Worms And Worm Poop
Ever since becoming a Westchester County Master Composter, I have been a huge fan of worms. Vermicomposting has become one of my most favorite hobbies. I’ve had just about every type of worm bin imaginable and I’ve turned many school teachers and classes onto the benefits of worm composting in the classroom. I’ve been writing about worm composting adventures for many years. Vermicomposting is an excellent addition to any classroom. Maintaining a worm bin is simple, odor free and offers numerous opportunities for STEM based learning.
Worms used for composting are a special type of worm, red wrigglers aka Eisenia Fetida. Red wrigglers live in close community and love gobbling up decomposing organic matter, which is why they are great in a worm bin. The worm castings (aka worm poop) they leave behind are a fabulous fertilizer. I use worm castings when starting seeds and I whip up worm compost tea to make a foliar spray for my plants. My red wrigglers stay in my worm bins, they are never released out into the wild. Worm composting is a very useful zero waste technology that transforms food scraps into nutrient dense plant food.
Not all worms are the same.The worms you often see in your backyard after a rain are night crawlers. Night crawlers live a more solitary life and are known for traveling deep into the soil, they act as little rototillers helping with aeration. In the winter, they dig deep and live out the cold winters where it is warmer, deep underground.
Not all worms are beneficial. Lately, there has been much discussion about “jumping worms”, these worms are “invasive” and devour leaf litter leaving piles of worm poop in their wake. You can learn more about these jumping worms by clicking on this link to the Cornell Cooperative Extension.
These worms, like my composting red wrigglers, hang out in community on the surface and eat lots of decaying organic matter. There is concern that these worms may damage tree roots and alter soil biology.
What can you do? Start by knowing your worms! You can join the JWORM, the Jumping Worm Outreach and Management group.
Should we declare war on these “invasive” worms? When many people learn about “non native, invasive” species, their instinct is to find them and kill them. I tend to disagree with this sentiment. Depending on what methods you use to kill them, you will likely have collateral damage. You can drive yourself crazy trying to eliminate these worms in your yard. They have been in this area for decades. The worms will win.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference
Declaring war on jumping worms simply won’t work. How do we co-exist with them? If you have backyard chickens, these worms might make for a tasty meal. But I’m betting you’d have to collect them, chickens aren’t necessarily gonna dig them up.
If you do discover their tell tale crumbly worm poop, work it back into the soil. After all, poop is fertilizer. As an experienced worm composter, I can tell you that worm poop is good stuff.
And lets not forget: We white Northern Europeans are a very destructive non-native invasive species. We must acknowledge this. Here in my spot in NY, I am occupying Lenape Ramapough Land. You can find out more about indigenous land by clicking here.
Let’s do what we can to learn to co-exist with earthworms of all sorts.
After all, gardening is really that serenity prayer in action.
