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Originally Posted by Susie  Why are these worms better than earth worms? |
Not so much better, as it is a question of species adaptation. The common earthworm Lumbricus terrestris is adapted to survive in well developed topsoils, while the brandling Eisenia fetida is adapted to survive in rotting vegetable matter. L terrestris is likely to be unhappy, and may even die if contained in an active compost bin, and where they do occur in compost heaps it's generally where the heap is becoming inactive, or in the parts of the heap which are close to the native soil. E fetida is actually quite numerous in UK gardens but because of its smaller size is either not noticed, or seen by most people as just a small L terrestris. In undisturbed environments E fetida lives on or close to the soil surface, and unlike L terrestis, does not burrow deeply. Just to complicate things there are 24 other species of earthworm in the UK - and I know very little about any of them.
CM