red worms

where is the best place to get red worms from to start my worm farm please

here is some worm retailors



http://www.beechbankworms.co.uk/

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/product/index.html

http://www.thewormery.co.uk/

http://www.willyworms.co.uk/


i hope this is of some help

Farmers manure heaps

Piggeries

Just got a load this morning from my own compost heap of grass cuttings and leaves, and veg waste.

I think dung worms are different to redworms.

You have to be REALLY careful when picking dung worms, never eat, smoke or drink and always wash your hands in a good disinfectant afterwards.

Loads on nasty germs in dung heaps...

i think the ones Robert Pearson is after are the blood red one that're about 3-4 inches in length ,some tackle shops sell them in little tubs they're not cheap as i
think they're harder to breed and harvest
compared to Dendrobaena or tiger worms or brandlings as they're known as sometimes .

red worms (proper ones )are available from

http://121-worms-live-fishing-bait.com/worms-live-fishing-bait-homepage.htm

(i've checked and they are currently sold out)

( try entering " red worms " into a search
site like google or yahoo )


i hope this is of some help

A few of points on worms, and I must have said this many times over the last 4 years or so on this site. There are 17 species of worms in the UK. Many worms when small all look similar and only an expert in worms (and I doubt there are many even in the worm farming business) can tell the difference. How do I know this? One of my mates is one of a handful of recognised worm "experts" in the UK.
Whilst doing some research regarding worm composting he ordered worm samples from about 10 different suppliers, all but one misidentified the species he asked for.

Given the above statement are we being deliberately deceived? No I don't think so, it's the lack of knowledge by well intentioned business people trying to make a living.

One of the species that inadvertently gets passed off as red worms are small immature bradlings. Also known as tiger worms because of the yellow bands that develop on mature worms. When small (1 -1 1/4 inch) and immature the bands have not developed fully and the yellowing in its bands and therefore it's hardly recognisable, unless you use a magnifying glass on them. Even then the food stuffs they have been fed on may not have been acidic enough to create the yellow liquid.

Now it's said within angling that fish don't like bradlings because of the yellow liquid they contain. Personally, I've had good fish of most species on bradlings. For me they are a proven fish catcher, out fishing in some circumstance other more used species. They also last a very long-time when submerge in water.

The two reasons (proven fish catcher/lasting a long-time in water) I believe they are good are because of the environmental habitat (niche) they occupy in in the soil profile. Brads are a surface/just under the surface worm. This niche is a very hostile and precarious environ to live in. It floods a lot, living there means that the worms are more than likely going to get washed away into brooks, streams, etc and end up in rivers and stillwaters, ultimately and most likely finishing up as food for some aquatic creature, be that fish or invertebrates. To survive in this environment such worms will have evolved a survival strategy and part of the strategy will be to survive for long periods of time submerged in water.

May be it's time I did some research and talked to a few people about worms and knocked it up into an article.

Definately Phil!....

Go on!

Phil is a bradling the same as a BRANDLING ??

thanks lads for info on starting worm farming . robert

I thought you got red worms by starting off a good compost heap. Not just grass clipping, but some good fibrous material as well, nettles for example. I suppose they come up from the soil below, but my heap used to be full of them. I've just not used them for a while now.

Don't get any lobs coming up on the surface, but we have a local cricket pitch which is FULL of them. They're like snakes, if they are lobs. I'd like to see an article Phil, got any photos to go with it?

They do breed or live in grass cuttings alone, butI allways use other materials in mine as well. Don't forget not to add grass cuttings that have had fertiliser spread on it recently.

sounds good to me phil. i did once find what appeared to be a worm colony, there were thousands of em. all inside some news paper which was buried under a lawn i was digging up.

Behave yourself Teddy. Remember I know where you live!
Yes it is the same bloody worm, with an N in it!

Hopefully my mate?s book should be coming out next month if the publishers are to be believed. Whilst it?s aimed at the composting fraternity, there is a lot of info about keeping worms in it.
No doubt I?ll get an advanced copy Well I?d better do, as I read large chunks of it and made comments on it for him, as asked.

I?ll defer writing my article until I?ve got a copy. No point in reinventing the wheel when I can plagiarise it from some bugger else, is there????? LOL