Worm Farming: How Worms Eat
Worms eat their food (organic matter which is mixed with the soil) by:
Tunnelling through the soil taking food into their mouth as they go. The prostomium (a fleshy pad) contracts over the mouth.
The food then gets pulled down into the alimentary canal (a tubular passage located between the mouth and the anus.) for digestion and the elimination of wastes.
There are different sections of this tube: buccal cavity, pharynx, esophagus, crop, gizzard and intestine. The buccal cavity – as its name suggests, is a cavity just behind the mouth.
The pharynx – think of this as the suction pump.
The esophagus – a tube leading to the crop and gizzard.
The crop is a storage facility (pouch) for the food.
The gizzard is a thick walled “grinder” that breaks the food down by muscular action and small stones.
The intestine digests the food and extracts the nutrients.
The last step in the process is the excretion of wastes in the form of castings (food and soil which was not digested).