The worm farming business and potential sales

by James Greene
(Mesquite TX)

I am an entrepreneur who is seriously thinking about starting a worm farm business. I want to raise mainly African Nightcrawlers though, and only a small amount of Red Wigglers. I was hoping you would entertain a few questions for me please.

How lucrative is the worm business? In other words, do you really make any money off raising worms and selling them, their castings, and cocoons? I was talking to another gentleman on Dallas craigslist (where I found you at BTW, and I think hes your only other competition on CL) and he said he had roughly 50 pounds of worms, but only sold a pound a month...so it worried me that there may not be a market for worms for profit. I do also, however, understand that marketing them and having the right connections also plays a MAJOR role in advertising and bringing in business. I have a few hundred dollars that I'm willing to invest in these worms, but I wanted another party's opinion concerning the worm farm business before I shelled out a few hundred or thousand dollars.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

James Mesquite Texas

Answer from BigTex Worms
You are the second inquiry today about starting a worms farm.
Selling worms locally will not make you a lot of money. There are actually 5 of us in the DFW area. Assuming you spoke with Elbert in Garland, he took my class in the spring of 2009 and started after that. I would say this area is pretty saturated with worm farmers. In 2009, I sold about 3-5 pounds a week off craigslist. This year I have sold 7 pounds since January. Because there are so many sellers out there. One in Dallas, one in Garland, one in Grand Prairie, one in North Richland Hills and me in Keller.
In my opinion, the only way to make a profit in this business is to have a good website and sell online. I started my website in January and my sales have gone up over 700% despite my local sales dropping off. BUT, the amount of time you spend working on the worms equals out to a little over minimum wage. NOT a get rich business (maybe if you write a book or sell other products but not just selling worms). But it is fun work.
On a side note, our climate here in TX is not suited for nightcrawlers, it is way too hot. YOu would have to have a climate controlled place for them year round as they like a constant 70. This is one of the reasons we do e.foetida, they are more tolerant of temperature variations.
Hope this helps,
Liz
BigTex Worms