Red Wiggler Reproduction and Life Cycle Explained
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Time to read 6 min
Table of contents
Red Wiggler Cocoons Watch a Red Wiggler lay a Cocoon Cocoon Identification and Size Red Wiggler Hatching & Baby Worms Red Wiggler Hatching from a Cocoon Common Mistake: Baby Red Wigglers vs. Potworms Earthworm Growth Adult Red Wigglers Reproduction How Fast Do Red Wigglers Reproduce? Theoretical Worm Reproduction Charts Encouraging Red Wiggler Reproduction Frequently Asked Questions
Red Wiggler Cocoons
When deciding how to start this post I had to ask myself.. which comes first? The earthworm or the cocoon?
Unsure of the answer, I decided to start the post the same way that earthworms begin theirs. With cocoons!
An earthworm cocoon itself is not an egg, but more similar to a capsule to protect fertilized worm eggs inside of it. Baby earthworms spend as little as 18 days in these cocoons before hatching, but can also spend several months, and possibly years, while waiting for ideal conditions to hatch.
On average, around 3 baby worms will come out of each cocoon, but as many as 7 babies can come from a single cocoon.
Cocoons, when laid, are white and almost transparent, but quickly darken to a yellow color. When the worms are about ready to hatch it will get even darker, appearing like a dark yellow-brown. Just before they hatch, you will be able to see the baby worms wiggling around inside of them.
This video, played at 2x speed, shows a cocoon being laid by its mama red wiggler.
Watch a Red Wiggler lay a Cocoon
Cocoon Identification and Size
Cocoons are typically around 1/8th inch diameter, but their size can vary a bit. For most of the worms incubation time, the cocoon will appear yellow and slightly translucent, but will become darker with time.
The cocoons are mostly spherical besides a tapered end - where the baby earthworm will eventually exit the cocoon.
The picture below shows red wiggler cocoons next to a tape measure for scale, and a picture of cocoons at different stages of maturity displaying their different colors.
A freshly laid cocoon is here on the left - note it's white/clear color, and on the right is what they look like in a bin. How many can you count?
Cocoon Misidentifications
Fertilizer pellets, like the ones you see in potting mixes, and snail eggs are often mistaken for red wiggler cocoons.
The easiest "tells" are that fertilizer pellets are perfectly spherical, and snail eggs are typically in "clutches" of many eggs. Red wigglers just lay one cocoon at a time, so they will be more scattered than snail eggs.
Red Wiggler Hatching & Baby Worms
Red Wiggler Hatching from a Cocoon
After as little as 18 days, the red wigglers inside will exit the cocoon through the tapered end, visible in this instagram reel.
Common Mistake: Baby Red Wigglers vs. Potworms
Baby red wigglers are very small. Another critter, very common in worm farms, is a potworm. They are roughly the same size as a baby red wiggler and are often mistaken for them.
The easiest tell is that a potworm is pure white, while a red wiggler, even at birth, has some pink in it.
This picture compares a small baby red wiggler next to a potworm.
Potworms can reproduce extremely quickly and have a population explosion in a matter of days. It's common for people to think they've had a massive population boom in red wigglers, but a sudden population burst of hundreds of thousands of worms like this is much more typical of potworms than of red wigglers.
Earthworm Growth
Baby Red Wigglers are very small, and can be difficult to see. In this picture you may see the worm on the right, but if you look even closer, there is a pretty newly hatched baby worm on the left.
For the next 40-60 days, the worms grow bigger and fatter as they eat, becoming hundreds of times heavier than they were at birth.
If worms are not malnourished, after this time they become "clitellate." This means they now develop a visible "clitellum" which indicates sexual maturity.
Encouraging Red Wiggler Growth
Normal food waste should be enough nutrition for your worms, but if you want to give them a boost, check out Mazuri's earthworm diet - which has been custom made for worm nutrition, and will also help encourage adult worms to reproduce.
Adult Red Wigglers Reproduction
Sexually mature adult red wigglers are easily identified by their clitellum - the band around the earthworm's body towards their head.
