Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Nightcrawler farm at home.

Got sick of spending$4 for 20 worms Everytime I wanna go down to the river so about 7 months ago I bought a can of nightcrawlers and put em in a tote with good soil. Been tossing in peanut shells and veggie scraps and they are really doing well. Couldn't tell you how many I've got in there but I see little baby ones in there too. Anyone else do this? Got any tips? I keep the tote inside except for nice days I'll put them out on the back porch for the day.

I have not raised the worms, but it seems like a good plan to me.

My grandpa loved to bluegill fish. He built a worm bed and raised red wigglers. Grandpa had that worm raising thing down to a science. Going out to his worm bed and raking back the soil revealed thousands of fat wigglers. I remember how grandpa fussed over his worms, and how nice that was to have an endless supply of bait anytime you wanted it.

Had a cousin that raised worms for a while, in an old hog barn. You could go there in the dark and hear them chewing. I kid you not. miles

Looking forward to spring when I can put some in a coffee can and get down to the river

Folks around here used to turn an old refridgerator on it's back and fill with dirt and worms. Coffee grounds and potato peels for food. Only problem was keeping the ants out.

Give them melon rinds juicy side down you'll have some happy worms.

That thick band around the worm is called the clitellum. Worms reproduce when they rub their clitellems together.

Listen closely you can hear them moaning underground.

My grandfather said to dig a whole and fill it with spent coffee grounds.

Hear that ground up cardboard is good feed too. They mostly eat the glue. miles

Early every spring I get 500 crawlers from a local wholesaler.

I keep them in a refrigerator set around 38*f to 40*f



For bedding I use;
A) what ever it is they come in ( it’s not dirt, so they can ship them to Canada.)
B) shredded newspaper
C) sometimes I throw in some “ Frabil, Fat and Sassy”.

I never seen any real difference the bedding made, and I Very Seldom loose any worms over the summertime.
I change the bedding about mid summer.
For feed I give them only corn meal about once a week.

I had a Great Uncle who had worm farm somewhere in AL, I remember digging through the beds with my hands as a kid. Sounds like an easy way to make compost and bait. Anything special I should know before I order 1000 red wigglers? Might do nightcrawlers later if this goes well.

Worms are huge! Monsters. Biggest ones I've ever seen and alot of them are pregnant. Gonna give them till spring before I take some away to meet their death.

Is there any particularly reliable place to order some red wigglers from? Think I'll try my hand at worm ranching this spring.

Where I get mine.

Great people...

https://www.wholesalebait.com/catalog.php?cat_id=37

Thanks for the link!

Beansnbacon: When I was a teenager during the summers I often worked gathering Moss for a worm farm farmer.
He had many dozens of waist high elevated worm "troughs" - each trough was about 6 feet long by 2 feet wide by 18 inches deep.
He said the moss was by far the best worm growing medium for breeding, raising and then removing (harvesting) the worms.
We would go out in the rainy forests of the western Cascade foothills and gather moss by the large burlap bag full.
Good for you on the worm farm project - worms are $2.75 per dozen here in the high Rockies of SW Montana.
I would have my own worm farm but its to cold outside in the winters (I think?) to grow my own, like my worm farm former employer did out in warm wet winter country.
Good luck.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

We raised night crawlers in a thing commonly called a compost pile. If starting from scratch add some lime, water, and turn the leaves and grass clippings over once a month to help it break down quicker and you should have a great bed in a year. You can speed things up a bit by laying down a couple inches of top soil, peat, and compost first and adding a couple dozen night crawlers to this layer. The worms will break down the leaves and clippings all by themselves. Adding food stuffs attracts raccoons, skunks, opossums, and the like which cause other problems in addition to eating the worms.

I have taken a couple thousand night crawlers out of an 8'x8'x3' compost pile at one time and still had plenty for the next couple months. This is the best way to ranch them as it takes little effort. One can remove 3/4 of the compost early in the year and use it for gardens. Just fill the pile up by fall so there will be plenty for the worms to winter in by fall.