Worms in Wet Conditions?

[arpoet]

Having that rare event of a few dry, and not too cold, hours this morning i spent some time turning compost, adding to the dung heap then checked my wormery only to find the worms clinging on for thier lives to the bin top while the bin had filled up with water (i usually tap off an excess every few days). I just got to them in time, drained it well and added more drier kitchen waste and some hos muck.
But it got me thinking that with all this rain and waterlogged ground, what happes to the worms and what can we do to help them recover once the soil dries out?
Roger

[lottie dolly]

Thats a good question,DH was saying the same thing the other day,when parts of our plots were flood,he wondered if it harmed them,or they just go deeper down,am going to have a google

[arpoet]

My garden is on a pan of heavy clay, so not sure how deep they can go. I have bare soiled covered with cardboard so that helps i suppose. maybe they climb into the darleks which do seem to be teaming with worms.

[Pinfold Plotter]

I can tell you what happened to one. I cut a head of Romanesco for Christmas dinner and was chomping my way through and found an (ex) worm. I think they climb up out of the waterlogged ground just as they climb in the compost bin.

[Madasafish]

Judging by the behaviour of our mole, the worms in our garden are thriving, rain or no rain.

[Two_Sheds]

my garden is ...heavy clay ... maybe they climb into the darleks

That's at least two different types of worm. Earthworms live in the soil and eat the soil. Compost (red/tiger/brandling) worms eat rotting vegetation (compost) which are the ones you find in your daleks. They seem to appear from nowhere don't they?

[arpoet]

er..... sorry TS.... worms is worms to me.... When i turned the stuff in the daleks there we lots of small red ones in the rotting veg but i dont remember many big thick ones. I have never added worms, and like you say, they come from nowhere.

[Two_Sheds]

there we lots of small red ones

yep, those are the composting worms

i dont remember many big thick ones.

the big fat ones are earthworms: they don't eat compost. Some people dig them up and put them in compost heaps, but it's a waste of effort