Las Vegas Red Wigglers FAQ
If you are having problems with your worm bin or are wondering if your bin is normal, click here for some troubleshooting answers.
How did you get worms that could take the heat and cold extremes in Las Vegas?
Glad you asked! I have a whole post about that here.
How much do red wigglers eat?
Red wiggler worms (Eisenia fetida) eat over half of their body-weight in food every day. For me, that would mean that I would eat 3 five-gallon buckets full of food each and every day!
The benefit for us when we are vermicomposting is that all that food they eat quickly becomes “Black Gold”!
Just like humans,”Teenage” worms eat the most. One huge disadvantage of buying worms online is that they sell their biggest worms because they sell to you by weight. Those big worms might look good, but some are past their prime, slowing down, don’t eat as much, and aren’t reproducing anymore. You end up with a semi-sterile population of worms.
Don’t get ripped off, instead get your worms from me and I’ll make sure you get worms that are actively eating and reproducing!
Do red wigglers have teeth?
Nope, red wigglers don’t have teeth. That’s why you need to add a little bit of sand to your worm bin. The worms eat the sand and use it to grind their food in their stomach. This is the same way a chicken uses its gizzard.
How long do red wigglers live?
Red wigglers live about 2 years as far as I can tell. I’ve read that they can live up to 10 years, but I really doubt that. They start to breed after when they are 3 to 6 months old, depending on how much food you’ve got for them. And as long as you keep them fed well and there isn’t a problem with their bin, they will keep making babies for about another year.
What do the eggs look like?
If you look closely where you’ve been feeding your worms, you’ll see little yellowish brown beads (without holes in them). Those beads are the worm cocoons and you can figure that each one of them has 3-5 worms in it.
When the worms first hatch, they are pure white for a few days. You know you’ve got a good healthy population when you have cocoons, big adults and those tiny white babies.
One of the problems with getting your worms from places other than Las Vegas Worms is that you don’t get that good mix of different ages.
Why do my worms look dehydrated?
Because they are. You had them shipped to you and the supplier dehydrated the worms before they got to you. You’ve got to get them moist ASAP!!! And even so, some of your worms are going to die on you.
Actually, what they do before they ship their worms is feed them unhealthy grains to gt the worms to retain water and survive the trip to your post office where you’ll have to go pick them up during business hours. Another problem is that to separate out your worms they roll them or sift them and the worms go into shock. To keep your worms from dying on the way to the post office, they pack them in bone dry peat moss.
By the time you pick the worms up from the post office, they are stressed out, in shock and need special attention. The ones that do live are going to need a week or so to recover.
The solution? Next time get your worms from me. I feed your worms a healthy, 99% organic… 100% vegan diet that keeps them robust. I don’t tumble or shake your worms to separate them from the soil and I count them out by hand so they don’t go into shock.
Plus, your worms come straight out of my garden growing bins and they’re ready to make compost for you from day one!
What happens if you cut a worm in half?
It depends on where you cut it. If you cut it through the heart, it will die. If the cut is near the tail, the worm will grow a new tail but the old tail will shrivel up and die.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t turn the soil in your worm bin every week or two though. And if you are gardening outside like I do,
the chances that you’ll cut a worm right through the heart are pretty slim, so just go ahead and garden as usual. As long as you have food for them, they are going to recover with no problem.
If you’d like to get your Las Vegas red wigglers from me and save yourself a lot of headache, please buy your worms from me, email me. Also, if you have any questions, I’d be happy to help you out!
Buy your worms here and have them shipped to your house!
You can email at john@lasvegasworms.com …
The worms here at Las Vegas Worms absolutley THRIVE in the Las Vegas heat! And the more worms you get, the less they cost per pound! 🙂
Shipping is always free.
Hi Connie,
With these worms, you can get them any time of year. 🙂
Can you worms be used yards as opposed to arrogating to soil with a machine. I was raised in the Midwest and the worms in the soil did that for us and curious if your worms did too.
Hi Misty,
I’m from the Midwest too. These worms are called red wigglers and they mainly live in the top 8 inches of soil. So, yes, they will aerate the soil, but not as deep as the worms in the Midwest.
Hope that helps!
John
Hi Brittney!
Yep, I got your email and your worms are on the way to your house in Las Vegas. You should be all set with your order. Enjoy these amazing new worms!
Thanks again– John
Hi Carmen,
I got your order for worms and they are shipping out tomorrow. The pumpkin is great worm food. You don’t need to acclimate these worms, just put them outside. They will be fine, they are used to the temperature extremes already. You can keep the food in the fridge or just feed it to the worms right away, it’s up to you. No need to let the food get to room temp, just put it in the bin cold.
Good luck, and glad you got your worms from me here,
John
This is a great question!!! I am a biologist and one of the things my family is passionate about is native plants and animals. Back home, my brother and mom pretty much head up the charge to return prairies to native plants.
In short, you don’t have to worry about the impact of introducing worms to an ecosystem in the Southwest.
Here’s the thing about introducing a non-native species like red wigglers here in Las Vegas… anywhere these worms can live, they will benefit the soil and the ecosystem. That said, these worms aren’t spreading far, and most of the worms that do spread are dying right away.
Because there isn’t a continuous corridor of soil from one place to the next here in Las Vegas, the worms can’t get out of one yard to get to the next.
There is some dispersal through birds, but most of the worms or worm eggs the birds carry will die. And if the worms are transported to a place where the red worms survive, the local ecosystem will benefit.
Thanks for this great question.
The Las Vegas Worm Guy,
John
Is it possible to get just a few worms from you? My son would like to do a science fair experiment with a worm in a maze. We only need a couple of them.
Hey Steph,
The lowest number I sell is 500. Maybe you can dig some up at The Wetlands. I heard it stays pretty wet there and maybe there are worms there as well.
Good luck, John
Good day
I would like to know if you sell less worms?
Where can I go to pick them up?
Thank you for your time
Sincerely
Stella
Sure Stella, you can get less worms from me. But if you are gardening and only have a tiny itty bitty garden or just a few potted plants you want to put the worms in, you should get a full 1,000. If you are composting and produce more than a couple of cups of fruit and veggie scraps, you’ll want at least 1,000.
I can help you out when you come over and answer all your questions and give you ideas. I’m at Cheyenne and Jones and you can call or email me for directions and a time to stop by!
Talk soon-John