Worm Colors

My granddaughter is so fascinated with my worm bins that she decided to do vermiculture for her 6th grade science project. She is very concerned about several of the wroms being a grayish collor instead of the normal red. I tried to help her research it and could not find an answer.

They are not totally gray mainly on the underside. It is only a few and they seem healthy. Does anyone know why some change colors?

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Permalink Reply by de Moffarts Eugène on September 19, 2009 at 12:41pm: Maybe the gray ones are an oder species...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by amna mufti on September 19, 2009 at 12:59pm: Check the food it can be a reason of their color change .May be there is some thing in your bin which is turning their color.Watch if this happening in a group or randomly?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kay Robbins on September 19, 2009 at 1:51pm: No, it is only a couple of the worms that are changing color and they seems fine other than being less colorful than the others.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joel LeGrand on September 19, 2009 at 9:57pm: Hi everyone,
Kay it is GREAT that your granddaughter is using worm bin as a science project. I went on other sites, but found nothing on a redworm turned gray. I posted a discussion on these sites, if I get a answer, I will let you Know.
www.redwormcomposting.com
www.gardenweb.com
www.dave'sgarden.com
I always check here frist, if I can not find the answer, then I go fishing.LOL; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kay Robbins on September 21, 2009 at 10:55am: I found vermincomposters.com while I was checking out redwormcomposting.com and found a discussion on worm color. They said that what you feed the worms can have some effect on color. If you feed your worms pumpkin they may be temporarily orange.

Pale colors can come from feeding the worms lots of lettuce. I grow different lettuce mixes and my worms do get lots of trimmings so that may explain the color.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by amna mufti on September 21, 2009 at 11:21am: I suggested the same thing and this would be the reason.As when in my biology class I use to dissect these worms , I usually get their bodies just full of the rotting matter and it is the color their bodies show. So what they eat determines their color as they are semi transparent.; ▶ Reply to This

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