Eisenia Foetida: Mother Nature's Little Helper

No, not like “Mother’s Little Helper” in the song by the Rolling Stones! We’re talking about Eisenia foetida, those hungry little guys also known as Red Wiggler Worms, redworms, branding worms, or tiger worms. The most common type of composting worm, Red Wigglers swallow great quantities of organic material as they feed—digesting it, extracting its food value, and expelling the residue as worm castings. The latter are very rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Under ideal conditions, these hard voracious little critters can eat their body weight each day. They also reproduce quickly, and are very tolerant of changes in growing conditions.

Arriving in various stages of growth, a good rule of thumb is to release 5-10 worms per square foot. By keeping them fed and watered, they’ll be quite at home in your bins, compost piles, or windows. Normally smaller than night crawlers or regular earthworms—and inhabiting a much different niche than the other worms, the Red Wigglers more than make up for their size with their appetite. They have specifically adapted to the environment of decaying organic material—thriving in rotting vegetation, compost, and manure. Rarely found in soil, they prefer conditions in which other worms cannot survive.

They get their name because, when roughly handled, Red Wigglers exude a pungent liquid. Although,this is probably a chemical defense mechanism, there are no direct studies that confirm whether it confers protection against predators. Red Wigglers are readily and commercially available—primarily for their use in vermiculture (the composting process) due to their amazing ability to process organic matter into compost. While the process is vermiculture, its end result is vermicompost.

Thus, Red Wigglers will convert organic matter into high quality “humus,” and provide your garden with earthworm castings—a complete and odor-free natural fertilizer, mulch, soil conditioner, and topsoil additive. Prolific breeders, they can one egg capsule as often as every seven days. Each worm capsule hatches an average of 3 to 4 worms. The hatched worms grow into breeders in about three months. Keep your Red Wigglers happy and healthy, and they’ll help us consume our organic waste and reduce municipal garbage by about 30%. Naturally occurring organisms, such as bacteria and millipedes, also assist in the aerobic degradation of the organic material. Worm composting bins make it fairly simple to do your own vermicomposting indoors.