Red-Wiggler (Composting) Worms

[Kyle The Toad]

I called Wal-Mart and they said that they carry waxworms, nightcrawlers and some sort of Canadian worm. Will any of these work?

[froggsong]

waxworms are moth larvae, not real worms, and nightcrawlers need cold, deep earth, so no, none of those will work. The canadian worms are just another type of nightcrawler, generally.

[bareass]

there is a bag of soil that is sold in pet stores (usually exotic ones). its called like jungle mix or something. not too sure, but it's cultured with springtails already, you could buy a bag of that and mix it in with you substrate. i'm thinking of doing this when i make a new tank

[Kyle The Toad]

I finally bought some red-wiggler worms and put nine or ten in my tank. I had to bury them though because the toads were coming to shore to get to my hands (I hand-feed them) and I was afraid that the worms would get eaten if the toads saw them. Anyway, I wanted to ask a question about feeding the worms. Do I need to bury extra leaves under the soil (in addition to the fallen leaves from my plants), or will the aforementioned fallen leaves be enough? Will the worms find them on the surface?

[froggsong]

Yes, the worms will find the leaves on the surface. These types of worms are "leaf litter" worms. They stay in the upper levels of the soil and eat decomposing leaf litter and things like that. If you are using any sort of organic soil (peat moss, coco fiber, etc), they will also consume that.

If you have any left, feel free to feed them to the toads. If they are on the larger side, you can cut them up. They are really quite good for them and it;s fun to watch them shovel one down. My Marvin loves worms.

[inSearch]

I have thousands of these guys in a vermicomposting bucket under my sink. They breed very fast, require a goo amount of mold (which they eat, this may be quite beneficial to a viv) and a solid leaftype layer on top. The breeding aspects would be my biggest wory, They may also up you nitrogen levels alot, as they fix it from rotting leaf matter and leave it as worm casings. and they do it FAST. I'd worry about these building up faster than your plants use them, which could lead to bad situations for amphy's or herps.

[Kyle The Toad]

How would I handle that problem if it did happen? (I'm replying to Insearch's post.)

[beckdg]

thin the herd.

[Kyle The Toad]

[Laughs] Okay, Beckdg.

[beckdg]

ha... and i was going to say take the kids ice fishing.