no. the oils on your hands will cause them to shrivel and die. find another way to harvest, or learn to live with murder.

well that cleared up everything guess i will buy some gloves thanks.

I handle worms all the time. I only wear gloves when I think about it. Let your experience be your guide.

I never saw a fisherman wear gloves to bait a hook with worms. I am a barehanded worm farmer.

Casual handling will not harm them.

I don't bother with gloves. I just harvested my bin for the first time and picked out tons of worms by hand. The lady I got my starters from just scooped around with her hands and picked worms into her palm.

I do wash my hands before I handle worms because I use a lot of hand-lotion. Worms "breathe" through their skin, so they won't like lotions, oils, perfume or soap residue on your skin.

I'm with mwudan.

My mother always told me to never play with the worms with bare hands otherwize they would grow hair. Nobody wants hairy worms. Since I have never seen one, most everybody must use gloves.

I do not use gloves but then again I have somehow managed to vermicompost without touching worms at all. I use a chopstick to move the worms and vermicompist. For larger quantities of vermicompost I used a 3 tined garden hand fork. Even if a worm falls to the floor I pick it up very gently with a chopstick and sheet of paper.

If hands are already dirty with from planting I do not think they will hurt the worms.

Bare hands will not harm worms. Too much handling will.

i bought some gloves just incase because when i bought the worms the guy insured half a pound and he pretty much ripped me off it was only like 10 worms im sure they will repopulate easily but didn't want to risk it.

and i don't handle my worms that often i usually just feed once per week thats it i only handle when i must like when harvesting the worms.

I have some latex surgical gloves that I use when aerating my bin. I found from the death of my worms that sometimes overhandling can cause the poor babies to expire. They enjoy their privacy and frisky business with humans is not their favorite past time. Be careful handling your worms. Losing them is no fun when you have to sit and pick out the dead ones. Trust me they start to stink pretty quickly

There is not too many smells worse than a glob of dead worms, unless its a polecat [sp]. They say it would hurt to have your hands wet before handling worms but I dont If I wore gloves it would be to keep the spider mites off.

I've always thought I could handle worms barehanded, but not being totally sure, I always go into a bin armed with both a machete, pepper spray, and a small taser I got from petco.

I display them openly and the worms almost always shrink back into the bedding after seeing them so I guess they're waiting for a better opportunity.

Chuckiebtoo

I do not touch my worms. Not because it might hurt them but because I am afraid of them. I'm not even sure if I like worms but the system they are a part of fascinates me. I use a barbecue skewer to gently move individual worms or pick them up if they fall to the floor. Baby worms magically stick to it for some reason. Just touch it gently to them and you can move them to a new bin.

>> I always go into a bin armed with both a machete,
>> pepper spray, and a small taser I got from petco.

Be careful. This won't work at all with the hairy ones.

Really need emoticons. I want the one with the jaw dropping to the floor...

Paul

I take my hat off to anyone who can't stand touching worms but found, somehow, to get into composting with worms. They really are not that gross. There was a time I felt negative towards the whole lot, but, when I got into this, and for ALL the reasons I got into this, I find that worms are down right pretty incredible. They are out there saving the planet and don't even realize it.

Sure do! I was in earlier having a nosy and reached in to check the bottom and there were large clumps of unfinished newspaper so I brought it to the top. My lads were happily ensconced, enraptured with some previous feeding that is now at a yummy consistence for them. They didn't mind me going in.

A cheap nail brush, lots of soap and hot water takes care of any dirt on the hands. No biggie.