• Red worms stay at home, under normal conditions.  They will not crawl away if adequate food, aeration and moisture are provided for them.
• Mature red worms living under favorable conditions, may produce 4 to 10 egg capsules every seven days.
• The egg capsules incubate in 14 to 21 days.  Each egg capsule produces from 2 to 20 worms with an estimated average of 4.
• Newly hatched red worms will reach breeding age in 60 to 90 days.  They develop a muscular band called a clitellum around its body near the head signifying it is mature enough to breed.
• Red worms continue to grow until they are approximately 9 months old.  The normal length of a healthy red worm is about 3 – 3 ½ inches.
• Red worms have a lifespan of several years with estimates of more than five years.
• Red worms feed from beneath after they become familiar with their new environment.
• Red worms eat the bacteria that breaks the organic material down.  They do not actually eat “food”.  When you see them feeding on the top layer, be sure to give them more food to process.
• Waste you feed may consist of almost any organic material and red worms will convert it to fertile dirt faster when it is supplied in smaller pieces.
• Remember, the finer the food is when it goes into the bin, the quicker it will be processed and the finer your final vermicompost will be when they are finished.

Red Worm Anatomy

Movement

• Uniquely suited to its life, the slender red worm moves by alternately elongating and shortening its segmented body, helped along by stiff hairs known as setae and lubricating mucous, leaving behind channels that let essential air and moisture into the zone where plant roots live.
• Red worms have a segmented, cylindrical body.
• To move either forward or backwards the worm uses its muscles. It uses its "round" muscles squeezed together to make it long and thin. By squeezing together its "long" muscles it is able to contract, becoming short and fat.
  
• Setae, the tiny bristles poking out from each segment of the worm, dig into the surrounding matter to keep the worm from slipping, a good tool when it doesn't want to be pulled out by a bird!
  
• Red worms have no bones and can bend their bodies in any direction, wriggle and even curl up into a ball.
  
• They excrete a mucus which helps them slide along.

Breathing, Smelling and Hearing

• Red worms have no eyes, ears or lungs.
  
• They breathe through their skin.
• The air which is present between soil and food particles is diffused through their moist skin into a complex network of blood vessels.
  
• The mucus they excrete helps keep their skin moist.
  
• They have a complex nervous system, which enables them to sense light, food, acid conditions, vibrations and heat.

 Eating

• A red worm has no teeth so it cannot chew.
  
• Instead, a red worm uses a small pad of flesh that sticks out above its mouth to consume the bacteria that breaks down the food.
• When the worm is eating the pad stretches out and scoops the bacteria up, pushing it into its mouth.
  
• Muscles then pass the "food" down through its gizzard where tiny, hard pieces of grit rub together and grind the food into smaller particles.
  
• The "food" leaves the gizzard and passes into the worm's digestive tract. There it is broken down into even smaller particles.
  
• These nutritious particles are absorbed into the worm's bloodstream, which is pumped around the worm's body by five pairs of hearts.
  
• The remaining particles are passed out of the worm; this is called castings.

Reproduction

• Red worms are hermaphrodites, which means they are both male and female, but it still takes two worms to reproduce.
  
• In the act of mating, the worms lie next to each other nose to tail (it almost looks like they are tied in a knot) and exchange sperm.
  
• The worms then part and each worm secretes a thick mucus ring around its clitellum. This ring contains the worm's female eggs and exchanged male sperm.
  
• As the mucus ring is passed over the worm's upper body and head it hardens and forms a cocoon.
  
• The cocoon changes in color from yellow to dark brown.
  
• The worms when first hatched are very pale in colour, and about the thickness of a strand of cotton, but soon start eating and change to a reddish-brown colour.