Random Info

A long time ago, I wrote this for someone who expressed an interest in my worms. Unfortunately, I didn't put it in any kind of order, so it's kind of haphazardly organized. I hope you enjoy reading it! And maybe even learn something :)

There are three types of earthworms. Endogeic, anecic, and Epigeic. Endogeic worms live in the rhizosphere, the narrow region of soil that is directly influenced by root secretions and associated soil microorganisms. They burrow ~20 inches down into the soil and return to the surface to eat leaf litter, soil, organic matter, fungi, and microorganisms. Anecic worms are the largest of the three groups. They can reach a size of five to eight inches long and live in permanent vertical burrows that can be up to six feet long. An example of this type of worm is the L. terrestris, otherwise known as the Night Crawler, which is very popular with fishermen. Epigeic worms live in the first layer of the forest soil and are usually less than three inches long. These worms do not have permanent burrows. My Eisenia foetida (red wrigglers) are epigeic.

Now for a short history lesson. During the last ice age, the American earthworms found refuge on the warmer coasts. When the ice age ended, they began to slowly migrate inland. They made very slow progress, and when the Europeans arrived, they still had not made it to the middle of the continent. In Europe, when the ships were getting ready to set sail, soil was collected for the ship’s ballast, and in that soil were earthworms. Once the ships crossed the ocean and were in American ports, they dumped the soil, thus setting free the stowaways. It turns out that the Europeans were better adapted to the soil conditions here that the native earthworms were, but even though, only three of the eight invasive species thrived.

These invasive species have done great harm to our ecosystem. They attacked the layers of quietly decomposing leaves in the forests indiscriminately, consuming feet of leaf litter in a matter of years, and displacing many of our native decomposers. And when spring came, many plant species could not survive without the protective layer they were used to having. The soil was also denser than they had adapted to, so it was harder for the plants to get started.

What I do is a mixture of Vermiculture and Vermicomposting. Vermiculture usually has an emphasis on the worm’s health, size, and reproduction rate, while vermicomposting focuses on the production of castings (worm feces) and normally has a smaller average worm size and slower reproduction rate. Many vermicomposters simply throw food in the worm bin for a few months and then let it sit for a year or so. This ensures that all of the food waste has been processed, but the worms have mostly died off. Occasionally there are cocoons there that can be used to restart the bin, but most of the time the vermicomposter has to buy more.

Earthworms start their life in a cocoon with several other eggs. The number of worms that hatch from each cocoon varies depending on the species, but for Eisenia foetida the average is three or four. The babies spend approximately four weeks in the cocoon and then hatch. (Here is a link to a video that shows a baby exiting its cocoon. http://www.wormwoman.com/acatalog/video_clips.html) Around sixty to ninety days after it hatches, the juvenile worm will develop their clitellum. The clitellum is the white band you see on all adult worms. This is their only sex organ, as worms are hermaphrodites. To mate, the two worms overlap their front ends so that each clitellum is connected to a spot near the other’s head and they each exchange sperm. The clitellum turns reddish or pinkish and secretes a ring around the worm’s body. The worm backs out of this ring, and as it passes over the area where the sperm collected during mating is stored, it collects it and eggs. This ring forms the cocoon, in which the infant worms reside for another month or so.

Here are some fun facts about earthworms:

When you cut an earthworm in half, it usually dies. Occasionally the head will grow a new tail, but not always.

Worms can live for months in water, as long as it is oxygenated. They come out of their burrows when it rains because the rain water is not oxygenated.

Worms must stay moist to live. If they dry out they die.

Worms breathe through their skin.

They have a gizzard, just like birds and some reptiles and fish.

Worms are hermaphrodites, that means that they have both male and female parts but must have a partner in order to reproduce.

In one acre of land, there can be over a million earthworms.

Earthworm castings is very rich fertilizer and does not burn plant roots.

There are over 2700 different species of earthworms in the world.

The Giant Gippsland Worm, found in Australia, can reach a size of one meter, but there are records of specimen measuring over two meters long!

In the town of Korumburra in Australia, there is an annual worm festival called Karmai that celebrates the Giant Gippsland Worm.

