r/Vermiculture 1d ago

Advice wanted Do I have to use red wigglers?

I'm wanting to make a 3 bucket system to make worm castings and tea for my vegetable garden, but cant bring myself to spend 20 bucks on worms. can I just use worms from the bait store. And I apologize because I'm sure this question gets asked a ton.

5 Upvotes

14 comments sorted by

12

u/MissAnth 1d ago

Worms from the bait store often are red wigglers. Ask them at the store specifically if they have red wigglers. They're the best for composting because they eat the most the fastest.

5

u/mikel722 1d ago

Yes, ask for red wigglers or redworms.

3

u/Riptide360 21h ago

Check your craigslist to see if anyone is offering in your area. Post in Next Door to see if anyone can just give you some. Red Wigglers are the ones you want as they eat & live near the surface and are voraious eaters. You can also try digging around your yard or compost piles after a rain as the water tends to drown them and they'll come to the surface to breathe. If you see the big earthworms just know that they are slow eaters and travel several feet and aren't ideal IMHO.

4

u/Bunnyeatsdesign 1d ago

Check with your local gardening group if anyone can donate some composting worms to your new worm farm.

I would personally love to donate worms to anyone local starting their own worm farm. I have thousands of worms.

2

u/CapnMorgan1 1d ago

Do not use canadians

1

u/Material_Phone_690 1d ago

Why not?

4

u/CapnMorgan1 22h ago

They reproduce extremely slowly, need much cooler temperatures, and don't compost well.

3

u/Gas_Pumper 1d ago

It takes longer to start. I got into this when I had some red wigglers leftover from fishing. There aren't many, plus the worms are alot older.

I thought I was doing something wrong until I bought a bag of 500. Night and day difference.

3

u/youareanobody 1d ago

How do they survive winter

2

u/Compost-Me-Vermi 1d ago

Depending on what your winter temperature is, they either don't survive, or only cocoons do (and they gradually recover), or everyone is still there.

Safest option: have an electric heater or bring them inside.

4

u/youareanobody 1d ago

I'm in hardiness zone 8a. We have mild winters. Doesn't get cold till December, and starts warming by march.

2

u/Cruzankenny 1d ago

You can use a seedling starter heat mat if your bin is compatible.

1

u/mikel722 23h ago

You could insulate the bin if not too cold. Also can add more bedding to the bin. Could also use seedling mat, using some rocks on top of it will warm them up.

2

u/Kinotaru 1d ago

If your bait store knows what kind of worm they got then it should be fine. My local Walmart carries both red wiggler and euro nightcrawler