How to Sell Red Worms

A healthy population of red worms--Eisenia fetida or red wigglers--will double about every 90 days. You can sell your surplus worms to bait stores and institutional or individual customers. Red worms generally sold for $20 to $30 per pound in 2009. Steadily increasing publicity has created greater interest in worm composting. "The process is fairly simple," says Jeff Neal of Uncle Jim's Worm Farm in York, Pa. "The worms reproduce quickly. All you have to do is find a market. You don't have to hunt for your clientele--it already exists."

Things You'll Need

  • Thriving redworm bin or farm
  • Cleaned containers
  • Peat moss
  • Website
  • Phone support
  • USPS Priority shipping boxes
  • Mesh bags
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Instructions

    • 1

      Advertise your surplus red wigglers to schools, home-school parents and organic gardeners via Craigslist or neighborhood listserves. Price a pound of worms at $20 and a half-pound at $10, noting as you sell to local clients that your worms have not undergone the rigors of shipping and are thus in fact at least as valuable as worms sold by large online sellers.

    • 2

      Adjust prices depending on market response. Consider lowering prices if you receive sluggish responses to your ads and raising them if you quickly sell out your stock.

    • 3

      Place the worms in cleaned plastic margarine or cheese containers with some moist bedding such as peat moss for their journey to a new home.

    • 4

      Sell your worms to bait shops, community gardeners, master gardener classes and classroom teachers. Market plastic tote boxes to create worm bins in conjunction with the worms for beginners who want to try worm composting, suggests Kanti Somani of Worms.com.

    • 5

      Offer free worm-farming classes at libraries or garden clubs. Publicize the event with area TV and radio stations and newspapers about two weeks before. Take 8 oz. and 1 lb. quantities of worms to sell at the event.

    • 6

      Approach larger potential clients such as schools, prisons and waste facilities, which may need substantial quantities of red worms to process food waste on site.

    • 7

      Market your worms via a website noting your contact information and benefits of composting with red worms. Visit UncleJimsWormFarm.com, Wormswrangler.com, Wormlady.com and others for ideas on what content to include. Provide phone support for website customers.

    • 8

      Obtain free USPS Priority shipping boxes, as well as peat moss and mesh drawstring bags, to ship your red wigglers. Print a small sheet of instructions to include in the shipment, noting to gently place the worms in their new home and spritz them with water after their dehydrating journey. Ship worms on Mondays and Tuesdays so they reach their destinations without a weekend layover.