Home Forums Fishing Freshwater nightcrawler farm?

anybody raise their own nightcrawlers? i live smack dab in the middle of some awesome small stream trout fishing, and a whole nightcrawler can't be beat.

me and my buddy have 4 kids, and 6 people can go through an amazing amount of crawlers in a days time.

i know the basics, but thought somebody here may have some tips or tricks. just looking to raise enough for our use.

I'm no expert, never even raised a worm myself, however my father-in-law made a good living raising worms after he retired from the AF. So I've been around a worm farm.

What exactly is it you want to know.

anything more to it than a good box, ventilation, soil, climate, and food?

what is the reproduction rate and time to maturity?

I know that if you are in a building full of them, you can hear them eating. miles

I never heard them eat but when they are out in full force on a quiet night, just stomp on the ground and you will hear hundreds of them slither back into the ground. ANyway, how do you raise nightcrawlers?

I want to know also.

A cousin of mine that farms in a big way here, jumped into worm raising in a big way a few years ago, and lost a lot of money. If you are raising some for you to fish with that is one thing, but there are people out there promising big money to raise them, but it is a Ponzi scheme of sorts. As soon as they sell you the stuff to get started and promise to buy worms, they disappear, so be careful. miles

Basser, You know the basics so there really isn't much to add for a guy raising worms for his own use. Don't feed too much fruits as that could change the PH of the soil. Use a box that is dark as not to let light in the sides. Corn meal was the food F-I-L used back in the day.

I'd get two boxes and order two bags of worms, one bait size, the other "bed run". You use out of the bait size while the bed run grow. Be very specific with the seller what size worms you expect in the bait size and don't buy from those who won't guarantee size.

Reproduction varies with variety. New hatches will take 2-3 months to reach sexual maturity but up to a year to reach full size.(again depending on variety)

If you want to buy their"kits" go ahead but you can by what you need locally for less and not have to pay shipping.

As mentioned, avoid the get rich schemes.

no kits, only raising to use. i'm actually going to just buy a gross off the store shelf and dump in my box to see how it goes.

i might do 3 or 4 smaller boxes just to try different ideas to see what works best.

Another food is chopped up cardboard boxes. They like the glue. miles