I have not tried them but have heard the same things. They also grow much larger than red wrigglers. I also believe they have a higher reproduction rate.

With that comes the one issue of needing higher temperatures than other worms. If I remember correctly they like temps in the 80s and this is what has scared me off as it drops below freezing in my area and keeping my house or area with a bin around 80 would be expensive. If you live in a warmer climate these could be better than some of the other worms that prefer cooler weather in the 70s.

I live in northern Michigan and its gets really cold in winter up here sometimes. I've been raising ANCs for almost two years now and my perspective of them is quite different than my original impressions I'd gotten from reading about them on the internet before purchasing. ANCs are a good deal bigger than red wigglers and even bigger than Euros ( I have four mix bins of both reds and Euros since the two do complement the other in their bin preferences and feeding habits, however I keep the ANCs in two separate bins of their own). Over time I've come to the conclusion that they don't like to ball up in high density (the way reds like to do), they don't seem to multiply no where nearly as fast as the reds and Euros. Though they become quite active at much higher temperatures than the others and sluggish below 60F they apparently don't die off even down to freezing. I just found this out this winter.

This winter my wife became adamant the the worm bins (6 of them) would not be allowed into the basement (as we had done the winter previous) and so all the bins were relegated to the attached garage. In past winters the garage always seem to manage to stay above freezing, even during the week long polar vortex that would descend upon us on occasion. Well this winter our doggie door seal had broken off leaving an inch gap between the vinyl flap and the frame, we'd thrown out earlier but I didn't think much about it when we moved the worm bins and stacked them close to the exterior door with the drafty leaking doggie door. Well we had a really long extended cold spell arrive this winter where we routinely experienced negative teens and twenties nighttime temperatures for more than 2 weeks, when I noticed the doggie dish by the interior door was frozen solid (our dog never spends anytime in the garage but we still leave a bowl of water out there for him anyway). Well, I told my wife and she says its been frozen like that for more than a week now. I immediately open the worm bins an sure enough all the bedding (I use coco coir on the bottom topped with wet shredded cardboard and newspaper)... it was all frozen hard as a rock. I was disappointed and resolved to buy more worms to repopulate the bins in the spring. Which brings me to 2 weeks ago when I decided to see if any cocoons may have hatched before placing a large order for worms. Much to my surprise, even though not all the bedding had fully thawed yet, lo, there were masses of worms wiggling through looking for food. My wife said she had seen some dried up worms (apparent escapees) around the bin a few days ago that she'd cleaned up. I was both shocked yet happy not to have to buy more worms but I was also perplexed as to how they managed to survive the frozen bin condition earlier. I've read that worms perish if the bin freezes over. Apparently this is not so... get this, even the ANCs didn't die away!!!

Then when preparing our raised garden beds (2 weeks earlier we removed the thick straw covering and put clear plastic sheets over the beds to thaw out the soil for an early planting this week of spinach and lettuce) and again lo, I came across red wigglers along with other earthworms that had survived the winter in our garden beds. Apparently the reds can go deep enough if required to avoid death or... did they perform the same death defying feat their brethren in the garage bins used? I don't really know... I just know these composting worms are far more winter hardy than I knew was possible. I didn't see any ANCs in the raised bed garden soil but I doubt many could have escaped last fall during the screening of castings, whereas the reds easily slip by in large numbers to get into the beds.

So bottom line, if you're resisting trying out ANCs because you're afraid the cold temps in your area will kill them off... don't be so quick to dismiss. True they don't "work" below 60F but they don't seem to die off either.

thank you for the information. The deep cold is why my parents left Michigan and moved to California. Right now I have the worms in my hot house but hope to move them out soon. They seem to be surviving well. Is it better to put them in a bin by themselves. I have several bins - big ones and am experimenting with in the ground bins. (African keyhole style)

Thanks for the information! I keep my worms inside the basement due to the HOA but it always feels much colder than the rest of the house. I'm more worried about them being sluggish as my basement stays around 60-65 in the winter and around 75 during the summer so they will never operate at peak efficiency.

Would you get the ANC over the Euros if you could create the ideal conditions?

To Penny and world... this is just from my own observations...

The ANCs seem to compost as well as the reds and Euros as long as temps are high enough... their advantage is that they will continue to work hard even in summers highest temps where I leave the bins in the shade of the pines as the temps soar into the mid-90s... they just keep on working. On the other hand I worry for the others at anything above 80F... their bins stay cool enough that they don't die but they don't really appear to compost very much at those temps either... the reds hunker down several inches below the surface and the Euro go to the bottom of the bins (which might be over 14" down depending upon how much bedding and food there is and when was the last time I harvested castings.

Reds and Euro seem to really like anything from around 55-75F and will be quite active in that range. The ANCs begin to wake up at around 60F or so and don't really catch up composting-wise unless we are well up into the 70s. Northern Michigan is really not the ideal situation for the ANCs... they are useful but not really the best choice because of our annual outdoor temperature ranges. (An aside: If I had the choice I'd too would like to live in California but I just love my job, it pays really well, and the cost of living here in next to nothing... so the economics of living here ultimately wins out and I just have to tough it out every winter.)

This is the bottom line for our area: knowing what I know now, the reds are the best all-around composting worms in my bins. They multiply like crazy and are capable of working really hard, all as long as you can keep the bin temps between 55-75F. I love those huge pink balls (mass orgies) they amass up in especially when its time to feed my koi some live food... makes for easy pickin's. Since the Euros go deep I can let the bedding go up to 18" when I get lazy and still pretty much nearly all of the bins contents gets worked over so you see even the Euros are pretty useful to me... however I do have to give the composting crown to the reds over all.

Each of the composting worm types has their own advantages and so I believe your own individual situation will dictate which will workout best for you. ANCs are not a good choice for me but strange as it might seem, the aggregate of them feels sorta like they are a pet and even though I do sacrifice the overages to my other pets (my koi) on occassion, I can't seem to bring myself to get rid of them completely.