He asked me to look at his pile of donkey manure and inform him of what type of worms he had in the pile.

As he began to scratch off the top layers, worms began appearing. At first there was a good mix of red worms, including European nightcrawlers. Then he scratched off a little more and I jumped to grab some worms. To my complete amazement, here were Alabama Jumpers living naturally in his manure pile.

I was not sure how the Alabama Jumpers would do as a manure worm, especially since they seem to prefer hard packed material.

After examining the pile I noticed the Alabama Jumpers were residing below the top quarter of the manure where over time it had begun to become more compacted.

Well I ran home with my little bag of manure and realized my test was shot out the window. I decided just to setup a little manure pile outside and throw a quarter pound of Alabama Jumpers into it. I then grabbed a number of the small juvenile Alabama Jumpers and headed over to the manure pile.

Once I released the Alabama Jumpers they had all disappeared down into the manure in less than four minutes. They took right to the pile, even the young juvenile worms.

I plan to allow the pile to sit for a week or so before proceeding to scour through the manure to see where we are at. I will take pictures and post them at that time.

I do believe as the manure compacts a bit the Alabama Jumpers will do great as there is plenty of decomposing organic matter for them to eat and the temperature should remain a constant for now as the manure has already gone through its heating up process.

Bruce