Everyone understands how beneficial worms are to the garden. By digging, they increase the porosity properties of your soil; they cluster around decaying materials, consuming fungi, nematodes, and bacteria, and excreting them as worm castings or vermicompost, one of the most powerful soil additives available.
Castings provide significant percentages of essential nutrients in a slow-release form and enhanced soil binding and water retention characteristics. They also have outstanding aeration, porosity, and structural qualities. Furthermore, these nutrients remain available for a longer period. “Available” means that the nutrients in castings may reach the plants and be easily absorbed because they are water-soluble. Worm castings will also greatly improve the texture of your soil. If you want to learn more, check out Vers L’avenir red wigglers.
The importance of red worms
Red worms (Eisenia fetida) function in the environment as scavengers, eating on and digesting dead animal and plant material. These earthworms, sometimes known as red wigglers, are utilized in composting and farming in man-made micro-ecosystems.
Red worms and other earthworms are significant food sources for animals such as birds and even people in ecosystems.
Scavengers
In a natural ecology, red worms feed on leaf litter, the surface of the soil that comprises dead plants, leaves, and animal remnants. Red worms consume decaying debris and excrete castings (excrement or fecal matter) rich in nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium.
All of these are essential nutrients for live plants. Red worms help aerate the soil by producing pockets of air that allow water and nutrients to circulate more readily among plant roots while feeding and decomposing.
Composting
Local gardens and commercial farms have benefited from the mineral-rich castings left by red wigglers. Vermicomposting (“vermi” is Latin for worms) is a process that uses red worm compost bins to organically break down food wastes and paper. Composting aids the environment by recycling waste that might otherwise wind up in landfills.
Worm castings are taken from compost bins and used in gardens and houseplants as fertilizer. Red worm castings are used as organic fertilizer; they are good for the environment since they replenish the ecosystem with natural minerals. Red worm castings offer value by acting as an alternative to nonorganic fertilizers, which can pollute surrounding waterways and harm local animals.
Red worms also serve as prey for other creatures, which plays a vital role in ecology. Hawks, for example, like earthworms as a dietary source. Frogs, toads, fish, and rodents all consume red wigglers.
Many farmers buy compost and naturally occurring worms to fertilize and compost their gardens/farms.
