How to turn organic waste, such as kitchen scraps & vegetable peelings into rich fertilizer to not only enrich your soil but also save much space in the country landfill? Let the worms do the magic for you!
If you have a garden or even some potted plants, the best worms for compost provides the greatest way to feed and nurture them.
Here are the best worms for compost you can buy in 2024:
- Best Overall: Uncle Jim's Worm Farm Red Wiggler Live Composting Worms
- Best For Beginners: Home Grown Worms Vermicomposting Garden Red Wigglers
- Best For Heavy Clay Soil: WWJD Worms Garden Worms
- Best For Larger Foods And Tougher Material: Uncle Jim's Worm Farm European Nightcrawlers Composting and Fishing Worms
- Best For Sheltered Composting Environment: Worms4Earth African Nightcrawlers
| Top 5 Best Worms For Compost | ||
|---|---|---|
Best Overall | Uncle Jim's Worm Farm Red Wiggler Live Composting Worms | |
Best For Beginners | Home Grown Worms Vermicomposting Garden Red Wigglers | |
Best For Heavy Clay Soil | WWJD Worms Garden Worms | |
Best For Larger Foods And Tougher Material | Uncle Jim's Worm Farm European Nightcrawlers Composting and Fishing Worms | |
Best For Sheltered Composting Environment | Worms4Earth African Nightcrawlers | |
Best Overall: Uncle Jim's Worm Farm Red Wiggler Live Composting Worms
- Make a delicious bite-sized hi-protein treat for any aquarium fish or reptile
- Enhance germination, plant growth, and crop yield
- Improve your plant root growth and structure
- Able to be used for panfish bait
- Integrate well into the composter
- Not excellent at soil aeration
Ranked first on our list of the best worms for compost is the Uncle Jim's Worm Farm Red Wiggler Live Composting Worms which save homeowners from using chemicals to enhance their gardening efforts.
The 500 Count Red Wiggler Live Composting Worms are a perfect volume for starting any compost projects.
Not only can this earthworm species consume an amount of food half of its weight but it also efficiently performs in decaying natural remain breakdown and turning the food scraps into nutrient-rich organic compost.
The Uncle Jim's Worm Farm Red Wiggler Live Composting Worms have downsides, too. And the biggest one is their strength marginal & pretty thin skin make them poorly perform at soil aeration.
| Uncle Jim's Worm Farm Red Wiggler Live Composting Worms Specifications | |
|---|---|
Worm Kind | Red Wiggler |
Weight | 1 lb |
Worms Per Pound | 500 |
Highlight Features | Responsive customer service 100% guarantee live delivery. |
Uncle Jim's Worm Farm Red Wiggler Live Composting Worms make vermiculture and vermicomposting a highly effective method to decrease our carbon footprint.
Best For Beginners: Home Grown Worms Vermicomposting Garden Red Wigglers
- Organic and fun
- Multiply greatly
- Yield good results for many years to come
- Build a worm farm that both children & adults love
- Start working in no time at all
- Baby-sized worms
The Home Grown Worms Vermicomposting Garden Red Wigglers are these earthworms popularly used in both vermicomposting & vermiculture.
Though not all earthworms are the same, the Red Wiggler variety which supplies an ideal balance of potash, phosphates, and nitrogen as well as other plant nutrients required by your garden to thrive within the growing season is among the best options for vermicomposting.
Even landowners with just a little bit of experience can effortlessly have their gardens flourish in an organic way. What novices love about the Home Grown Worms Vermicomposting Garden Red Wigglers is their ability to start working right after you receive them and the exceptional results produced for many years to come!
Though the Home Grown Worms Vermicomposting Garden Red Wigglers will arrive in good shape, their 1"-1 1/2" length might make you disappointed.
| Home Grown Worms Vermicomposting Garden Red Wigglers Specifications | |
|---|---|
Worm Kind | Red Wiggler |
Weight | 1lb |
Worms Per Pound | 250 |
Highlight Features | Organic way to fertilize your garden Worm farm starter 100% guarantee live delivery. |
If you are new to worm farming, let’s get started with the Home Grown Worms Vermicomposting Garden Red Wigglers!
