Nightcrawlers.

Hi Guys.
You have given me a lot of help with my two Farmall H tractors in the past, I want to build a bin to raise nightcrawlers, can any body tell me how to build it, any help would be appreciated Thank you Ken.

Its much easier to buy Styrofoam worm farms and keep them in a cool dark place. You can buy worm bedding and dump your coffee grounds in the box as well. Check the boxes daily for any dead ones. Remove if you find any as they will kill the whole box fast. That is why you should use smaller boxes rather then one large box.
Red worms are much easier to raise then night crawlers.

Ken, we used to raise them in an old wash tub. We kept them cool and the soil moist, but not wet, and kept about two inches of dry leaves on top of the soil. I used to start with regular night crawlers like you'd buy at a bait shop. Also dumped them out in the yard. Got a good population that would come to the surface after every rain.

Paul

(quoted from post at 19:18:05 02/27/10) Hi Guys.
You have given me a lot of help with my two Farmall H tractors in the past, I want to build a bin to raise nightcrawlers, can any body tell me how to build it, any help would be appreciated Thank you Ken.

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I used 5 gallon buckets and the mulch paper you can get for worm bedding. Cornmeal for food. Much cleaner and nice fat worms.


Dave

I used an old gas refrigerator. I laid it on its back, put screen over the hole for the unit, and added leaves and dirt. In the summer I put a frozen gallon of water in and changed them every day. I had a good supply all summer long. I could prop the door up, with the lock removed, for ventilation.

Larry in Michigan

I just have a meatal washtub,put peet in it ,shredded newspaper and add coffee grounds and water.works pretty good but i know its not the best way....before we had a big snow it was raining for days, while walking i came across hundreds of robins getting worms and crwlers comming out of the soaked ground.it was pretty..lucas

I just have a meatal washtub,put peet in it ,shredded newspaper and add coffee grounds and water.works pretty good but i know its not the best way....before we had a big snow it was raining for days, while walking i came across hundreds of robins getting worms and crwlers comming out of the soaked ground.it was pretty..lucas

(quoted from post at 03:18:05 02/28/10) Hi Guys.
You have given me a lot of help with my two Farmall H tractors in the past, I want to build a bin to raise nightcrawlers, can any body tell me how to build it, any help would be appreciated Thank you Ken.

Click to expand...

You really cant raise nightcrawlers since they live in a specific hole and if brought out of that, they get lost and will die. All the worms you see on the roads after a rain will never find a home again and are just bird food and smootz on your car. The best you can hope for is to pick them off the yard or if you have extras that you bought and keep them alive untill you go fishing next time.

You can raise composting type worms though. Like Ron mentioned, the common red worm is a composting worm and are super easy to raise. The only problem is they are kinda small for most peoples taste. Leaf worms are almost twice the size as red worms but they are still fairly small compaired to a good old fashoned night crawler. If you can get ahold of some african night crawlers though, they are composting worms and are just smaller than a night crawler and a little slimmer but a great substitute.

Ive raised all 3 of the above worms in very simple boxes. Nothing more than old pop coolers or plastic tool boxes with some air holes in the side. Red worms are by far, the fastest growing and repopulate at an amazing rate. They are just a small worm though but pound wise, will produce the most in a months time. Leaf worms are next in line, a bigger worm for putting on a hook but they reproduce slower than the red worms. Last is the african nightcrawlers, they grow to be big boys but they grow the slowest. With africans, you gotta be real carefull not to overharvest your worm bin or it will really set back the bin and take time to repopulate it.

Just google "Vermicompost" and read how people are keeping their worms and what their bins look like. You dont need anything fancy. Most people are keeping the worms because they dont believe in throwing food scraps in the garbage because it goes to a landfill. You want worms for bait but in the end, you will be doing things pretty much the same.