How to Identify Worms in Compost Bins
Compost worms belong to the earthworm family of Lumbricidae, which includes the genera of Lumbricus, Eisenia, Dendrobaena and Allolobophora. You'll just need to know a few of the hundreds of earthworm species if you want to identify those likely to be in your compost bin. Compost bin worms are typically litter dwellers or shallow-dwelling species, unlike deep-burrowing worms. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Indoor Compost Bins
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Estimate the length and note the color of worms in an indoor compost bin. Worms up to 3 inches in length and rust brown in color are most likely red wigglers, scientifically known as Eisenia fetida. Bands of yellow and maroon alternate on each segment. Their clitellum, a saddlelike ring, covers segments 26 to 32. Red wigglers are the most common home and commercial compost worm.
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Check for small, 1/4-inch long, whitish worms joining your red wigglers in your worm bin. These are pot worms, formally known as enchytraeid worms and a distant cousin of the earthworm. These worms also make compost and pose no problem. You can feed any pot worms, a prized fish food, that you find to tropical fish.
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Identify the difference between pot worms and newly hatched red wigglers. Newly hatched red wigglers "are transparent; within hours of their hatching they show a visible red vein running the length of their body and appear reddish," write Loren Nancarrow and Janet Hogan Taylor in "The Worm Book."
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Check for larger redworms that run 3 to 8 inches long; these may be super reds, or Eisenia hortensis, also known as European nightcrawlers. These can live in the bottom of a compost bin or in an outdoor bin as well.
Outdoor Compost Bins
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Estimate the length and note the color of worms in an outdoor compost bin. A worm up to 3 inches long with 95 to 120 segments, lacking striping between the segments, is a redworm, or Lumbricus rubellus. The redworm is a litter-dwelling, or epigeic earthworm.
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Note any red, brown or sometimes greenish worms up to 12 inches long. This likely is Lumbricus terrestris, the nightcrawler or dew worm, a deep-burrowing or anecic earthworm. It will not stay in compost bins but may visit them and then return to its burrow.
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Notice any worms about 1-1/4 to 2-3/4 inches long with a deep purple head and dark red or brown hind parts. This most likely is a blue worm, or Perionyx excavatus, found in Southern and Gulf Coast states and Puerto Rico, as well as Hawaii, tropical Asia and the Philippines. The blue worm dwells in litter.
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Study any worms that look like typical earthworms, about 3 to 4 inches long. Allolobophora caliginosa, grayish blue, is the common garden or field earthworm, and may visit your outdoor compost bin if it is open to the soil below.
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Note any 4- to 6-inch earthworms, pink to brown in color. These are Amynthas gracilis, also known as the Alabama or Georgia jumper.
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Tips & Warnings
Look at the backs of your compost bin worms, particularly between the head and the clitellum, to determine its color. Its ventral side lacks color and thus cannot be used to identify it.
Regular soil and garden worms will "congregate in the lower regions of outdoor bins (if open to surrounding soil)," according to Bentley Christie of Redwormcomposting.com.
