Why Worms?

Worms have long been known to provide the soil with essential enzymes and nutrients.  They do this by consuming decaying organic matter and leaving behind their excreta or castings as they are called in the industry.  There are thousands of species of worms in the world, but most are recognized in one of three categories the nightcrawler , the earthworm and the redworm.  All three worm types are used for fishing bait with the nightcrawlers and earthworms being the most popular because of their size.  

The story changes when it comes to composting. The redworm, although being the smallest, is by far the most voracious eater of the three. Under optimum conditions it has been reported that a redworm can consume its body weight daily. In the real world they consume about half their body weight daily. A good rule of thumb is 1000 redworms/pound, therefore we can expect 4 lbs of redworms to consume 14 lbs of waste per week (2 lbs/day x  7 days). When used in a home composting system, a typical family could expect to divert 728 lbs of organic waste from the landfills each year!! This is just from using a 2’ x 2’ worm bin. It takes about 1 sq. ft. to accommodate 1000 worms. By using a 2’ x 4’ bin a family could divert over 1400 lbs of waste each year! Get the picture?