Worms are my best friend and worst enemy. They continually aerate and improve my soil. My lawn, shrubs and trees show their appreciation. They evade my driveway with a heavy rain and I too feel compeled to save them from drowning, our cars, kids, robins, etc. They attract the moles from my nearby woods and exhibit interesting (destructive) tunneling as they move through my yard feasting on worms. Most tunnels are exposed in the subsequent frost heaves to deal with in spring. I have given my cats direct orders to kill on site, but feel that a castor oil spray may be in order. My lawn is a daily feeding ground for at least 50 fat robins. For some reason, only my lawn is attractive to them (could be the use of chemicals vs. organics, who knows?) At times I feel like I'm living that Hitchcock movie "the birds". All in all a great thing, who wouldn't want thousands of helpers working their soil 24/7/365. The unwanted pests and annoyances are apart of the greater order and an interesting consequence. I constantly look for ways to increase their population and make them happier. Congratulations!

Scorpion_John's puts up the best most logical opinion concerning Orange vs Red habanero pepper debate. I fall into the uniformed category because I have never tasted the Congo. But, I do not understand his unfavorable opinion of the standard yellow habanero because I do really like them along both the Caribbean Red and the Regular Scotch Bonnet habs. So I am going to get some Congos and try them so that I can experience a wider spectrum of peppers odors and tastes. What variety does Scorpion_John recommend to get started (any one else who grows Congo's recommend). Has anyone had the pleasure to taste the Florida Orange Pepper that grows wild in the Lake County, FL area? What do think about Datil peppers? I will not grow them because they attract white flies like eggplants do and they get all over all the other plants. Do you think the Congo peppers originated in East Africa (trick question). I think we all must have something in common because we all love peppers. I have been growing peppers for about 60 years and do not worry about the heat because you can vary the amount of any pepper used in cooking. I also enjoy jalapeño peppers for their great flavor. I am a new member and this is my first post. I am looking forward reading the posts of all other members. Thank you. Drchilie1

Ok. Remember for all I know I am raising baby snakes in Southern New England. I think I do not have earthworms because those are longer and fatter and are found when I spade the earth. They also appear dryer. I think I do not have nightcrawlers because those are huge, and scary and lay upon the surface at night and need to be caught by flashlight. I think I do have some type of redwiggler because I got them from a compost heap. The compost heap may of been seeded with a tiny amount of dying worms from a library vermicompost workship for school children. They seemed to exhibit yellow tail tips. Some live inside two 4 gallon skimpy bottom pails. At some point I crushed up a bunch of biochar as much as I could without risk of breathing any dust. This was put into the bin. It was fun to do. I hoped the biochar would get dirty or charged with organic life. It should also provide surface area for weebeasties to multiply to feed the worms. The worms did seem to take on a color change, primarily a black line down the middle. Presumabley this was the food pathway. It was not clear. Strangely, even though the biochar has all passed through the system one would think a generation of worms ago the worms still seem to retain this darkness. The biochar and the darkness line, not a deeper red, seemed to match just when the biochar was added. Additionaly, your mention of worm sizes and changes in relation to the enviornment reminds me of some old online information or maybe misinformation. The story went something like a college student in a dorm room grew worms but because he raised them in such a confined? space they remained small. Whenever he needed to fill an order to sell he gave the needed miniture sized worms more food and space and he quickly could fill the orders he had. Reading the days worth of material about this on the web could no doubt lead one to insanity. To save time I described it just above. I think what you are acurately describing happening in your bins is similar to what the college student had also observed and had as his "business plan". I'm just going for the "big, fat, juicy ones" and trying to avoid the long, skinny ones that sometimes fall apart when picked up. I'm guessing you do too.

I'm an expert on moles since I have them all over my yard...and have had....for 12 or so years. Can't get rid of, or trap, or bait, or even ever see one. My neighbor killed an apparently dazed & confused mole just on my property about 2 weeks ago with a shovel and proudly showed it to everyone on the block because he and everyone else had never seen one before either. For the record, moles do not discriminate worm selection in their diet. If it smells like a worm, it's lunch. Chuckiebtoo Once I had a professional extermination expert tell me, with a straight face, that moth balls would repel moles because moles have such an extremely acute sense of smell and that I should strategically poke moth balls into the ground about 4 inches deep spaced 4 inches apart over my entire yard thereby causing them to go elsewhere. A quick calculator result of mothball prices, property square footage mutiplied by 16, and labor-intensive manpower hours necessary convinced me that since moles don't actually kill my grass, they can, and should be considered a mere pest, and aeration tool.