by hatfield13

Welcome, baby worms!

So I was just poking around the bin of red worms we keep in the basement to eat kitchen scraps, and this scene is way too tiny to photograph, but…

Imagine an apple peel, about an inch wide and two inches long and curling at the edges.  If you look very, very carefully at the flesh that remains, you can see tiny white squiggles, maybe 1/16th of an inch long and so thin they’re almost transparent.  They are wiggling, and every every once in a while, one stands up and waves its tail.  Or maybe its head. It’s difficult to tell.

Red worms actually reproduce fairly quickly, so this isn’t the first time my little guys/girls (they’re hermaphrodites) have had babies.  But it’s the first time I’ve seen them so soon after they’ve emerged from a cocoon, and they were just so new and tiny…oh heck, I’ll admit it….I almost teared up a little.

(Note to blog readers who are just thinking "Ew!" right  now. I still love you, just as I still love my husband, who looked somewhat horrified when I ran upstairs to show him my wormy apple peel while he was having his coffee.)

23 Replies on “Welcome, baby worms!”

  5. You husband–LOL! I myself find it cool! I raised fruit flies with a class once–they larva stage was very cool–they were little white worms who crawled through this blue bananna paste stuff, and then crawled out to pupate at the top of each kids tube.

  6. Ooh, geez, I’m trying to drink my morning tea here. I wonder if it goes down different if your face is all squinched up.

    *swallow*

    Okay, fine, welcome baby worms ~

  7. I want to learn how to do this.
    We live in the woods, so the compost pile gets raided, not that I mind, but we have cleared a landing zone (Bob flies an ultralight helicopter sometimes) and part of it is going to be a garden. I want compost for the garden.

  9. Your p.s. made me laugh. I’m picturing you waving a wormy apple peel, saying, “Look, honey, aren’t they cute?” while hubby does a spit take. Who says we females are the squeamish ones?