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s the holidays approach and our thoughts turn to giving and getting gifts, you may be surprised to learn about how worms give the gift of clean water and healthy soil to grape growers in California. Worms can turn old food into plant food. It’s called vermicomposting .
That’s where the red wigglers (as the worms are called) come in. They lter more than one million gallons of water every day. Within four hours, treated water ows out of pumps throughout the worm beds and into the irrigation ditches in the eld. This water is now full of nutrients which improve soil health. The worm beds cover 5 acres and the entire system of red wigglers reduces waste, lowers the winery’s carbon footprint, and protects the environment—all while supporting plants growing in the elds.
Red wigglers love leftover salads, melon peels, and apple cores. Help this worm reach a delicious rotten apple meal!
Vermicomposting , or composting with worms, creates rich soil that helps gardens grow. And it gives humans a clean, odor-free, environmental way to get rid of garbage. The worms get a good meal and contribute their poop, or castings , to the production of good soil that grows better flowers and vegetables.
The winery plans on the red wigglers to recycle up to 80 million gallons of water a year. That is the same as 2.7 million full bathtubs or 640 million water bottles!
A company called BioFiltro took this on in a big way!
ioFiltro partnered with O’Neill Vintners & Distillers to create the largest worm-powered winery wastewater system in the world. Each day, more than 22 million red worms are at work eating organic matter in the wastewater created in the wine-making process. The water needs to be ltered and cleaned before it can be put back into the soil.
Red worms won’t eat plastic trash.
The latin word vermis means worm.
Replace the missing vowels to learn more about earthworms.
Standards Link: Life Science: Know that all organisms cause changes in their environments and these can be beneficial or detrimental.
© Vicki Whiting December 2025
familyresourcegroupinc.com
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