One of my favourite species of worm to work with has always been the good old ‘Euro’.

‘Euro’ = European Night Crawler (just in case you weren’t already aware…. 😁👍)

So, if you’re a little curious in knowing more… I have included some further info as well as a few of my own personal findings accumulated over time, mostly due to curiosity as well as working with them in a small commercial breeding environment.

So let’s begin here…

In countries like Australia / North America their scientific name is referred to as… ‘Eisenia Hortensis’

The name Eisenia (“annelid”) is the genus of earthworm named after Swedish Professor Gustav Eisen (August 2, 1847−October 29, 1940).

The name Hortensis (“of the garden”) is derived from Latin hortus meaning “garden”.

So ‘annelid of the garden’… sounds pretty cool to me! 😊👍

However, in European Countries (particularly the UK) they’re often referred to as… ‘Dendrobaena Veneta’.

So, after a bit of googling I discovered that ‘Dendrobaena’ is a taxonomic genus within the family Lumbricidae.

This means the Lumbricidae are a family of earthworms which includes most of the earthworm species well-known to Europeans where they are generally blueish, pink-grey (cf. Latin veneta meaning “sea-blue”) in color.

Lumbricus Terrestris is a species that often gets mistaken as a European Night Crawler due to generic terms such as ‘night crawler’ and ‘red wriggler’.

Identifying different species can be challenging, especially if a worm has not reached maturity and may get mistakenly identified with other species that show similar traits.

For example…

Lumbricus Terrestris has a paddle tail and classed as an anecic species. In Britain they’re often referred to as a ‘Common Earthworm’ or ‘Lob Worm’. In Canada, they’re commonly referred to as a ‘Night Crawler’ or ‘Dew Worm’.

In Australia they are also known as a ‘Dew Worm’ and commonly used as a bait worm due to their larger size.

Being an anecic species means they burrow vertically during the day and come up to the surface at night to forage, copulate and explore their surroundings. When they feed they actually drag the substrate back down into their burrow as opposed to feeding on broken down matter on or just under the surface like an epigeic species will do.

Euro’s like their smaller cousin Eisenia Fetida / Andrei are a composting worm and associated more inline with the habits and common traits of an epigeic species. This in turn makes them a suitable and effective species to maintain a home worm farm and compost everyday organic household waste.

Now I don’t know about the Euro, but I have read that Lumbricus terrestris copulates for more than three hours at a time. In fact, a 1997 study revealed that earthworms court each other by visiting each other’s burrows, sometimes up to 17 times and each actual copulation lasts for 69-200 minutes.

I can just imagine a convo between Eisenia Hortensis and Lumbricus terrestris that goes a little something like this…

“3 hours huh? 17 times huh?

Sure ya do, hermaphrodite Fabio… Sure ya do!” 🙄

I suppose they do have a fair bit going on in that busy little clitellum of theirs. So I guess we’ll have to give them the benefit of the doubt this time round. 😏

Colour of Eisenia Hortensis can also vary depending on environment, substrate, feed stock etc. However, a key distinction to help with identification in adult species is a cream / pale yellow colour on the underside (belly) and tail as well as distinct striping on top with a round solid girth from head to tail.

The clitellum is located on segments (annuli) 26-34. Their first dorsal pores are located between segments 4-5.

(*Worms have Dorsal Pores on their segments where coelomic fluid is released for lubrication to help keep the surface of the worm moist as well as facilitating respiration.)

They have a slower re-production and maturity rate than other common composting species and take about 13 weeks to reach breeding maturity. They lay approx. 1 – 2 x cocoons per week, which usually contains one wisp (aka baby worm) per cocoon.

Being a larger bodied worm, I tend to recommend raising and maintaining them in a larger system with a decent size surface area.

Once an ideal environment has been established for them, they are quite simple and easy to maintain, where they can grow to around 12 – 15cm in length.

They’re also a hardy and versatile worm tolerating a wide range of temperatures making them suitable for sub-tropical as well as cooler climates.

If threatened Euro’s are quick to dive back down into the medium they are living in and even drop their tail, which eventually grows back causing no permanent harm or damage to the worm.

I can only imagine the amount of birds and other worm annihilating predators that have experienced the exciting high followed by the immediate disappointing low of that phenomenon… ha! 🐦😎🖕

For the keen anglers out there, Euro’s are essentially the tiger worms / reds (Eisenia Fetida / Andrei) big cousin, except they don’t have the malodorous coelomic fluid like a tiger / red worm does to defend against aggressors.

They’re certainly becoming more and more popular because their size is often a better fit for most hooks and they can survive in both fresh and brackish water for a longer period of time.

Pretty cool huh?

This is what I believe makes them a great all rounder and although not regarded as a ‘fast composter’ on their own, I’ve personally found them to be highly beneficial within the diversity of a worm farm playing a vital role in the creation of beautiful rich and fluffy vermicompost (dependent upon feed stock of course), which can be used as an excellent organic and biologically rich soil amendment.

It’s also why we include them in your worm mix when you purchase a bag from us. This way, you’ll always have a source of self-sustainable high quality fishing bait (if you need it) as well as a beneficial species to help compost your organic waste and create all of that amazing black gold!

Chris 🙂👍