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Experiments With Worms

Worms are simple creatures with no legs, arms or eyes, yet they manage to accomplish some amazing feats. Worms can eat their own body weight in organic scraps every day. They excrete nutrient-rich castings that make essential elements from the soil readily available to plants. Earthworm slime also contains nitrogen, vital to plant life. With as many as a million earthworms beneath every acre of soil, they make not only interesting but also handy subjects for a variety of experiments.

Worm Bin Setup
- To set up worm bins, use plastic storage bins at least 12 inches deep, with holes drilled in the bottom and near the rim on the sides. Fill them with dampened strips of newspaper and add a handful of soil to each. Try to make them all the same. Keep the bedding damp all the time. Keep the worms covered as much as possible. Place a tray under the worm bin, as liquid will come out of the bottom at some point. Keep the bins out of the sun and don't let them freeze, or the worms will die.
Worm Growth
- This experiment looks at how different foods affect the growth of worms.
  
  Make three bins, following the directions above. Count and weigh 250 red wiggler worms for each bin. Write the weight of each group down. Add 1 cup of kitchen scraps to bin one; add 1 cup of a grain product, such as corn meal, to bin two; and add 1 cup of green food, such as lettuce, spinach or garden scraps to bin three. Do this three times a week. Weigh the worms each week and note their weight each time. At the end of the month, determine which food makes the worms grow the most.
Vermicomposting
- Vermicomposting is the process of using worms to turn scraps into rich garden compost. This experiment examines what worms will eat and what should not be placed into the worm bin.
  
  Set up three bins as described above, with 250 to 500 red wiggler worms in each. Add 1 cup of green scraps to the first bin; 1 cup of meat and fatty scraps to the second bin; and 1 cup of shredded newspaper to the third bin. Dampen all three. Observe over the course of a week which foods the worms actually eat and which foods they avoid.
Worm Reproduction
- This experiment looks at whether feeding the worms more results in more babies.
  
  Set up two worm bins, as described above. Put 500 red wiggler worms in each. Feed them only garden and kitchen scraps, and avoid meat or dairy of any kind. Feed the worms in the first bin 1 lb. of food per week. Feed the worms in the second bin 2 lbs. of food per week. Divide the weekly amount into seven equal portions and give them some every day. Do this for 3 months, then remove the worms from each bin and count them. Compare the quantities to see if the worms that were fed more reproduced faster than the others.

Animals & Science