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| About a year ago I started a wormery inside an old water tank to recycle some of the garden waste, mainly grass cuttings and dead leaves. It has been very successful and produced a lot of very good quality compost. However, last time I turned the soil over I could see very few worms.Instead there were dozens of big, fat millipedes. Do millipedes do the same job as worms? Have the millipedes driven out the worms? What's going on? - Ian. |
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| Millipedes eat teh same things as earthworms, organic matter, so they are not a threat to your worms even though they both eat the same stuff. The reasons your worm population declined are something other then the millipedes. |
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| Millipedes are actually supposed to be helpful in a wormery--they help chew up the matter and prepare it to be worked over by the worms. That's if you're sure those are millipedes though. Their bodies should be cylidrical and ringed, and rather hard-shelled. Centipedes however *DO* eat worms. Their bodies are flatter and they have a set of pinchers somewhere (though I have a difficult time spotting them) and their legs appear more hairlike than the compact legs of millipedes. If you have any centipedes, those should be removed from the wormery. Centipedes are supposed to be able to bite, so if you have them, I'd wear gloves. How often are you feeding and checking on your wormery? There is also an ENTIRE forum of worm-worshipping people (I'm one of 'em!) here on Gardenweb. That's probably the best forum to diagnose what's going on with your wormery. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Vermiculture forum--YAY!
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