Help about mutilated worm

18 years ago

Hi all,

I'm new to vermicomposting and i started my first rubermaid bin 4 months ago. I did not had much troubles with the bin and my worms are multiplying quite fast. I even harvested my first batch of wermicompost.

Since everything was doing pretty well, I decided to get another half pound of worm to start a second bin. Thatwill allow me to process more food waste and if somethind bad was to happen to my first bin, the second bin would still be there.

I have my second bin started since 2 weeks and everything seems to be doing well too. Yesterday i was looking around the bin and i found several worm bodies scattered into the bin. Some were dead, or some seemed to be badly injured. Sometimes i found only an extremity that seemed to be cutted away, or sometimes the worms seems to have some kind of blisters... Kind if strange.

The bin conditions seems to be ok. I used this time a mix of shredded newspaper, computer paper and cardboard that i shred with an office shreder. In my first bin i was shredding the newspaper by hand. I still have many worms that seems healty, but i was wondering if the worm could get injured by the getting cutted by the paper strips when they move inside the bin????

Anybody experienced that type of problem before? Today i tought about getting some coir at home depot, but there was no more left. Please any help would be appreciated!!!!

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Comments (11)

bendback50
18 years ago
Yvermette,

So sorry to hear about your worms. I like to use a little peat moss (maybe 20%) in with my paper. I also have a bin (no worms) that contains damp peat & confettii shredded paper. I add large amounts of paper & stir up several times over a 3/5 day period to soften it up before I add it to the bins. If your worms were raised in a different bedding sometimes problems arise for awhile. I have also had sick / ill worms that after death were consumed by mites. Sometimes I think the mites jump the gun a little.

As for paper cuts (which are very serious for a worm) a good friend of mine (I think it was Chuckiebtoo) recommended neosporin and bandaids! He uses the regular size but I feel the small size are more appropriate for E. fetida.

If Ole Chuckie is ghosting maybe he can expand on first aid for worms. I understand he is as good as it gets at worm resuscitation!:0)

bruce
chuckiebtoo
18 years ago
Well, Bruce, I AM ghosting, and I may not be the best at bringin em back, but I ain't bad. The most important thing is to first give them plenty of air...let them breath. And just the right amount of water. Bring them up right, with TLC and lots of food. Give them a strong will to live...and reproduce.

Wormicide prevention begins early on...not after an overwrought worm has given up. Now MASS wormicide involves bin societal factors too complex to handle here. We simply do not REALLY know why they suddenly plunge en masse out of an environment so perfect for them to certain shriveled up rigor mortis producing death.

My question though, just what IS a worm extremity?

Chuckiebtoo
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DesertHills
18 years ago
Hi! I witnessed something similar, I found three chopped worms parts (2 tails & 1 head), on the top of my bin this week. I use moistened shredded paper, so I'm not sure they can cut bad. Maybe aliens did it, as other members have seen them hanging around in the bin. :0

It's still a mystery what happened and I only regret not being able to observe if the worm parts regerated to whole new worms :)). Post back if you ever get to the bottom of this.

Gee, I hope Kelly will pitch in.
Christi_73
18 years ago
I have actually seen the same thing in my bin. I just thought that maybe while stirring things around a bit, I may have accidentally broken a couple of the worms in half or something. It is weird how the little pieces seem to try to crawl up the sides...??? I am a little on the nosey side, and like to mix it around a little more often than they would probably like, but I do try to be careful....and most of them seem pretty healthy. LOL Chuckie...I also want to know what a worm extremity is...LOL *just kidding with you Yvermette *
sylvie
18 years ago
Hi Yvermette,

I had the same problem. I nearly lost all of my worms after feeding them cormeal. It took me some time to figure out the cause of my problem. They weren't used to cormeal and I didn't know it. Introducing new food slowly shouldn't cause any problems. I didn't give them that much though but I guess my worms were very ,very sensitive.

