About Worms Etc
A worm farm in the South Carolina upstate, started in 2009, built in a metal fabrication shop, and written about the whole way.
Worms Etc began in Greer, South Carolina in 2009 as a small vermiculture business raising red wigglers (Eisenia fetida) and European nightcrawlers (Eisenia hortensis) for composting and bait. The farm sold live worms, worm bins, castings, bedding and complete starter kits, shipped across the United States and occasionally much further, including Hong Kong.
From the start the farm treated itself as a research project. The original goals, as written on the first version of this site:
- Produce worms for bait and composting.
- Produce innovative packaging, including user-friendly packaging for fishing worms.
- Produce a high quality soil amendment.
- Reduce waste disposal cost for local businesses.
- Help local farmers become more productive.
- Use what we learned to help feed people in the developing world, and build relationships there.
Research on the farm included cheap bins that could be built anywhere, bedding and feedstock trials (the ten bin experiment, cardboard and reproduction), replacing synthetic fertilizer with castings, and a solar collector on the breeder house that warmed the beds through winter. When no off-the-shelf controller fit, we built our own, the SC-1 solar differential controller. Flow-through worm bins were welded in the shop next door.
Timeline
- 2009 — Farm founded in Greer. First blog posts in November. Clemson Extension lists Worms Etc as a worm supplier in its Worm Composting factsheet.
- 2010 — The blog hits its stride: bedding, bin critters, pH, fungus gnats, the ten bin experiment. Web store opens.
- 2011 — Greenhouse and hoop house builds, the rotating screen harvester, and the harvesting and shipping process written up.
- 2012–2013 — Egg capsules and reproduction, worm identification guides, castings sold locally around Greenville, heirloom seeds added.
- 2015 — The farm specializes in European red worms. Last post in August.
- 2026 — The blog is republished here in full, and the farm begins coming back.
What's next
Worms Etc is being rebuilt gradually. The writing is back first; worms, castings and bins will follow. For questions about the posts, or to hear when worms are available, email Matthew@wormsetc.com.