The Giant Gippsland worm is so fragile that even the slightest contact with human skin can kill it.

The largest worm ever found was in South Africa, it was 22 feet long!

Worms eat their own weight in food every day.

Worms are cold-blooded.

How To Start Your Own Worm Business

  Since I don't yet know what I'm going to do with my life, I've been looking at a bunch of options. And one option is vermiculture.
  People really do make money with worms. Some go more for the product, castings, while others focus more on happy, healthy worms to sell. Of course, both kinds sell both products, but their focus is different so one will have inferior quality castings and the other worms. So how do you decide whether to start up your own Worm Business?
  First, there are some questions that anyone thinking about starting a new business should answer:

How can I market my product?
What income do I want/expect?
Part or full time job?
What business experience do I have?
Does my region have marketing opportunities for my product?
Who are my competitors? How can I be better?
What financial/ physical resources do I have?
Solo or a partnership?

  After, or before, or even while, you're answering these questions, you want to learn as much as possible about the kind of business you want to begin. If you've already done this, great! But if you haven't, read books, websites, magazine articles, etc. Go to workshops, seminars, business class. Get as much help as you can, unless you'll be forced to pay heavy interest or the like.

  Before you start up the commercial side of your earthworm farm (if that's what you're doing), you must must must have a product packaged and ready to be bought. If you're planning on selling worms, make sure you have enough to supply several big orders at once and still have enough left over to quickly rebuild the population. However, if you are planning on selling the castings, you have to start months in advance, because castings take a long while to build up to the point where you have enough to sell.

  Also, if you are advertising that the castings are organic, make sure that all the food you are feeding the worms is organic, otherwise they aren't.

I got all of this information either from my own head, or from p2pays.org. (I hope they don't get mad at me for taking the information.)

Anatomy Lesson



   Right now I want to talk about the anatomy of the earthworm. Earthworms are bilaterally symmetrical, which means that to the left and right of the giant blood vessel the runs through their backs they are exactly the same.
  Earthworms are one of the few animals, maybe the only one, that has a true ceolom. A ceolom is a fluid-filled body cavity surrounded by a mesoderm. Since I didn't know what a mesoderm was, I googled it. According to Webster, it's the middle layer of an embryo in early development.
  Most people think that worms move simply by expanding and contracting, but that's only partly true. They have little bristles on them that grab the soil, called setae. Each segment has two pairs of two setae on the 'bottom' side.
  I know there's a lot more about it's anatomy that I should cover right now, but I'm not really up to it. Last night I realized, I'm a junior in high school, I really need to figure out what I'm going to do with my life now. I don't want to go straight into college, so I was thinking about maybe joining the peace corps after I graduate. What other opportunities are out there?

Giant Gippsland Worm

  Last month, I learned that there was a worm in Australia that grows to be over two meters long! This earthworm is called the Giant Gippsland Worm. It lives in Gippsland, Australia, and was discovered in 1878. They thought it was a snake!
  One of the interesting things about this earthworm is that it never comes above ground. I know, you're thinking I'm an idiot. Of course it never comes up, it's a worm, worms live underground. But worms do come above ground. When it rains, for example. Or when the population density becomes too great. But the only thing that can force the Gippsland worms up is a very heavy rain. And by very heavy, I mean buckets are being emptied somewhere up in the sky. That kind of rain.
  They live in elaborate, permanent burrows on the sides of steep hills and valleys, but is also found in gray-blue clay on stream banks. Their habitat is down to a few sparse miles, forty total. But their distribution within that land is patchy, and their population density is unusually low, only two per thirty-five feet.
  Funny thing is, farmers who have them on their property are extremely proud, but for the most part they do nothing to save them. Giant Gippsland Worms are a threatened species, and conservation measures are very limited.
  But these worms cannot just bounce back quickly like other earthworm species could. These have a comparatively slow life cycle, it takes a year for them to mature inside their cocoon, and then it takes several years to become sexually mature. Personally, that makes me put their name on the possible sentient list, but maybe that's just 'cause I'm worm crazy.