Worms stir fascination in kids. They wiggle and squirm, and seemingly vanish into the dirt. And adults aren't immune to such interest.

Worms are incredibly useful - especially to the backyard gardener. Worms also make it possible for people to make their own compost. And for a man living near Pueblo, worms make for a garden-friendly business.

High-tech to low-tech

"I spent the past 12 years shooting and reporting TV news and that experience, be it interesting work, went from being a joy to a chore," Brad Boe said in an e-mail.

When the opportunity arose for him to become a stay-at-home dad, he took it.

Boe then started a small bucket farm for worms by putting about 500 worms with food and bedding in 10 buckets and leaving them alone. The red wigglers didn't like the buckets, but they went nuts when placed in the composting bins.

Colorado Earth Worms aimed at selling worms to people who like to fish, but it grew to include worms and simple, compact composting bins. In mid-March, Boe said he had about 23,000 composting worms on hand and about 3,000 fishing worms. But he added that any worm can be used for fishing and the larger African night crawlers can also be used in composting - they just get much larger and do not reproduce as fast.

Fishing bait aside, Boe loves to talk about dirt - and worms of course. He's hoping that as his worm business grows, he and his kids can work the worm farm together, so the youngsters can learn about putting effort into a project and the rewards it can bring.

Making dirt

Composting bins all work on the same idea: They offer a place for organic matter to be mixed together to break down into a nutrient-rich addition for a garden. In vermicomposting, trays are added and worms go to work.

"If every household in the USA kept a composting worm bin at home and tossed in a pound of waste like paper and veggie scraps a day, as a nation that would cut 1.8 billion pounds of trash from landfills per year," Boe said.
Some businesses are also getting on the compost wagon. At least one Dunkin' Donuts store is using worms to compost and sharing the resulting rich compost with local farms.

Gardening experts say that if you have the right kind of soil, worms will come, and Boe agrees, but vermicomposting is also about making your own soil amendment.

"It is beneficial to supplement the soil with worm castings and to make them at home for free is great, especially with the tanking economy," Boe said. "People want to turn a dead piece of ground into a garden you have to amend the soil and worm castings and compost are the best way to do that."

The Worm Factory sold by Colorado Earth Worms is 16 inches square and about a foot and a half tall with all the trays in use. It can house up to 12 pounds of worms. As worms break down the material - vegetable peels, bread, fruits, etc. - they will move upwards into the next tray to start breaking down that new material.

Boe keeps his bin in the pantry, and said a worm bin will smell only if something is wrong. If more waste is added to the bins than the worms can eat, then the trash will rot. But if that happens, set it outside or in the garage for a few days. The worms will catch up and any stench will be replaced by the smell of dirt.

Maintenance is fairly simple. Boe said once the bins are set up and things balanced, just add waste once or twice a week to keep the worms busy. Even a break of up to a month won't starve the worms.

Wiggling worms

Boe said there are many types of earthworms, from tiny little guys to worms that can reach up to several feet in length, though he isn't selling the monster-size wigglers. Worms can even handle chilly temperatures, but when the mercury drops below 40 degrees they will die if left outside.

A basic red wiggler worm reaches maturity between 90 and 120 days. When mature, they will lay one egg per week and each egg can contain four to five baby worms. It's mathematical: Even a small number of worms can make a lot of compost, given enough time.

The African or European nightcrawlers can live on a shelf at a bait shop without having to be refrigerated, Boe said. However, while they grow much larger than the red wigglers, they lay only one egg with one baby worm per month.

Worms are like any other creature: If everything is balanced at home, they will stay put, he said. But if conditions are bad, such as too much liquid or not enough food, they will try to migrate to a better environment - and they probably wouldn't survive a trek across the house if the bin is in a pantry.

It can be daunting to start a garden, but starting a compost bin is relatively simple, and nothing beats "making" dirt - with a little help from worms.