Talk:Eisenia fetida

Concerns
So ... what is the source for suggesting that E. fetida will 'damage the environment' of certain soils? Is there a reference to this? Seems very unlikely to me -- they're compost worms, so are more likely to leave soils at speed looking for appropriate habitats. jake b 20:39, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

I've also deleted the comment about their being often used to 'clean the environment', as this isn't true at all. (Yes there are a number of papers on earthworms stimulating biodegradation, but they're certainly not widely used.) jake b 21:05, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

For reference on environmental damage caused by invasive earthworm species in northern forests see the following article from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/earthworms/index.html  205.142.227.100 (talk) 21:29, 15 July 2008 (UTC)R.A. Conway, Issaquah, WA

"These cocoons are clearly visible to the naked eye." Perhaps should read "Although initially very small, these cocoons are clearly visible to the naked eye." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bobmclean2 (talk • contribs) 12:31, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

foetida or fetida?
Should the specific name be spelled foetida or fetida? There seem to be many references to both on the internet. It seems strange, though, that we're using one spelling in the title of the article and a different one in the body. Andy M. (talk) 22:16, 4 November 2008 (UTC)


 * agree it's odd. I consider 'fetida' to be the more modern and official name, as used by e.g. genomesize.com - but I'm not a taxonomist and I don't know which is the authoritative source of species names. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.198.148.119 (talk) 21:10, 11 February 2009 (UTC)  PS Thomson ISI clearly shows use of 'fetida' increasing and 'foetida' decreasing in the scientific literature over the last 20 years, for whatever that's worth. I suggest the article title should be changed to 'fetida'.

I am in the worm business, foetida is wrong. Anyone know how to change the title on this page? All should read Eisenia fetida. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.5.141.127 (talk) 21:23, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Aren't you in the zoological nomenclature business as well? — Klimenok (talk) 12:57, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Hi, I'm a grad student researching vermicompost and am familiar with the scientific literature. I can't figure this out either! Sometimes the same scientists use different spellings:

Davidson, S. K. and D. A. Stahl (2006) "Transmission of nephridial bacteria of the earthworm Eisenia fetida." Applied and Environmental Microbiology 72(1): 769-775.

Davidson, S. K. and D. A. Stahl (2008) "Selective recruitment of bacteria during embryogenesis of an earthworm." The ISME Journal 2: 510-518.

From the 2008 abstract: "Earthworms of the family Lumbricidae harbor specific and stable populations of Acidovorax-like bacteria within their excretory organs, the nephridia. The symbionts of Eisenia foetida are deposited into the egg capsules during mating and the nephridia of the juveniles are colonized before they hatch."

I will email Dr. Davidson and see if I can get a definitive answer. Allisonlhjack (talk) 19:20, 6 October 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Allisonlhjack (talk • contribs) 19:18, 6 October 2010 (UTC) Hi allison, dont take this the wrong way...but I read your post and wondered if it was in fact two different hard toiling GRAD STUDENTS (eg 2006 and 2008) working on one of the good Doctor's projects, including the write up!!! I have to think he has only one preferred spelling! Slds and happy worming.. GrinchPeru (talk) 22:59, 18 January 2011 (UTC)


 * I rather suspect that the answer is that foetida is correct, but scientists and writers get lazy and adopt American spelling. The same is seen with mediaeval, paedophile, etc.Royalcourtier (talk) 03:42, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Agree! In Europe we originally have foetida. --85.181.42.31 (talk) 06:51, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Vermiculture?
This is the last sentence in the lead section:

The composting process is known as vermiculture, with an end result of vermicompost.

Seems to me that vermiculture means growing worms and vermicomposting means using worms to create compost.

I think the sentence would better read:

The composting process is known as vermicomposting, and the end product as vermicompost.

??? Wanderer57 (talk) 21:11, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

"Destructor beast": huge section about use in India
I have deleted this as it is quite clearly inappropriate for this article. Perhaps the author of this section could set up a page for this, and put a link from this page. 155.198.148.119 (talk) 19:03, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Redirection
Shouldn't Red wiggler redirect to here instead of Earthworm? Especially since Red Wiggler redirects here. When i look at this worm i eat it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.190.131.246 (talk) 16:50, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Distributions
There should be more information about their distribution. I don't want it to be America-centric, the above article on invasives says they aren't known to survive winter.173.8.113.1 (talk) 13:26, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Article protection
Why is this article protected? It seems very sparse for such a popular subject and not very contentious. Has there been problems in the past?--Nowa (talk) 21:56, 25 October 2013 (UTC)
 * It was protected because of a very persistent spammer who repeatedly posted spam to this article and other earthworm-related articles over a period of several years, but it is no longer protected. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 13:53, 29 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks--Nowa (talk) 00:48, 30 July 2016 (UTC)

Etymology
Please ad this subsection: ==Etymology== The genus Eisenia is named after the Svedish scientist Gustav Eisen. The adjectival f(o)etida is derived from latin, according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, meaning "fouls-smelling". Thank you --85.181.42.31 (talk) 07:07, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Uses
Shouldn't there be some mention of red wiggler use as fishing bait? (Versus, say nightcrawlers?) I'm not finding any scientific articles on the subject, but anecdotally, I can say that every bait shop I ever went to had red wigglers on hand, and there are loads of websites (and differing opinions) advertising them if you look up "red wigglers as bait." Seems like a pretty big oversight, but I don't know what type of link to offer as a ref. Just a suggestion. O0drogue0o (talk) 10:35, 22 January 2023 (UTC)