Looking for red wrigglers

The earth is dark from the autumn rains. We are out looking for wild red wriggler composting worms. These worms are different than earthworms. They are red, flat on the underside, and have a yellowish tail. Unlike an earthworm they are generally found on top of the ground rather than down in it. This is how we found ours. We put down a piece of wet cardboard with a stone on top and it worked wonders at attracting them. Looking under the compost bin was another score. I guess inside the bin isn't quite right. Raking under fallen leaves was another success and after three days we had approximately 40 worms. We continued to collect by revisiting the sites where we did find some. We put them into a two foot square wooden box with a sloping lid that I built last summer from old douglas fir siding boards. A piece of plywood serves as a roof and another for the floor which has holes drilled in the bottom for excess moisture. Their bedding is paper we needed to recycle that my four year old cut up for them. Tucked into that is kitchen compost. The idea is new and the adventure young so we will see how it unfolds. If you are interested in learning more about composting with red wrigglers what I found helpful was a 1973 September back issue and a July/August 1983 back issue of Mother Earth magazine.
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