Sorry for the provocative title. It occurred to me this afternoon, as I sat in my yard, picking through a year’s worth of worm castings. It took about two hours, but I think I picked out about 90% of our red wigglers before putting the rest into the garden, along with the several pounds of super-enriched compost that they’ve churned out.

I wish that I’d weighed out all the scraps we’d given to the worms over the past year. I’d like to know how many pounds of rotting vegetables and egg shells we’d kept from the landfill. It has to be a few hundred pounds.

I’d like to be more zealous in my earthworm compositing evangelizing, but we’ve still got a few kinks to work out. Most notably, it’s the bugs. The worms, which live in a plastic tub in our kitchen, seem to attract gnats and flies. That’s why I had to dump it today, sort out the worms, and start over again… Anyway, once we get everything running smoothy, you can expect me to be a royal pain in the ass about it, harassing you all to get worms for your home.

And, no, that’s not my giant condom.

The image to the left shows what happens to a disposable coffee cup given to a thousand hungry worms… All that’s left after a few weeks is the plastic lining. It’s absolutely amazing.

[For those of you who came to MM.com thinking that a post on “picking up hermaphrodites” might be more titillating, you’re in luck. It just so happens that I know about something that’s both sexy and wormy.]