worms are not meant to be in the garden, raised beds, pots, planter boxes, you name it.
Eventhough compost worms, as their name suggests, prefer to be in organic matter and making compost, they can survive in the soil. Brian Paley have actually showed in The Burrow that newly hatched worms can actually adapt to the soil environment. Many domestic worm farmers have also been surprised to see worms appearing in both their indoors and outdoors pots after applying harvested vermicompost.
It is true that compost worms will most likely die in a non friendly garden soil or planter. However, if you take the effort to prepare your garden, compost worms will work on making it a healthier place for your plants. To make your garden a worm friendly environment cover the soil with a layer of dry leaves, mulch or wood chips or a combination of any of them. I have some pots where I have only put 1/2 inch thich of mulch and worms are thriving. They burrow down into the soil when it is too hot or dry and come up when conditions improve.
White tiny worms are baby compost worms
Quite a few time there were people who were excited to find baby worms in their worm bin. It turns out those tiny little white worms are actually pot worms. Our compost worms are actually pink as soon as they hatch from their cocoons.
Potworms (enchytraeidae) are actually close relatives of the earthworms and are part of the natural composting community. They help breaking down organic matter. They are totally harmless to the worms, however their presence in high number is usually sign of overfeeding. If you see a population boom, stop feeding for a week or two, add much more bedding material and sprinkle some pH buffer.
The photo below shows those white pot worms and some young pink worms. In the background of this page you should also see a pink baby worms freshly hatched.
Pot worms
Copyright © Mark Irving
200