Suthar, 2007b).
In most of the previous studies, cattle dung and
plant-derived waste were used as a substrate, whereas
in the present study, a different type of organic waste
has been used. Therefore, the differences in the
present and past results could be related to the nature
of the feed material or to any environmental variable.
Suthar, (2007a) demonstrated that P. sansibaricus
showed a better weight gain as well as reproduction
performance beddings that contained more nitrogen
contents. Therefore, the difference might be due to
substrate chemistry or due to species-specific feeding
behaviour or both. Earthworm mortality appears as a
major problem during the vermicomposting of such
types of organic wastes. However, the degradation
probably caused drastic changes in some
environmental characteristics of decomposing
vermibeds. The changed condition influences the
survival rate of the worms.