We’ve been raising worms for a couple of years and I often put a few worms into pots and garden beds and of course we used the worm castings as fertilizer. Unfortunately, a few months ago most of the worms died. 4 live worms were on the plastic tray under the bin and we couldn’t find any worms in the bin. Maybe they didn’t get enough air, don’t know what happened.
So I’ve been looking for quite some time for a source of red wigglers shipped via UPS or FedEx since the post-office doesn’t deliver to our house. Finally I found these red wigglers at Gardener’s Supply (Eisenia foetida) shipped FedEx and only $40 for 2 lbs including shipping.
4/14/11: 2 lbs of red wigglers
I ordered 4 lbs on 4/4/11 and they finally arrived on Friday, 4/14. It was strange that we didn’t get any shipping notification at all and fortunately we found them at the garage door in the evening. [Update 7/13: one of our gardeners ordered from Gardener’s Supply and he was very unhappy, never received the worms]
Here are Gardener’s Supply instructions.
We used a box built for indoor salad growing in winter, before we figured out that we could grow salad outside in the raised beds year round. The bottom is 1/4″ hardware cloth and it happens to fit on an old plastic lid. I suppose we built it to fit. Another lid is the cover so it stays dark.
We had saved some shredded paper (packaging material) and used that as the bottom layer after soaking it in water for a bit. I would have prepared the bedding if I’d had any shipping notice and we just had to get something ready quickly. Mixed some coffee grounds with the paper and then added the first 2 lb bag of worms.
The worms were in excellent condition, moving around fast and the did not appear traumatized at all. Apparently they didn’t mind spending 2 days on the road in paper bags with bedding. The shipping weight was 10 lbs for 4 lbs of worms, so there was quite a bit of bedding included.
Now we’re in the market for a Worm Factory. We’ll need LOTS of vermicompost for the gardens!
Yeah, I live in Henderson, and have gone through $100 in worms trying to get the little guys through. Finally had some success in my garage. Anywhere out doors is too hot.
It’s definitely too hot in summer and too cold in winter to leave them outside around here. We have them in our adobe greenhouse and it never gets below 40 in there.
Originally I started with just a cup full of worms and compost from a local gardener and it was amazing how long I had these worms (or their descendents) since I put so many into pots and garden beds over the last two years.
From what I’m reading now, the red wigglers are really composting worms and I’m surprised they did so well outdoors. I often see worms when planting in the raised beds, so they must like it there. And I also often find worms when I transplant from pots. Wonder if they were red wigglers.
Been considering getting different worms to put outside and keeping the red wigglers just for worm castings.