Best For Heavy Clay Soil: WWJD Worms Garden Worms
- Easy to raise
- Populate quickly
- Suitable for freshwater fishing
- Saturate and enrich the soil
- Live in horizontal & vertical channels
- Able to burrow up to three feet into the garden soil
- Handle a land of 200 sq. feet
- Not great to order during hot seasons
Gardeners, regardless of their levels, are likely to find clay soil a trouble-maker. As these small particles compact together so tightly that clay soils turn rock solid and void of passages to hold moisture & allow for excess moisture drainage, making digging through it such a challenge.
When introduced to the garden soil, WWJD Worms Garden Worms create water channels & air passages thus increasing soil aeration & moisture retention.
And unlike these top feeders like red wigglers which seldom go below 6 inches deep, these garden earthworms that live in horizontal & vertical channels will burrow up to 3 feet into the garden soil.
Burrowing that deep through the soil, these worms can also leave behind these castings, which will help with seed germination as well as increase nutrient uptake by your green.
What’s matter is that you should order these worms in cool seasons only. There is a user reporting that half of their worms ordered in hot weather died in shipment.
| WWJD Worms Garden Worms Specifications | |
|---|---|
Worm Kind | Endogeic Earthworms |
Weight | 1lb |
Worms Per Pound | 1000 |
Highlight Features | 100% guarantee live delivery An easy & fast transition from the shipment to the new home |
WWJD Worms Garden Worms are the greatest way to improve your clay soil.
Best For Larger Foods And Tougher Material: Uncle Jim's Worm Farm European Nightcrawlers Composting and Fishing Worms
- Grow to be 3-8 inches long
- Able to grow 2 or 3 times bigger than the red wigglers
- Cold & heat-resistant
- Active and easy to raise
- Populate quickly
- Ideal fit for any compost piles and bins
- None!
The Uncle Jim's Worm Farm European Nightcrawlers are famous for their ability to reach the length of 3-8 inches & the size twice or three times as big as their cousins - Eisenia Fotida (the red wigglers) making them among the greatest composting worms.
However, their forte is being introduced to almost any garden or lawn soil environments. These strong worms which are better for larger & tougher food hard to break down specialize in the soil’s aeration and fertilization, thus helping with your veggies’ growth & strength.
And their cold & heat resistance allows you to compost all year round as long as your compost bin is placed in a location with the temperatures ranging from 50 to 80 degrees.
| Uncle Jim's Worm Farm European Nightcrawlers Composting and Fishing Worms Specifications | |
|---|---|
Worm Kind | European Nightcrawlers |
Weight | 8lbs |
Worms Per Pound | 600 |
Highlight Features | 100% guarantee live delivery |
Uncle Jim's Worm Farm European Nightcrawlers contribute much to your zero-waste lifestyle.
Best For Sheltered Composting Environment: Worms4Earth African Nightcrawlers
- Easy to raise & breed quickly
- Be able to consume a large amount of organic materials
- High temperature-tolerant
- Work incredibly well in temperate & damp conditions
- Might die if exposed to temperatures dropping to 60 degrees Fahrenheit
Last but not least, we want to recommend these African Nightcrawlers by Worms4Earth.
Not only do they happily eat a large amount of various kinds of organic materials but they also have a pretty high reproduction rate. The bigger-sized the worms are, the more materials they will consume!
The mature African Nightcrawler can grow more than 8 inches long making it only second in size compared to the Canadian Nightcrawler.
Continuing to live for at least 1 month under temperate & damp conditions, these earthworms can create the most highly prized dark, nutrient-rich vermicompost among all organic garden lovers.
