Do Worm castings contain worm eggs?

 Hi,

My garden seems totally devoid of earthworms (nightcrawlers). I think the
previous owner killed them with insecticide or some crap. Its been 2 years
already and I've been digging and planting my flowers- but absolutely zero
sign of them.

I noticed however- in a nearby park- there seems to be quite a bit of
wormcastings, ie a collection of dark small dirt balls.

I heard that the wormcastings may contain worm eggs.

I was wondering whether its worthwhile collecting the wormcastings and
placing them in my compost bin so as to rear earthworms?

Cheers,

Wylie

 g'day wylie,

not real whiz on worms, but never haerd that casting contain eggs they
could of course. but it is winter now so the worms will be dormant and
any eggs in the soil won't hatch until next season when it warms.

also they don't call them night crawlers for nothing that is what they
are by name and nature, worm farmers generally steer clear of them as
they tend to want to crawl out of the farms and away.

you'd do better with tigers or red wrigglers, but might need to wait
until next summer.

those dirt balls could be just where worms have come up to the surface
to feed? they may not be castings as such.

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://mywebsite.bigpond.com/gardenlen2/

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://mywebsite.bigpond.com/gardenlen2/

 I suspect they do not contain eggs, as they come out of the gullet,
and I have heard eggs look like small, transparent frog eggs. Could be
wrong there though.

Compost worms (reds and tigers) will not live in oyur garden, and
earth worms will not survive in pure compopst.

So I think yoou want earth worms. Part of your problem may also be
your garden is really low in organic matter, or dry as chips all the
time, worms don't like that, either.

Best bet to start them in a garden is alway composting "en situ" - on
site. Dig a trench, bury all your veggie scraps (we all keep worm
buckets, don't we?)  in that trench, covering it as you go. Water
well.

If you have any worms at all, they will find them. If you don't, you
might have to consider serious options like covering somwhere down the
back with newspapers and soaking that with water, eventually a few may
appear under there you can transfer. Or find a friend with plenty and
transfer some. Better not dig up the Park.

Cheers

Linda

 
Thanks Linda- but will the newspaper trick work for nightcrawlers?

Getting tigers/red wrigglers -compost worms- are no problem. My garden shop
sells them by the bucket full. And I've got hundreds of them now in my
compost bin.

Nightcrawlers on the other hand I have virtually none.

I discovered that the people who owned this property before me- placed a
thick black plastic sheet over the entire garden- and must have killed all
the earthworms. I'm now in the process of removing the black plastic. ;(

The reason why I want them- nightcrawlers, earthworms- are for the benefits
of deep soil improvement.

Cheers

WW

 g'day yau-ming chiam,

generally the worm we have in our gardens are exotics anyway but they
are garden varieties, which yes like the night crawler won't stay in a
worm farm/compost bin as such, but night crawlers themselves came
about for use in worm farms etc.,. until it was discovered that they
where named by name and nature.

if you put well mulched and composted gardens in the garden worms will
find you, there is no way that they could be killed out from your
garden and be next door and never come back to your garden unless
chemicals of some sort had been used.

it is winter and they will be dormant until the soil warms, so maybe
just leave things be in that regard until the summer comes around.

and yes any compost worm will live in any well mulched garden where
you are continually putting back material such as kitchen scraps or
newspaper old fruit or past it vege plants whatever.

in cases where i have moved in and that has been the last 2 gardens,
also same here now there have been no worms visible so i get hold of
some composting worms and put them in my gardens, in my last gardens
after 4 years the composting worms where still there so that is where
i went to collect worms for our composting toilet. too easy hey?

a composting worm i expect wouldn't know if it was in a garden or a
box so long as it has a good supply of food and the place is warm.



snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://mywebsite.bigpond.com/gardenlen2/