How to Get Rid of Red Wiggler Worms
Red wiggler worms are useful for producing worm castings, a rich source of fertilizer. If you have a worm bin that you use for raising these worms, you know how quickly they can multiply. In addition, sometimes when you dilute the worm castings with water and apply it to your garden plants, the worms can escape and begin to live in your soil and among your plants. They can even make their homes in certain plants that provide them protection and food. If you find that your population of red wigglers is out of control, you can discourage them from taking up residence where you do not want them. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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If you start finding a large number of red wiggler worms in your garden, you might want to capture them and put them back into your worm bin. If you do not have a worm bin, consider making or purchasing one.
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Red wigglers are not adapted to direct sunlight, so if you want to reduce their numbers in your garden, consider doing some severe pruning to the plants that shelter them or under which they reside. Opening up the area to sunlight will cause the worms to either die or move away into darker areas.
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These worms also require moisture--but not too much--to survive. If you find them in an area that you can flood, doing so will cause the death of many worms. Conversely, if you can cause the area to dry out, the worms will experience a similar fate.
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Encourage predators, such as centipedes and moles, in the areas where the worms live. Many predators, such as birds, will not eat these worms because when they are threatened they secrete a yellow fluid that is distasteful and smells unattractive to most predators. The best way to reduce your population of red wiggler worms is to collect them by hand.
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Tips & Warnings
There is a good market for red wigglers. After you collect them, you could sell or give them away to friends and family who want to start a worm bin. Currently, they sell for about $20 per lb. Red wigglers can also be used for fishing bait, although nightcrawlers, a much larger worm, are generally favored. The best time to hunt for red wiggler worms is at night. Check areas with mulch over the ground and look in compost bins for their colonies. Red wiggler worms and other worms as well, do not eat the leaves or roots of your cherished plants. They only go for decaying plant materials. No poisons are approved for controlling earthworms. In fact, one study showed that earthworms were responsible for removing 20 percent of snail and slug baits.
Check with your local regulations regarding the import of red wiggler worms. In Hawaii, for example, it is not allowed to import any compost worms from the continental United States or elsewhere because non-native worms could possibly introduce disease to the native compost worm population.
