Worms climbing up the sides of your wormery walls indicates that they aren’t comfortable in their environment and are trying to find the promised land. Follow the trouble shooting section for what to do in this situation.

As extraordinary as it may seem, earthworms are superb climbers. And they seem to be particularly good at climbing up smooth plastic, using the same motions they do when they move through or over soil. Besides this ability, earthworms are adept at burrowing through mortar in walls.

You’re right: It is unlikely that the worms crawled up from the ground. It’s not impossible, however. Some species do climb vertical surfaces, such as trees. The worms (or, at least one worm, since some varieties can reproduce solo) were deposited on your roof, or directly into your eavestroughs, by a bird.

Can earthworms climb steps and stairs? Earthworms breathe through their skin which require to be kept moist at all time. So, although they can climb the stairs, they might not be able to climb all the way to the top as they might die before if the surface is totally dry.

“So, a worm comes to the surface while it’s raining, then the sun comes out and the water on the sidewalk evaporates quickly. The worm’s skin is getting drier and it can’t move because of the light, so it will dry up and die,” Sherman warned.

four years

If an earthworm is split in two, it will not become two new worms. But the original tail of the worm will not be able to grow a new head (or the rest of its vital organs), and will instead die. However, there is a type of “worm” that puts the earthworm’s regenerative ability to shame: the planarian flatworm.

The breeding cycle is approximately 27 days from mating to laying eggs. Worms can double in population every 60 days.

Keeping Worms Happy

1. Worms need to live in a warm, dark place. Red wigglers like the temperature to be between 40-75 degrees.
2. Worms need moisture in their environment. The texture of their bedding should feel like a wrung-out sponge.
3. Worms need air. Worms breathe through their skin!
4. Worms need food!
5. Worms need to wiggle!

SIGNS OF A HEALTHY WORM BIN □ Bin smells earthy like the soil. Bedding and food scraps are disappearing over time. Worm castings are accumulating. Worms have glistening skin.

Under ideal conditions, worms can eat their weight in scraps per day. So if you have 1 pound of worms, you can theoretically feed them 1 pounds of scraps. However, we recommend you play it safe by feeding an amount they can handle every 2 or 3 days.

Compost worms benefit from a balanced diet. They will eat most normal kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps. Avoid feeding the worms large quantities of meat, citrus, onions and dairy foods. The smaller and softer the scraps, the easier it is for the worms to digest and process them into castings.

Worms Like Coffee Grounds They like coffee grounds so much that Cornell University recommends lining a traditional composting pile with them to attract worms. In a vermicomposting bin, the coffee grounds make a tasty addition to other kitchen scraps such as fruit and vegetable waste, leftover pasta or oatmeal.

Bananas are a great and inexpensive snack for both us and our worms. Those peels are desirable to compost worms no matter what shape they’re in. Avoid putting them in whole as the fruit will likely go sour in the amount of time it takes the worms to get through the skin.

One of the surest ways to not only grow big worms, but also keep your worms healthy, is to spray you worm bedding and added food with a weak mixture of VermaPlex® (a liquid soil inoculant fertilizer made from worm castings) and water (80 parts water to 1 part VermaPlex®).

Fruit and vegie scraps, teabags and coffee grounds, crushed eggshells, small amounts of bread or pasta, moist cardboard and newspaper. you’re not overfeeding your worms. l Cut food into small pieces – this makes it easier for the worms to eat.

In order to fatten up your red wigglers for use in fishing, consider adding a few of the below foods to your composting worms diet.

1. Rabbit manure.
2. Chicken Mash.
3. Corn Meal.
4. Wheat Bran.
5. Powdered Milk.
6. Corn Flour.
7. Rice Bran.
8. Purina Worm Chow.

Worms make molecules of fat for the same reasons humans do — they are useful for storing energy and are a basic building block for body tissues.

Aside from animal manure, you can also feed them the following organic wastes: Starchy food wastes – these can be in the form of bread, oatmeal, and pasta. Bedding materials – the materials that you place inside the worm bin can also be consumed by your red wigglers.

Bread, rice, pasta, processed foods – you can add the odd crust or bits of cooked rice off the dinner plate, but don’t add lots of starchy foods. Worms don’t like them and they may go off or attract pests. Worms love coffee grounds but mix them with other foods and paper.

You can compost rice without a problem. The worms will eat it up. It is OK if it “goes bad” since that is part of the composting process. Often rice is fairly moist.

Tea Bags: Yes! The tea bags will start to break down in the worm bin, and the worms will finish off the contents. The string and paper tab might not break down as quickly. You can rip them off before saving a tea bag.

Green grass clippings should be considered a nitrogen or worm food source. Most worm composters do not use green grass clippings as a food source for their composting worms because they have enough food scraps coming out of their kitchens to keep their composting worms happily eating.

Dry dog food, moistened in water, is an nutritious meal for the worms, too. So if the dogs bowl has some left over, dampen it and add to the mix for some variety. Cardboard, oddly enough, is a great source of food.

eggshells – worms simply can’t eat them. Eggshells are good for the garden, so if you crush them up, and put them in the worm farm, they’ll end up adding calcium to your soil. Eggshells don’t harm the worms, but can look a little unsightly in the gardenbeds.

10 Bedding Materials Your Worms Will Love

• Shredded brown cardboard.
• Shredded paper (not bleached white office paper)
• Shredded newspaper (not colored)
• Aged compost.
• Aged horse or cow manure.
• Coco coir.
• Peat moss.
• Straw and hay.

Instead of soil, composting red worms live in moist newspaper bedding. Like soil, newspaper strips provide air, water, and food for the worms. Gritty soil particles also aids the worms’ digestive process. Potting soil, or soil from outdoors is fine.

every 6 to 9 months

Dry Things: While the worms will eat almost anything, dry products like stems or sawdust will take a significantly longer time to be decomposed. The worms must work extra hard to break them down or the moisture levels of the worm bin become unbalanced. Moisten these items before adding to the bin.