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  • From: Stephen Sherman <spsherm@msn.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] red wigglers
  • Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:17:12 -0700

I may have been the person who wrote in about aggressive red wigglers in the cabbage.

I have seen red wigglers in the leaves of my cabbage; it was much more prevalent a few years ago when the level of red wigglers was higher in my garden beds. Their numbers have gone down considerably since then (possibly because of drier weather and no more manure being added). However I still find an occasional wiggler in the cabbage.

I never figured out why they crawl into the cabbages. Perhaps they are attracted to the moisture that collects in the leaves. But I can and do still find them (very small ones, 1" or so long) when trimming the outside leaves of a cabbage. They generally are still alive, and do not seem to have eaten the cabbage at all, they just hang out there and seem to get stuck.

Perhaps the variety I got were particularly aggressive in searching out food. In addition to the cabbages, I have found them in flower pots which were set on the soil bed in which they lived. Must have migrated into the pots and took up home there.They also will invade any tomato which happens to touch the soil surface; in these cases they do eat the tomato long before it was decomposing.

I still use red wigglers, and plan on starting an inside composter/bin of them sometime soon. Once I've had a chance to see others in action, I can comment as to whether or not the original ones are more aggressive or not. I will however be a bit more careful where I introduce the worms, as they can start competing with you for vegetables.



Brandy Davis wrote:
Spring is coming. Back last summer, someone posted about red wigglers eating their cabbage and other garden stuff. I live in Tennessee and started using wigglers in North Carolina. Rhonda Sherman at North Carolina State University is the international vermicompost expert.

They make great compost in short order. I'm wondering if the worms talked about in the Colorado Rockies are another species. Reds don't seem to invade the garden and like warmer temps. (Mine are in the kitchen now.) A bin like the person had in NYC is perfect for them. Just insulate in winter.

Brandy
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