Dew Worms, Red Wigglers & Nitro Worms

We have the freshest Dew Worms, Red Wigglers & Nitro Worms in the Region!

Ask “Yoshi”, Deb’s pet Savannah Monitor!

From Red Wigglers, to Nitro Worms, to your every day Dew Worm…

About Worms:

No bones about it!

Did you know that worms do not have any bones. Their bodies are made up of hundreds of small rings called ‘Segments’. They move by manipulating each segment with tiny circular muscles beneath their skin. They secrete a slippery fluid that let’s them move easily through the earth.

No eyes, no ears, but lots of heart! Dew Worms, Red Wigglers & Nitro Worms

Worms do not have eyes or ears but are very sensitive to light. They generally avoid bright sunshine. Each worm has 5 hearts, so you gotta love them! Their bodies are sensitive to movement and vibrations. It is hard to sneak up on a worm. Worms usually know when people are near simply by the vibrations they make by walking.

Cold-blooded! Dew Worms, Red Wigglers & Nitro Worms

Worms are cold-blooded creatures, their body temperature is determined by their surroundings. Red Wigglers are most active when the temperature is kept between 16° – 28°C (60° – 80°F). They become sluggish and eat less when the temperature falls out of this range.

Worm sex?  Dew Worms, Red Wigglers & Nitro Worms

Worms are Hermaphrodites. That means that each worm has both female and male sex organs. You may have noticed a swollen area about 1/3 the way down the length of some worms. This area is called the Clitellum. The presence of this section signifies that the worm is sexually mature. Worms will join together tightly to exchange fluids. Each worm will collect sperm from a partner and then store it for a few days. This time lag is to ensure that worm’s own sperm dies off before fertilization takes place. Eventually, the sticky substance around the Clitellum will harden and form into a cocoon. The worm will back out, sliding the cocoon over its head. Eggs and sperm are deposited in the cocoon as it passes along the worm’s body. The cocoons (or egg sacs) are deposited in the soil to incubate. Each cocoon can contain up to 20 fertilized eggs, the average is 2 – 6. After around 3 weeks the cocoon will hatch and the baby worms will emerge, hungry and ready to eat.

Red Wigglers
Red wigglers, or Eisenia foetida, are the best compost worms. Unlike your everyday night crawlers, they live well in close, highly populated conditions and don’t burrow. In nature, you would almost never find a red wiggler worm heading deep underground.
If you decide to start a compost bin, you can get these red wigglers from any of a number of places. Like night crawlers, they make a tasty meal for fish, and bait shops often carry them. Knowing how much your worms weigh is vitally important to your compost. You’ll find when you begin vermicomposting that your worm population will double every 90 days or so. That’s how you know that your worms are healthy and happy. Just be sure you weigh your worms before you put them in the bin.
Fat worms are good. Red wiggler worms can eat about half of their weight in food every day. This means if you put one pound (16 ounces) of worms (about 1,000 worms) into your bin, you will be able to feed them one half of a pound (8 ounces) of food every day. The best way to decide how many worms you’ll need for your bin is to weigh the amount of organic waste you throw away each day for about a week. When you know about how much you toss on average, buy twice as many pounds of worms as the amount of waste. For example, if you average one pound of organic waste per day, you should buy two pounds of worms.
Reports vary on how long worms will live. Some say only a few months, some say up to 10 years. No matter what, the worms will reproduce; however, you don’t need to concern yourself with buying an equal number of male and female worms -they’re hermaphroditic. In other words, they have both male and female sex organs, yet it still takes two worms to reproduce.
Sexually mature worms have dark red bands around their necks. Every few months, they’ll congregate into one huge, squiggling ball at the bottom of your bin. When you see that, you know that it’s time to hang the “Do Not Disturb” sign.

WHAT IS BIODEGRADABLE?
What happens when you throw your apple core out the window and say, “Don’t worry, it’s biodegradable?” When that apple core hits the ground, it’s already being broken down by oxygen and other environmental factors. As it rests on the ground, a variety of critters begin to nibble at the core, helping to speed the breakdown process. Worms, flies and other insects arrive on the scene to get their share. As these decomposers digest, they help complete the cycle and turn that apple core into topsoil.

Nitro Worms

The great thing about the glowing worms is that they glowed brightly in the deeper dark waters attracting large fish. The internal dye used is non-toxic and even better the flavor of the worms attracted more fish. Nitroworms proved to be quite a success for catching large fish such as the Walleye, Catfish, Trout and Bass. As such, the demand for these worms grew, and many other companies started to try their own way of making ‘Nitro Worms’ using different dyes and even creating fake plastic glowing worms!

However regular food dyes are petroleum based which blocks the pores of worms which effectively suffocates and kills them, and this flavor change also affected their effectiveness as bait.

The worms are dyed in two ways. The first way is to cover the worms with dye and colour them externally. The dye molecule will sink into the surface pores of the worms, giving them a dyed colour  The other way (which is probably the more common way) is for them to ingest the dye by mixing the dye with their bedding and food.

The worms will eat through the bedding and food, taking in the dye material as well.

As the dye material is consumed, it is absorbed by the blood which runs through the whole body, and is finally discharged through the pores on the external layer of the skin. As the dye passes through the surrounding cells of the worms body, the cells absorbs the dye turning themselves the green color.

Since worms urinate through pores all over their body, and their body wall is translucent, the dye will color the worms from the inside out, creating an evenly distributed dyed worm.

The dye used will need to be something safe for the worm, the fish and you!