Composting

Vermiculture

How To Breed, Raise, and Maintain A 100-Pound Stock of Worms in a Single Room

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Lumbricus rubellus Hoffmeister, 1843 (Lumbricidae) Red Marsh Worm, Red Wriggler

• the Litter Worm (also known as the Red Worms or Wigglers) is an earthworm often confused with the similar Eisenia foetida. This species, unlike E. foetida is a temperate zone worm. It is an easy to culture livefood that is an excellent size for many larger tropical fish (it can be fed to smaller fish by dicing, but there are smaller worm species that can be fed to smaller fish).


• Description: This worm is a red terrestrial worm that lives in moist soil and leaf litter above moist soil



• 60-150 x 4-6 mm


• Dorsum is red-brown or red-violet and iridescent


• Ventral surface is pale


• Epigeic habit; mating and casting below ground, commonly burrows into mineral soil


• Obligate sexual reproduction


• Mature in 179 days; longevity 682-719 days


• 79-106 cocoons per year per worm


• Diapause spent in a ball 0.45 m deep in soil

Culturing is easiest in kitchen composting piles. These worms eat all vegetable matter and reproduce rapidly in compost piles that are kept moist. They survive outdoors in winter if the compost piles are deep enough to generate some heat. Otherwise, these worms are easily raised in shallow plastic boxes with loose fitting lids and about 5cm (2 inches) of moist but not wet potting soil. Place card board or newspaper clippings on top of the soil and place kitchen wastes (no animal fats or meats!) under the cardboard or newspaper. Keep moist.

Contribution of the Earthworm Lumbricus rubellus (Annelida, Oligochaeta) to the Establishment of Plasmids in Soil Bacterial Communities


Search for Lumbricus rubellus on:  All the Web - AltaVista - Deja - Google - HotBot - Infoseek - Lycos - Northern Light - Yahoo

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