Red Wigglers, and all earthworms, are hermaphrodites! They have both male and female reproductive organs. The clitellum is similar to human ovaries as it stores the unfertilized eggs of the worm.
The male reproductive glands are on the underside of the clitellum, but are small and difficult to see.
During sexual reproduction, two worms will line up their reproductive organs to be able to exchange reproductive fluids to each other. In the second picture below you can see the sperm being transferred from one worm to the other.
Both worms will get 'pregnant' from the encounter and lay cocoons.
After the exchange of fluids, each worm will excrete mucus from its clitellum that will be sloughed off to form a cocoon, carrying fertilized worm eggs with it - just like we saw in the video at the beginning of the post.
In summary:
A cocoon is laid, and the baby worms inside develop for 21+ days.
A red wiggler hatches out of a cocoon (with 2-6 other triplets/septuplets)
They mature for 40-60 days if given enough nutrition
They reach sexual maturity and lay up to 3 cocoons weekly in ideal conditions
The cycle of life is complete!
How Fast Do Red Wigglers Reproduce?
Pretty Fast.
In laboratory conditions, Eisenia Fetida have been found to be able to produce up to 3 cocoons per worm per week.
At the rate of 3 cocoons per week, and 3 babies per cocoon, red wigglers can reproduce as fast as multiplying their population by 9 times each week!
That's some serious Red Wiggler Reproduction!
Note that this is under total ideal conditions, and this level of efficiency is mostly just theoretical. Realistically, you can expect your worm population to double after 2-3 months.
Theoretical Worm Reproduction Charts
But lets have some fun with theoreticals! This is a chart representing their reproductive output assuming totally ideal conditions starting with only 500 worms:
The first 15 weeks are easy to wrap your head around. 500 worms becoming 50,000 isn't bad! But shortly after, when the growth become exponential, things get crazy.
Right around the 25 week (6 month) mark you could theoretically reach 2 and a half million worms.
And after 34 weeks, you could reach 80 million worms.
And after a total of only 46 weeks you could, theoretically - and probably only theoretically - reach 1 billion worms.
Those numbers are based on no mortality, and assuming ideal conditions at all times, so they're not totally realistic - but if you want to master red wiggler reproduction check out our blog posts below.
Encouraging Red Wiggler Reproduction
Red wigglers reproduce when they feel there is sufficient nutrition and moisture to support a growing population. The key factors to increasing reproduction are:
1. Space
Aim for 150 worms per square foot.
2. Nutrition
Make sure the worms are never wanting for palatable food.
3. Moisture
Keep the bin a bit more on the moist side than normal - around 80%.
4. Temperature
Around 77 Fahrenheit is optimal.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do Red Wigglers live?
The total lifespan of a Red Wiggler has not been thoroughly researched, but is a matter of years rather than months or weeks.
How big do Red Wigglers get?
Red Wigglers naturally do not grow much bigger than 3 inches. The more nutrient dense, wet, and less crowded their environment is, the bigger they will get. A well fed worm can get as heavy as 1.3 grams!
Pictured below is a typical size of a red wiggler worm.
Can composting worms overpopulate?
Generally no. Composting worms will only reproduce to what they feel their environment can handle.
However, if you suddenly reduce the amount of food you are giving the worms, they can become "overpopulated" not because there are too many worms, but because you stopped supporting the current population levels.
Can earthworms get themselves pregnant?
Worms can't get pregnant without mating with another worm. There have been rare occasions where, during mating, one worm will get itself pregnant because the sperm was transferred to itself, but without a partner and a bit of luck it couldn't happen alone.
Is inbreeding or genetic diversity a concern?
In any practical situation this is not something you need to worry about.
Ready to get started? Our Pure Red Wiggler Composting Worms are mostly breeder aged worms, ready to start reproducing!
Scott Kent
Owner of Hungry Worms. Worm farmer, soil microbiologist, and educator since 2014. Read more about me here.