We recently heard from a reader in British Columbia who continues to find some interesting worms after it rains. We can see from the picture that the worm is very long, red, and has yellow stripes (or segments) lining its body. He said that he has lived all over different parts of Canada and has only had encounters with this creature when living in Victoria. What could this be?

We are confident that our reader is finding red wigglers or Eisenia fetida. This species of earthworm is popular for composting because it thrives in decaying organic material. While most earthworms live in soil, these worms are surface feeders. They can consume more than their weight in rotting vegetation, compost, and manure daily. They also produce worm castings, which are great for the environment. Since these worms do not migrate and don’t require much maintenance, they are quite easy to keep in captivity.

Our reader mentioned he saw these worms near a landfill, which makes sense due to the high volume of decaying material one might find in a landfill.

He shouldn’t be concerned about the presence of these worms because they are so good for the ecosystem! We are surprised he has never seen these creatures before. While they are native to Europe, they have been introduced to all of the other continents with the exception of Antarctica.

To sum up, we identified a red worm found in a landfill as a red wiggler.

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