She adds, “The bottom line is that you can find worms in LA, you just have to do a little digging.What is the difference between conventional composting and vermicomposting?Ĭonventional or “hot” composting depends on the heat generated by a wide range of microorganisms, largely bacterial, that help convert organic waste to compost.

“Many of have been doing this for years,” says Marantos, “and they’re excited that all of a sudden people are paying attention to worms.” Marantos suggests calling the farms ahead of time so they can weigh out and separate the worms for purchase. The list includes Will’s Worms in Studio City, which is run by 7-year old Will Hatanaka and his 8-year old sister Alyssa (plus their dad) McCrawl’s Red Worms in Cypress and Jewlz Grimy Ground Grubbers in Oceanside (they don’t have a website, but the phone number is (760) 239-9228. “We found 13 different places and they are scattered around, some of them are better advertised than others,” she notes. So there was a big interest in this, and there were so many people buying that the worm producers couldn’t keep up,” explains Jeanette Marantos, who covered this for the LA Times.ĭespite the shortage, there are still several places around Los Angeles to get worms. You get worm castings, which is this wonderful fertilizer for your plants. “You don’t just get compost when you are using worms.

That’s because more people got into gardening and composting during the pandemic, and a new state law prevents food waste from ending up in landfills, which encourages even more composting.

Southern California is experiencing a shortage of worms.

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