Red Wiggler source Canada

10 years ago

Can anyone help? I'm located on the east coast of Canada and want to start vermicomposting again. I've done it in the past, more or less successfully, and want to have another go. However, this time I am having a terrible time trying to find a source of worms. There have been several places recommended to me locally (Nova Scotia), but when I have contacted them they either have none to share or no longer supply worms.

I guess what I'm hoping is that someone here may be close by and have better information than I do. It is looking like I may have to order from a thousand miles away.

Thanks for any help/advice you can provide.

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Comments (12)

boreal_wormer
10 years ago
RedWormComposting has a Canadian site but they indicate that

** Composting worms are temporarily unavailable. We should be back in action by early-to-mid September **

Here is a link that might be useful: Worm Composting Canada
boreal_wormer
10 years ago
You may have already seen this but City Farmer, Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture has a page with Worm Suppliers across Canada link
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Some worms will always move toward fresh food, but all worms will move away from light. If you remove the compost one thin layer at a time, go away for a bit and come back and remove the next layer, the worms will continually dive down until you have a very worm-enriched bottom layer left which you can then relocate at will. When harvesting worm bin vermicompost, we do this by hand, but I suppose you could also do it with a shovel - carefully.
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Hey gina!...Glad you made it in here. Actually the ones I gave to you at the swap are in fact the smaller eisenia foetida aka red wigglers. I got them from here 3 years ago http://www.hallswormery.com/ The larger ones the lady was thinking about were canadian nightcrawlers and dont work in bin culture. The red wigglers you have will work in a 10 gal sterilite bin. On the bottom you should put some finished compost so the worms have a place to dig into and rest. A 2-3 inch layer will work. The compost should be moist but not sopping wet. Now you can put the worms and everything I gave you on top of the bedding. On top of that you want to put about a 3 inch layer of leaves, shredded paper, cardboard or various other paper products. No slick shiny advertisement papers. Its poisonous. As for what they are going to eat, the sky's the limit. They love banana peels, celery, apple peels, avocado peels, melon rinds, spent floral arangements, pumpkin, you name it. Just put it in between that bottom bedding layer and the top leaves/paper layer. If you put the food close to where you put the worms at the beginning, theyll find it faster. However withhold on feeding the worms massive amounts of the food starting off. The amount of worms i gave you will probably be able to take down a whole banana peel or a few apple peelings per week. The worms have to reproduce themselves in sufficient numbers to keep up with your vegetable scraps. They do this by reproducing with each other. The mature worms have a swollen band around them called a clitellum and when they get two worms get together they press these together. Both worms will produce an egg case that look like little yellow lemons. Theyre tiny. 1-3 little worms will hatch out. If you see that the food is getting eaten faster and faster, then you can introduce more food into the bin. As to how long they live. Well I'm not quite sure but eventually youll have a successful bin that you wont be able to tell how many are actually in your bin. If I have left anything out then I am sure someone will chime in and either point it out or fill in. There are many sources of worms in texas and its not too expensive considering the amount you'd have to pay for a pound of worm casting or for that matter worm tea. Good Luck! Joey
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harry: I experienced the same thing and it got me thinking. I have 30+ mini bins of 3 gal. containers of which 4 were in the car port. The others are in the utility/heater room. The worms in the 4 bins outside were way bigger and more plump as the ones in the heater room. All the bins were seeded from my main bin which is supposed to have EFs in it . That's what I bought originally. After seeing the size of the worms in these 4 mini bins, I had my doubts about them being pure EFs. Is it possible that some Euros were mixed in there??? Mind you, I am doing this as a hobby to convert my scraps into something beneficial rather than throwing it out; so, I am not going to invest into running a lab to get my answers if you know what I mean. Starting early Dec. since the temp. here was closing to the freezing point, I have taken these 4 bins into the heater room as well. Now, amongst the 30+ bins, some are doing well having worms multiplying and looking healthy but there are others that are not doing so well. I have observed that the ones not doing too well are the ones that have fungus gnats in them. I tried to squash them fungus gnats) at feeding time as much as I can but as you know, you can NEVER get all of them. I am not sure what the problem is and invite all of you to comment your thoughts. Is it the environment (whatever it is) that promotes fungus gnats that is the problem or is it the environment that the fungus gnats caused that is not good for the worms??? I tried to remedy it with addding powdered egg shells and shredded newspaper. Still have to wait for the result. This might mean too acidic.
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Laura, I believe those are potworms in your bin. Baby redworms just have a pale pink color - much as you might expect for such a small redworm. Never seen potworms in my bins before but I do seem to have occasional outbreaks of the red mites. From what I've read the potworms will not harm your worms but might indicate a low (acidic) pH which can be caused by anaerobic conditions. Try adding some dry bedding and powdered eggshells. I dry my shells then grind them into a powder using a small coffee grinder. Usually toss some into my food-scrap pale before even adding to the bin. Great to see the pictures but give us a little more info so readers can give some appropriate advice. eg. feed rates and sources, moisture levels, type of bin etc. Re the red mites, some say they are harmful but I really can't say. Other than removing the items they seem to be feasting on I don't know how to get rid of them. Good luck, Harry
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cjd63
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you boreal_wormer for those links.

