing with some being more like the diameter of a pencil and others as you mention being slim.

There always seems to be a mix of these sizes when I look all the way down to very small worms. My assumption was simply that they were of different levels of maturity.