My name is Wiggle. I’m here to tell a story. I am an earthworm that lives in a compost bin.

I am reddish. I am a narrow tube like a straw with tapered ends. I am an earthworm. One of 1000 kinds. I like to live in the compost and I feel lucky because although the fish can and will eat me, I am not a night crawler, sold to fishermen. I am a red wriggler sometimes called a redwriggler. Gardeners love me because I improve the soil for plants. It’s an easy life for me. All I do is eat and poop.

I am a simple animal. I live in the dark because I have no eyes. Instead of eyes, I have light-sensitive cells that detect the intensity of light. I don’t go into bright sunny areas if I can help it. I am very happy in this compost. It has good food, not just dirt added regularly. I have a brain, mouth, crop, gizzard and intestine along with 5 heart-like organs. I don’t need lungs because my skin allows the oxygen available in the ground to pass through. That’s another reason I stay out of the bright sun. I dry very easily. In the compost I bury deep enough to stay moist. It is also comfortable when it is very cold.

I am simple but my muscles allow me to change shape very quickly. I have tiny bristles that a human must look very carefully to find. I use these bristles to anchor my front end, then my muscles pull my rear end forward and then that end anchors and my front end moves forward. These bristles are useful when a bird wants to eat me because I can stick to the ground and it’s hard for them to pull me out!

Those muscles I was talking about help me dig. Digging loosens the soil, making it brittle and retains moisture better, good for me and the plants in the garden. I’m not picky about food. I’ll eat whatever’s around. I don’t go very deep, I make burrows, not tunnels, like other worms do. I eat things like straw, the dead mixed with living plant matter on the surface of the soil. The straw prevents water and fertilizer from being absorbed into the soil. This is like grass clippings and small branches or yard waste that are thrown in the trash. If I am hungry I eat my weight in food every day. Usually it’s about half of that. I don’t choose to eat dog or cat poop, but I do love delicious cow and horse manure. I don’t like salt, it dries everything out. In the compost bin I go for green leafy vegetables, potatoes, tomatoes, ground coffee and tea, rice, grits, green pepper and I love plain old paper. I want to stay slim, so I avoid greasy things. Highly acidic foods like orange, lemon, lime, and hot pepper in amounts that are too high will kill me, so don’t eat them!

When I digest this food, my droppings called worm castings are great fertilizer. My system increases the levels of nitrate, phosphorous, magnesium, potassium and calcium available to plants in the soil. My waste can be sold as compost by the owner of my container.

I, Wiggle, have told my story of living a very simple life in the wood compost bin for about 2 years, along with 10 other worms in each square foot area. I am happy to produce organic fertilizer from your compost to improve the garden soil. I’m lucky I didn’t get eaten by a bird or groundhog that visited my wood compost bin.