What Kind of Worms
(and How Many?)

What kind of worms work best for worm composting? And how many of those worms do you need to start your composting system?

First, there are many kinds of worms. Some work better than others. The best kind of worm for a composting system are Redworms--and even among Redworms there are several varieties. (The scientific names of several Redworm varieties that work well: Eisenia fetida, Eisenia andrei and Lambricus rubellus.)

Why Redworms?

Redworms love to eat your garbage. They're pros and turning your food scrapes into lush compost. They reproduce well and do well in a variety of situations. They're semi-tolerant of temperature, moisture and acitity changes. They're also easy to find, as they're a popular worm for composting.

How Many Worms Do You Need?

Most Redworms are sold by the pound, not per worm. This is mainly because it's the weight of the worms that's important, not the number. Worms can consume MORE than their body weight in food each day, so weight is a good calculating factor.

How many worms you need depend of a few different things:

1. How much food waste will you have in a given week? (Generally speaking, you'll need 1/2 pound of garbage per day for 1 pound of worms.) A good rule of thumb is that one person generates enough food to feed 1 lb of worms per week.

2. How big is your worm bin/space for worms? (1 pound of worms per cubic foot of bin space--although you can start out with about half that in worms as they will reproduce.)

Based on these considerations, 1 lb of worms would need a 2x2 container and 7 pounds of food per week.