Actually the Alabama Jumpers make an excellent composting worm for vegetable scraps, damp shredded cardboard… I originally raised them this way although my nature they are more of a top feeder, coming to the surface during the night time to feed and burrowing back down during daylight hours.

You are correct they are deep burrowers in a natural environment however for breeding and growing out we use bins which are filled with just 3 1/2 to 4 inches of bedding material. Hence they do not need to burrow deep and in fact basically tend to stay towards the surface if conditions are right in a natural environment, i.e. temperature, food source, dampness…

As for sandier soils they do well but will do just as good in a variety of mixes. They prefer a hard packed soil such as clay or undisturbed, packed rich top soil… We have found them surviving in a variety of different soil compositions from the deep south up through northern New England!

The red wigglers also make an excellent composting worm however on our farm we raise four types of worms. In fact we are the only worm farm we have found that actually grows the Alabama Jumpers in a controlled environment year round in the United States, let alone raises four types of worms on a single worm farm! I know of one other worm farmer in Australia that also raises them in a similar controlled environment as we do.

Bruce