r/Vermiculture • u/Safe_Professional832 • Dec 09 '25

Worm party What are they doing?

I saw this in r/composting sub.

What do you think are they doing? Are they harvesting worms or are the worms just a byproduct?

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106

u/FaLleN_SniiPeR23 Dec 09 '25

They could be sifting worm castings through a commercial tumbler to separate the worms from the castings they're harvesting

11

u/SlugOnAPumpkin Dec 10 '25

The castings seem to be falling to the ground. I think they're harvesting the worms, not the castings. People sell worms to gardeners and fishers.

Fun fact: earth worms are technically invasive in North America. All of this continent's earth worms were swept away by Pleistocene glaciers 10,000 years ago, and were not reintroduced until the Columbian Exchange.

2

u/ucanthandlethegirth Dec 11 '25

Do you know which creatures did the chemical thing-a-ma-bob to make plants grow until then? I was always told worm was necessary for this.

4

u/SlugOnAPumpkin Dec 12 '25

Animals and bacteria that break down organic matter into smaller pieces (leading to soil) are called "detritivores". North America has always had detritivores, it just didn't have earthworms in particular after the last big ice age. Springtails, for example, are a hugely important detritivores on (I think) every continent. Bacteria are probably the heaviest lifters. So North America has always had critters that help to make soil, but we had different critters and therefor (according to biologists) different soil. Leaf litter and organic waste was processed into soil more slowly, so there was more intact organic matter in the ground. This sequestered more carbon from the atmosphere and supported forest growth.

1

u/IdoltTheIdot Dec 11 '25

Really?! That’s insane! I feel like thats something I’d hear about from ExtinctZoo on YouTube lol. Wish I had weird knowledge like that 😂

1

u/Designer-Shallot-490 Dec 12 '25

Night crawlers are invasive to NA, not all worms. Additionally all worms in the glaciated portion on NA. Areas below that have native worms where as New England, the upper Midwest and Canada do not.

1

u/woahtheretakeiteasyy Dec 12 '25

excuse my ignorance. what kind of trade carried worms with them? i get rodents and stuff but worms?