Worms don't do anything to the initial composting process. They show up later after it's cooled down. If you want to accelerate the process, make sure it's wet enough and add molasses. It kicks up the microbes. Just use unsulphured molasses you get at the grocery store and put a tablespoon in a gallon of water and pour it on. Then turn as usually. Make sure you keep it damp enough but not too wet. I'd say water is the biggest issue in composting.

The red wiggler worms need an environment that is much wetter than is good for conventional composting. Vermicomposting bins are much more moist. Adding these to your conventional compost bin would be, largely, a waste of your money.

thanks for the input..gosh.. I thought they were supposed to speed things up.. oh well..

Molasses, huh? Neat. And in my opinion, where molasses belongs! Yucky stuff!

Kim

Depending on the volume of your compost pile it is highly unlikely that a tablespoon of molasses, as good as molasses is, will do much of anything. Where I to add molasses to my 4 x 4 x 4 compost piles I would start with at least a quart.

According to several reasonably well educated researchers there are no earthworms native to North America. All of the earthworms we have here today were imported by the early colonists.

"All of the earthworms we have here today were imported by the early colonists."

Really? That is hard to believe!

I would love to see some references, Not trying to be mean or put you down. I just can't believe there were no earthworms in NA before the early colonists.

"All of the earthworms we have here today were imported by the early colonists."

Thirty seconds using google reveals this:

Some areas of North America that were not glaciated have native earthworms.

In Alberta, one native species has been found in the Porcupine Hills, an area that was not covered by glaciers.

Don't always believe what you read on these types of forums.

Lloyd

Here is a link that might be useful: Alberta Worm Invasion Project