Yes, I had seen both. Disappointed by the unavailability of RedWormComposting (I'm impatient), and the City Farmer lists two potential sources both of which no longer deal with worms.

A question you may be able to answer: RedWormComposting now sells a mix of red wigglers and european earthworms. I have only had the reds before. Do the european earthworms try to escape more than the reds?

Thank you again for your response, much appreciated.
PRO
equinoxequinox
10 years ago
Just because they are temporarily out of worms does not mean you can not get started. Getting the bin ready three weeks early is perfect and possibly better than building it today and putting worms in it tomorrow. I would get the bin situated. Read the board backwards and open any posts that interest you. Shred up all your bedding. Shred up even more bedding to keep handy right there to always add in a new handful. Give an extra chop to kitchen scraps and put them in the blender or food processor. Put some in the bin and mix it around. If it heats up you have three weeks for it to cool down and balance out. Freeze the rest of the scraps. That works well to get it ready for the bin.
boreal_wormer
10 years ago
"Do the european earthworms try to escape more than the reds?"

I don't know as I've only ever had red wigglers. Hopefully someone else will be able to answer that question for you. Good luck with your new bin.
cjd63
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks to you too equinoxequinox. I may just do that, sounds like a plan and it may just keep my impatience at bay.

Jane
jaydigger
10 years ago
cjd63

You might take a look at eBay for live red worms...there are several top rated sellers who will guarantee live delivery..There is one in Pennsylvania and that would not be too far from you...I am not into worms but am thinking on it and checked out the sources on eBay a few days ago..

Good luck on your quest for worms..
cjd63
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks jaydigger, I'll take a look.
sjensen2533
10 years ago
You could check craigslist in your area to see if anyone is advertising aged horse manure as garden compost. It may be full of red wiggler worms!
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equinoxequinox
10 years ago
You said it sjensen2533.

A pound of worms = $30.

50 pounds of free horse manure = 5 pounds of red wigglers and food and bedding for 3 months.
cjd63
Original Author
10 years ago
My big news is, I have a s**tload of worms. At least I think I do! I took sjensen2533's advice and checked on Kijiji for someone giving away aged horse manure. Tried to research to see if it would contain red wigglers given that Nova Scotia tends to have a hard winter, but when I couldn't find the answer decided I'd go give it a try anyway. My first shovelful of aged horse manure showed me that they certainly do survive our winters, at least covered in horse poop they do. Got about 40 lbs of manure, and we will see how many worms I harvest from it. The best thing is I get to spread everything else on my garden. Yay! I had a good day today, got myself some worms and some horse manure for nothing!

Thanks everyone.

Jane
sjensen2533
10 years ago
Super! So great to hear you had success!

Red Wiggler source Canada

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