Do I need to add worms to my compost pile?

So you’ve built your pile and been faithfully turning it, adding water as needed and watching banana peels and leaves turn into rich black humus. But then you start to worry and wonder … Should I add worms to my compost pile?

Well we’re here to answer this question and ease your worries!

There are several types of composting which we will briefly mention below.

Backyard Hot Composting

Backyard hot composting (getting the proper balance of browns and greens (more details), water, and air to allow the pile to heat up) does not require the addition of worms. In fact, if you added worms to a pile as it was heating up, the temperature from the thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria would burn the worms!

Cold Composting

If you’re doing cold composting, your pile will break down a bit more slowly without aeration that comes from turning. So should you add worms to speed the process along? Nope! The worms will come in to do their job of decomposition as they are needed.

So basically, no need to add worms to your compost pile!

Vermicomposting

Unless of course, you’re doing worm composting (also called vermicomposting). You can learn more about vermicomposting (here) .

Check out How Compost Carpooling will work for you (here) .