When I first found my starling (rescued him from the neighbor's cat), he had gape worm (worms in his trachea, that caused him to cough). My vet cleared up the gape worm and the feather lice with Ivermectin. Earthworms are listed as an intermediate host for gape worm, so I wouldn't feed earthworms to my starling. I have fed him mealworms and crickets from a pet shop, and also garden spiders from a yard that I know isn't sprayed with any pesticides.

Many centers will destroy starlings. You should always ask before bringing one to a facility. Pacific Wildlife Project is one of the (very) few exceptions that does not destroy these or other "nuisance" birds. You might want to call local avian vets to see who they use for such incidents. They all get wild bird calls this around spring and most have some kind of network of caring people who will raise the babies.

article by Gautsch, S., P. Odermatt, et al. "The role of starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in the epidemiology of potentially human bacterial pathogens," in the scientific journal Schweizer Archiv f??r Tierheilkunde, 142(4): 165-72; 2000 Apr ISSN: 0036-7281 evaluates the health risk coming from starling droppings for the population, particularly for the children and assesses the role of starlings in the transmission of diseases to humans and in the epidemiology of human diseases.

I have a long list of links to insect suppliers on the Diet page. Many of them allow you to order online. Click this link to go there: Insect Suppliers

The average pound of red worms will contain between 800 - 1200 earthworms at various stages of development.

Unlike cold, sceptical Scully in The X Files, she believes the truth is "out there", but is very down to earth about fame and family. Do we really want another tale of sex, drugs and alcohol? Probably no. OK, maybe a bit - particularly as I am in a sedate New York hotel room sitting next to a demure 5ft 3in red-headed mother wearing granny glasses stimulated by nothing more sinister than decaff and croissants.

Less cultivation encourages beneficial insects (beetle and spider predators) as well as allowing the build up a larger earthworm population and biomass. Shallower cultivation/ direct drilling keeps trash on the soil surface which helps to stabilise soils and also builds soil health and structure which can reduce the risk of soil erosion if done correctly.

Because glacial sheets that covered nearly all of Canada until about 15,000 years ago wiped out any native North American species that may have lived here.

All earthworms eat decaying organic matter such as leaves, grass, and other "green waste". Our farm-raised earthworms are fed high-protein chicken laying mash as explained in Earthworm Care and Feeding. You may also consider feeding ground kitchen waste. See Vermicomposting for additional information regarding this feeding method.

The short answer is "no", but e-mail tomlina@em.agr.ca to request package explaining how bait market works.

That depends on how good your soils are for worms, but a good one-acre field could easily provide 300,000 worms annually which would ultimately retail in the US for $0.20 Canadian each (that's $60,000). I would think that the source farmer should try and obtain about $500 fo r that.

Earthworms will generally eat their own weight daily. Half of everything they eat turns into viable plant food(earthworm castings) which is directly assimilated.

When most people think of "earthworms", they usually mean "nightcrawlers," which can be 8-10" long and 1/2" in diameter. These nightcrawlers are different from red wigglers, although both may be called "earthworms" since they both are found in the earth. Nightcrawlers are soil-dwellers, thus they like to burrow several feet below the surface. By burrowing, the nightcrawlers mix different layers of the soil, while creating tunnels which aerate the soil.

How do earthworms affect transport of nutrient and toxics in soil? Try a working model of earthworms in food chains. Four adult worms representing the more commonly found species in Ontario (20 species total). Size differences reflect differences among species.

Well, maybe you can...however, if you or your neighbors use pesticides or "Weed and Feed", the chemicals they contain can possibly teach you a very expensive lesson. In addition, you will be able to find native earthworms somewhat easily in the spring and fall, but during the heat of the summer they will be difficult to find and the cold of the winter, native earthworms are completely unavailable.