Taking the opportunity of a lovely sunny (but very cold) day, I
decided to belatedly turn over my compost heap. Having finished
I suddenly thought all those lovely thin reddish worms that
were snug in the middle of the heap are now exposed to the
frosty air and if they do not get a move on could freeze.

Are worms susceptible to the cold and have I done a silly
thing!


--
Roger T

700 ft up in Mid-Wales

In article ,
Roger Tonkin wrote:
Taking the opportunity of a lovely sunny (but very cold) day, I
decided to belatedly turn over my compost heap. Having finished
I suddenly thought all those lovely thin reddish worms that
were snug in the middle of the heap are now exposed to the
frosty air and if they do not get a move on could freeze.

Are worms susceptible to the cold and have I done a silly
thing!

Yes, and no, respectively. They are more likely to die of
dessication, but worrying about a few worms in a compost heap
is a trifle OTT. The bacteria will happily compost any dead
worms for you ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Good morning,

On Wed, 4 Feb 2015 16:21:36 +0000 (GMT),
Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Roger Tonkin wrote:
Taking the opportunity of a lovely sunny (but very cold) day, I
decided to belatedly turn over my compost heap. Having finished
I suddenly thought all those lovely thin reddish worms that
were snug in the middle of the heap are now exposed to the
frosty air and if they do not get a move on could freeze.

These worms are not the same as those that you find outside the compost,
in the soil on your beds. They die very quickly, anyway, and their
population varies a lot with time and the composition of your heap.

Are worms susceptible to the cold and have I done a silly
thing!

Worms are professionals. They know exactly what to do and there are
enough of them left and enough of them will be happily exploring the new
situation. You do not have to worry.

Yes, and no, respectively. They are more likely to die of
dessication, but worrying about a few worms in a compost heap
is a trifle OTT. The bacteria will happily compost any dead
worms for you ....

and thus provide the nutrition for the next generation of worms...

I know that many of you are doing their compost for a long time and are
expert-gardeners. But I find this topic however still exciting. Compost
is underrated on many levels... ;^)

Michael



Regards,
Nick Maclaren.


--
Location: Lower Normandy (Orne), France
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sub 4096R/2751C550 2013-11-15 [expires: 2015-11-15]
[Next key will use elliptic-curve algorithm! :-) Get GnuPG!!]

On 04/02/2015 17:42, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Wed, 4 Feb 2015 16:18:07 -0000, Roger Tonkin
wrote:

Taking the opportunity of a lovely sunny (but very cold) day, I
decided to belatedly turn over my compost heap. Having finished
I suddenly thought all those lovely thin reddish worms that
were snug in the middle of the heap are now exposed to the
frosty air and if they do not get a move on could freeze.

Are worms susceptible to the cold and have I done a silly
thing!

Food for the birds (well, some, anyway)? Much needed in this cold
spell.

When I do this I watch the resident robin come hop,hopping up. It gives
me great pleasure.

On 04/02/2015 16:21, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Roger Tonkin wrote:
Taking the opportunity of a lovely sunny (but very cold) day, I
decided to belatedly turn over my compost heap. Having finished
I suddenly thought all those lovely thin reddish worms that
were snug in the middle of the heap are now exposed to the
frosty air and if they do not get a move on could freeze.

Are worms susceptible to the cold and have I done a silly
thing!

Yes, and no, respectively. They are more likely to die of
dessication, but worrying about a few worms in a compost heap
is a trifle OTT. The bacteria will happily compost any dead
worms for you ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.



I think I must be OTT, then, because I love the little critters and have
a chat with them while I'm adding to their banquet.

In my experience, worms don't enjoy light (esp sunlight) and quickly
burrow back into the heap so, it seems to me, if they didn't like
coldness, they'd do exactly the same. I don't think you need to worry.
--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay

On 05/02/2015 14:05, Spider wrote:
if they didn't like coldness, they'd do exactly the same.

Trouble is when it's cold they can't move fast.
They'll probably be fine though.

Andy