The following are European Nightcrawler worm cocoons which I removed from a few breeder bins I have. The eggs from your composting and fishing worms all look similar, however the size will vary. For instance, your red wiggler worm cocoon will be smaller overall than the European Nightcrawler cocoon.

I usually do not take the time to separate the worm eggs or cocoons from my vermiculture mix. Normally I take the eggs after I have separated them with 1/8 inch and ¼ inch screening process every two weeks and place in the incubator for several weeks.

The reason for this is to separate my worms by age so I have an accurate count of what I have available as well as being able to place my mature worms by age aside to sell.

If you look at the picture of the worm cocoons below, you will notice they show similarity to a tomato seed. The lighter colored ones are the newest cocoons to be laid, while the darker colored ones are maturing and getting closer to hatch.

Each worm cocoon can produce multiple worms from one or two worms up to ten or so worms. A good law of averages is to figure on 4-5 worms per cocoon. In short, 1,000 cocoons should produce 4 – 5 thousand worms. Of course the conditions by which the worms laying the cocoons were raised under and the conditions the cocoons are incubated under come into play here.

Bruce