As you might already know, Malaysian Blue Worms reproduce rapidly. According to what I have read, the average reproductive rate of a Blue Worm under ideal conditions is 19.5 new worms per week.
Armed with that information, you can imagine how psyched I was to search for new babies in my bin! I’ve been digging about my bin every single day searching for signs of new worms. It has been a little difficult to ascertain exactly what constitutes as new baby worms as they all look the same though. Some sites state that they are whitish-transparent at birth and rapidly gain the color of the adults. Others insist that they are born the same color as their parents. Imagine my frustration!
But I have finally come to my own conclusion when I found these:
See that little wormy thing at the edge of the spoon? That is NOT a baby worm. That is a maggot. They start appearing when the worms are not finishing off the food fast enough. Big indication that I was overfeeding my little earthy friends. I was in complete denial when I found out what they were. I want them to be baby worms so bad! But I followed the advice my worm supplier gave me and squashed them flat as these maggots would create an acidic environment in the bin. I was glad I shook myself out of denial because I later on did find the real baby worms.
Sadly, I have no pictures because I couldn’t reach for my camera in time before it fell back and dived into the bedding. The best I can describe them is that they are of similar proportions to the adults, was indeed transparent and whitish looking and more importantly, you could see their digestive tract just like the adults. Stringy black food within moving towards the rear. The baby worm also moved the way their parents did. These maggots moved like lightning! A great deal faster and less contracting movements than the worms.
I suppose the baby worm will soon gain the coloring of typical Blue Worm and soon lose the transparency of its infanthood. Hopefully the worms would have doubled in numbers soon! It may be far too early in my worm composting adventure, but my fingers are still crossed 🙂
The Health Food Diaries 