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Subject: How do worms get into a new/sterile compost pile?
From: "Alex C." <acensor@bigfoot.com>
Organization: FlashNet Communications, http://www.flash.net
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 01 02:37:53
Message-ID: <MOD$010224.16069@rec.gardens.ecosystems>



My friend is puzzled as to how large amounts of worms eventually appear in
his dad's compost pile (at the point that the compost is finally
mature/finished) given the facts that (a) the pile started out with
materials apparently free of worms, (b) the ground underneath it is hard
ground (hard clay/sand packed tight and dry in southern California) , and
(c) there don't seem to be any worms living in the ground that the compost
pile was started on.

We have come up with three theories:
1) There are worm-eggs in the material that is being composted and somehow
some of them survive the high temperatures of the composting process.
2) There ARE worms in the hard soil beneath the pile and they migrate up
into it.
3) It is a miracle outside the bounds of western science.

If anyone has any ideas (or better yet definite knowledge) about this it
would be fun to hear from you.

Alex
acensor@bigfoot.com
(a copy of any reply being sent to my email address would be appreciated
because I don't visit this group that often.)