While a nice bunch of these healthy worms can grow like weeds and have hot temperature sensitivity, African Nightcrawler would be endangered when staying in the temperatures that drop to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
| Worms4Earth African Nightcrawlers Specifications | |
|---|---|
Worm Kind | African Nightcrawlers |
Weight | 1lb |
Worms Per Pound | 250 |
Highlight Features | A prolific producer of castings Preference for warmer temperature Largest earthworm for composting Breathable shipping bags High reproduction rate. |
With pretty thin skin and high temperature sensitivity, the African Nightcrawlers work best in a sheltered composting environment.
How To Choose The Best Worms For Compost?
Worm Species
- The hottest topic among casual worm farmers from time to time again is “Which is the best worm species for composting?”
- The most typical answers would be the red wiggler worms and nightcrawlers – the kings and queens of composters that set the standard for other composting worms.
- However, those in search of the best species for the organic debris decomposition should turn to the Red Wigglers – the best worms for vermiculture and vermicomposting.
- Another common wormery worm type is Alabama Jumpers which have various breed traits. Unlike other worms for composting, these poor composters prefer the soil rich in organic matter to bedding materials. Since Alabama Jumpers can withstand the temperature range between 45 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, they work best in a tropical/subtropical area.
Worms Per Pound
- Right after having your wormery fully set up, you need to purchase worms. Though the number of worms per pound itself is amazing, their reproduction rate, as well as transformative powers, are nothing short of astonishing!
- The more daily household food waste your family produces, the more worms per pound should be. To get started, plan to get approximately 1000 worms (250g) worms at a DIY store or a garden center.
Which Brands Make The Best Worms For Compost?
Home Grown Worms
- Proudly based in the USA, this family-run company is the #1 pick for live worms. Home Grown Worms always guarantees your worms’ health as well as 100% organic vermicomposting & gardening at our fingertips!
Uncle Jim's Worm Farm
- While some other "worm brands" are not actual worm farms yet simply worm dealers or drop shippers, Uncle Jim's Worm Farm has been specializing in offering gardeners the Red Wigglers Worm Composting experience for over 40 past years.
- The Red Wigglers Worms are a true Natures’ Wonder Worker and Uncle Jim's Worm Farm is a real champion.
FAQs
Should I buy worms for my compost?
As the composting process happens outside with or without the appearance of earthworms, there is no need to buy and add worms to your compost piles. But surely it is only better with worms.
How long does it take for worms to compost?
With earthworm bin composting, the food-scrap process will be way faster once the worms get well-established. In the beginning, it may take 3 months to make your own soil, but once the worms are established, it takes no more than one month for the turn around.
Can worms live in hot compost?
Normal “hot” compost draws several wild worms. “Hot” composting generates much more heat than vermicomposting, though. The Red Worms cannot survive the temperatures above 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
These two methods help break down organic yard & kitchen waste and turn them into fertilizer.
Should I put worms in my compost tumbler?
Since when the temperatures inside rise worms cannot escape and are likely to die, you shouldn’t add them in your compost tumblers.
Does worm composting smell?
If you feed worms way more food than what they need, the leftovers might rot and stink. Also, unless you bury them at least 1 inch under the bedding surface, they will begin to smell before your worms can consume them.
Can I use bait worms for composting?
Yes, you can. The best composting worms that can work as fish bait are European Nightcrawler.
Conclusion
What might look rotten or moulded to us tastes incredibly good to them. This is the popular scenario in the world of the best worms for composts.
While choosing the best species for your land might be too much of a bother, the casual worm gardeners do not need to overly worry about it. Begin with our advice and see how quickly and efficiently worm composting contribute to your soil enrichment.
Harry RamosI’m Harry Ramos, who's crazy about all things green. I’m here to share some experience in my gardening adventure and how to choose the best products for your garden. Let's dig in, get our hands dirty, and celebrate the simple, earthy pleasures of the garden together!
