Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I never realised that there was a difference in worms. I just thought that we all called them different names. Why won't earthworms work? I was planning on throwing a couple of earthworms in from the worm composter. Not looking forward to finding some other kind of species!

I didn't either... but then, it could be the variation in location. Here in Vegas... it may be that our 'earthworms' are red wigglers because the soil was 'inoculated' with fishermen's left overs.

Because our development tends to 'leapfrog'... an area that was cheap gets developed before an area near other developments... so the earthworms don't travel in the ground, so much. There are existing populations in the mountains, and around our old 'springs' or reservoirs. I've never tried to harvest from the native.

Stop worrying about the worms!
Throw a bunch in your growbeds and forget about them, maybe put more in every now and then from your worm farm.
The worms constantly breed and will be in there forever if your water is well aerated.
They won't flow out of the GB, they tend to live up in the roots of all the plants, eating all the dead stuff

May be a bit late in response on this thread but if anyone is looking into setting up a worm far it is worth looking into what rebates are available. I spent roughly $120 on the worm farm and starter culture of worms and got roughly $110 back from memory. My council and SA Water were offering rebates for any costs for setting up a compost system.