# How do you take care of earthworms?



## bhoeschcod (Apr 12, 2009)

How would you take care of these slimey things?any links/personal experinces would be helpful.:}


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## Sakura (Apr 12, 2009)

*earthworm care*

They are very easy to take care of. You can use 2 Rubbermaid containers, stacked one inside the other. Drill lots of very small holes on the bottom of the inside container (for excess drainage and collecting "worm tea"). Use non-fertilized moistened peat or potting soil, fill container to approximately 3/4 full, put some kitchen scraps (fruit & vegetable peelings, coffee ground, tea leaves, etc.) or chicken pelleted feed/mash. No greasy or oily stuff. Add the worms and you're set.

Here's a link: http://www.nyworms.com/ecare.htm

Have fun with them!


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## bhoeschcod (Apr 12, 2009)

Well i only have two very small worms and dont wanna lose em [i wanna keep a close eye on them]so i put them in seprate containers in a baby food jar and a old gum container to be exact.


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## gvfarns (Apr 12, 2009)

Might make sure you have the right species.  Nightcrawlers, for example, live deep in the ground and are sensitive to lots of environmental factors that are not real easy to replicate.  For keeping as composters/pets, the normal worm is Eisenia foetida (red wiggler), although there are a few other species.  These worms live in topsoil and are great at eating stuff like paper/garbage/mulch and don't need much soil per se.  They are comparatively adaptable to temperature and humidity conditions and reproduce really fast.  They are very small, though.

Anyway, there are tons of resources on the web about red worms and vermicomposting.  Almost any care sheet you find will be for this species.  You can get them at petsmart if you ask.

Anyway it sounds like you already have your worms, so you may not be interested in what I was just saying.  We'd have to know what species you have there to know how to take care of them.  I keep worms in my roach enclosures to clean up the frass and stuff (you have to keep a lot of substrate in there and very moist, but it helps with the egg cases, so I'm down).  They are neat little guys.  When I have a yard I'll do actual vermicomposting.


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## bhoeschcod (Apr 12, 2009)

I found a great forum on vermicomposting and got a lot of help on there


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## cassie87 (Jun 6, 2010)

There are a lot of resources online for vermicomposting tips. 
It is true that Red Wigglers are the best to use for small scale worm composting and some say that they are multiply faster than Euros.

Here are some articles that I found useful:
Care for Your Red Wiggler Worms
Vermicomposting at Home


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## ZephAmp (Jun 6, 2010)

Your best bet with worms is to keep the cool first and foremost. Very few worms (with the exception of the red wiggler) do well at temperatures above 65 degrees Fahrenheit.


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