Worm Facts
The Dendrobaena Worm, full name Dendrobaena Veneta (also known as the European night crawler & Eisenia hortensis), is a very
tough and particularly wriggly worm, making them ideal as worms for fishing. They are surface
feeders who are sensitive to light. The worms' eagerness to escape light is what makes them squirm
so much in daylight. To ensure that you don't find your bucket of worms empty,
you need to keep the lid on in the dark.
The Dendrobaena worm has the ability to consume large amounts of vegetable matter, up to half their body weight a day.
A sexually mature Dendrobaena weighs anything from 1 to 2.5+ grams.
The temperature range at which the Dendrobaena thrives, that is breeds, is between 12 to 18 degrees Celsius.
In warmer temperatures, their metabolism increases so they eat more food in warmer temperatures, up to 25 degrees Celsius. If the temperature
raises too much above this they can get very stressed and will die at high temperatures. Therefore if you have a portable wormery
it needs to be kept in the shade in the summer months and in the sun in the winter months, or even indoors.
Moisture is very important as worms need it to breathe through their skin,
although do not drown them. In ideal conditions, a single worm will produce
approximately 2 young per week. Cocoons are laid which normally contain 1
worm taking anything from 40 to 128 days to hatch. Dendrobaenas take 57 to 86 days to reach sexual maturity.
You need not worry about any escapees as Dendrobaenas are indigenous to this country and are a friendly
lot, posing no threat to any other earthworms.
Recently we have heard a lot of talk about the Tiger worm versus the Dendrobeana worm and their suitability for composting
your kitchen scraps. To be fair we have decided to put together some facts about the Tiger worms so that you can make up your
minds for yourselves.
Being Dendrobeana worm farmers we know how successful Dendrobeanas are and the hundreds of tonnes of food that they get through on our farm. Being
livestock farmers we are also familiar with the Tiger worm which can be found in any partially composted dung/compost heap.
The Tiger worm to a certain degree is a myth, it obviously exists but is not a distinct breed as is commonly thought.
The scientific name is Eisenia Foetida, also known as Redworm, Red Wiggler, Brandlings or Manure Worm amongst other names. It
was the distinct banding that developed when the worms were farmed in a single medium, paper pulp, that led them to be named tiger worms.
On entering an environment different to that in which they are bred, they tend to go wandering due to the shock of the environmental change.
We get these small wild worms entering our worm beds, but due to our handpicking of our Dendrobaenas we leave behind the smaller Redworms.
This infiltration of Redworms into our beds has enabled us to see the advantages of Dendrobaenas in wormery like conditions i.e.
the larger Dendrobeanas aerate the beds better and prefer wetter conditions often found in wormeries.
Like the Dendrobaena, the Tiger worm is an Epigeic worm, i.e. they live on the surface of the soil or in the top 10 inches or so
of the topsoil under the litter layer. Both are indigenous to this country. Both worms can tolerate temperatures from 3 to 27 degrees celsius.
Our Dendrobeanas have survived snowfall and frosts on our outdoor beds without any insulation! Worms will burrow down to protect
themselves. A single Tiger worm will produce approximately 2-4 young per week. Cocoons are laid which normally contain 2
worms taking anything from 32 to 73 days to hatch. Tigers take 53 to 76 days to reach sexual maturity. As a guide you can expect to double the weight of your
Tiger worm population in 3-4 months. The Tiger worm can eat up to its own weight in food each day, its weight being from 0.5 to 1 gram.
In summary, Dendrobaenas are ideally suited to wormery conditions because they like wetter conditions, will tolerate slightly acidic conditions better and being
larger and more robust they are more efficient at aerating the compost. This is handy as the natural composting process can cause your wormery to become acidic should you overfeed
or forget to neutralise the PH of your wormery with eggshells or lime. Tiger worms breed faster and can eat up to their body weight in food a day, but being such
a small worm they do not get through so much food. A single dendrobaena worm will eat 30% more food a day than a single tiger worm.
See our pointers for healthy worms on our Composting Page.
