About Worms
The Humble Earthworm
The humble earthworm can do more than help remediation of degraded agricultural land.
Worms can help develop beautiful and abundant gardens, improve soil productivity and above all delivers a sustainable solution for the overwhelming environmental concerns facing society today.
There are over 350 species of earthworm in Australia; they can be classified into three groups based on behaviour and habitat. The classification of Dr. Marcel Bouché describes species according to which level of the soil they occupy and their feeding behaviour.
- Epigeic (surface dwelling) types live at the surface in freshly decaying plant or animal residues.
- Endogeic types live within the soil and ingest soil to extract nutrition from degraded organic matter.
- Anecic types burrow deep in the soil but come to the surface at night to forage for freshly decaying residues.
Earthworms such as P.excavatus and L.terrestris (night crawlers) are excellent for gardens because they create burrows allowing water to go deep into the soil, these types of earthworm help to mix the soil and improve tilth. While this is great for your garden they are almost impossible to farm.
Composting earthworms such as E.fetida are Epigeic and dwell exclusively in freshly decaying organic matter. As they process this organic matter they transform it into an extremely valuable organic fertiliser and organic pest control agent.
We do not recommend that you put composting earthworms directly into your garden as they will have a limited food supply and do not burrow.
At Enviropower we are focusing on one species, Eisenia Fetida (Tiger Worms) it is one of the most durable earthworms, able to adapt quickly to its environment. It can tolerate a wide range of temperature extremes from nearly freezing to 35 degrees Celsius.
Eisenia Fetida is a very prolific breeder due to the constant production of capsules with high hatching rates of young that can reach sexual maturity in as little as seven weeks.
Recommendations & Worm Notes
We recommend a minium of half a kilo of compost worms per person for home Vermicomposting and five Kilos per square metre for larger scale operations.
We sell our Worms by weight; not quantity there are approximately 4000 adult Eisenia Fetida worms per kilo. Larger sized adult worms tend to get harvested and shipped.
We will ship a minimum of 1000 (250g) of live worms anywhere within Australia.
Soil Food Web
Earthworms are part of this incredibly interrelated and complex system.
The structure of soil is similar to that of a house made of bricks. To form bricks, straw and sand must stick together. Then the bricks are held together with mortar to form walls. The house has structure when the walls are arranged in certain patterns (Dr. Elaine Ingham of Soil Foodweb, Inc.).
In the soil food web, various organism groups perform the same function for soil structure. Bacteria glue the clays, silts and sands together into micro-aggregates – the bricks. The micro-aggregates are bound together by underground fungal vegetative growth, root hairs and roots – the mortar. Insects and earthworms make the structure of the rooms – the house. When all the organisms are present and active, roots and water move into and through the soil with ease.
A spoonful of healthy soil contains millions of different organisms, including bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa, which:
- Keep disease-causing organisms in check
- Recycle and store nutrients and make them available to plants
- Provide a pathway through which air and water can pass
This intricate food web not only provides nutrients but also serves as a pollution control system.
The many pathways created in the soil food web allow it to:
- Break down pesticide and hydrocarbon pollutants
- Bind heavy metals into immobile forms
- Convert soluble fertilizers into complex stored organic forms
This is known as biofiltration or bioremediation and is what keeps these pollutants from entering ground and surface waters. In healthy soil, this happens naturally. We can help the soil in our yards to do this by adding organic amendments, or compost, to the soil.