Their body would look like a string of pearl or some would lose only the tail part of their body. I guess the more they ate, the bigger the problem. The one who survived were problalby juveline when I got them They adapt better to new food or bedding.. My bin is going once again. I have mostly juvelines in it. The dead worms had time to lay cocoons before dying. I make sure to introduce them now ( while they're young ) to what I am planning to feed them regularly.

So if you bought your worms from the same dealer, if you didn't stir your bin too much, I believe it has to be from new food or new bedding. Maybe they are not used to cardboard.

Hope this helps, Sylvie
sylvie
18 years ago
Hi Yvermette,

I had the same problem. I nearly lost all of my worms after feeding them cormeal. It took me some time to figure out the cause of my problem. They weren't used to cormeal and I didn't know it. Introducing new food slowly shouldn't cause any problems. I didn't give them that much though but I guess my worms were very ,very sensitive.

Their body would look like a string of pearl or some would lose only the tail part of their body. I guess the more they ate, the bigger the problem. The one who survived were problalby juveline when I got them They adapt better to new food or bedding.. My bin is going once again. I have mostly juvelines in it. The dead worms had time to lay cocoons before dying. I make sure to introduce them now ( while they're young ) to what I am planning to feed them regularly.

So if you bought your worms from the same dealer, if you didn't stir your bin too much, I believe it has to be from new food or new bedding. Maybe they are not used to cardboard.

Hope this helps, Sylvie
bendback50
18 years ago
After some serious thought and about 12 beers, I have begun to think that Chuckie may not have been teasing about the aliens in his worm bin. Although, at first, I thought he might be participating in some kind of hallucinogenitc shennigans but I now believe he may be on to something!

Look at all the crop circles that have been found and cannot be explained away! There have also been countless cattle, horse and sheep mutilations that can't be explained. Now, we have some kind of creature in Puerto Rico, or somewhere, that drains the blood out of chickens, rabbits and small goats! AND, how many people claim to have been abducted by aliens??

It only makes sense to me that some kind of alien experimentation is probably going on in worm bins all over the world. How else can decaptiated and tailcapitated worms be explained?

Sure wish Kelly would wade in and steer us in the right direction.:o)

bruce
Kelly_Slocum
18 years ago
I'd have come faster, Bruce, if you'd have offered me a beer...

Worms that have broken apart, formed blisters or ulcers on the skin surface or look like a "string of pearls" are symptoms of worms near death from any number of reasons, but are not symptomatic of any one condition. These symptoms were once thought to be the result of "protein poinsong" (something I once believed many years ago as well), a mythical malady that has since been debunked by good science.

When earthworms are introduced to an enviornment radically different from that one to which they are used their mortality rate does, indeed, climb, though physical damage as is being described is not all that common. I am guessing on this as much as anyone else, but I might suggest that it is shipping damage that at least some of you might be seeing. Now, here's where I annoy some commercial worm growers ::sigh::; The rotating harvesting equipment used by many larger-scaled worm growing operations are very physically hard on worms, causing an increase in mortality rates as high as 30% over a six week period following harvest. When worms harvested in this way are subsequently subjected to shipping in hot trucks over several days, the stress and trauma can be significant, resulting in the kind of damage being described. While it may not apply to everyone who has experienced large numbers of blistered, pinched-off worms, it is the culprit in many cases.

Those of you seeing just a few worms now and then with the above described symptoms are simply seeing worms that have died, most often from "natural" causes.

Now, Bruce, about that beer...?

Kelly S
bendback50
18 years ago
Kelly,

Appreciate the post. Never thought about the harvestor; & I can certainly see how tumbling could, would, cause a lot of damage. I guess we will lay the theory of alien activity to rest once again!

All Hail to the Grande Dame of Worm Wizzardry!!

Just name your brew!!:o)

bruce
DesertHills
18 years ago
Mystery solved! Thanks Kelly! Thanks Bruce for entincing her with beer :))
bendback50
18 years ago
No Problem,

I try and entice all the lovely chickadees with beer!!

(but, all I ever get is an empty wallet!!) /:0(

bruce

Help about mutilated worm

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