I am the worm king!!

Duckslayer100 · Apr 18, 2017

Wish I had pix, but we were having too much fun. Before dropping the kiddos off this morning, No. 1 son grabbed a bucket and his 3.5-year-old enthusiasm to pick as many night crawlers as he could. We wound up with about $50 worth, which I'd like to keep at length. Right now they're in some dirt in an insulated bucket in the garage (it's supposed to stay cool today) but I know this isn't a long-term storage plan.

So does anyone pick and keep crawlers for weeks at a time? If so, how do you do it? I know cool and moist are pretty important. But we've never had much luck beyond a week or so. They always croak and stink up the fridge -- which is why mama gets so anxious when it rains in the spring

I want to keep adding to the pile as I've heard certain wall-eyed fish enjoy night crawlers at some point in in the summer. Although where and when I'm not sure, but at least I'll be able to save some $$$ in bait if we can keep them fat and sassy for awhile.

WormWiggler · Apr 18, 2017

feed them coffee grounds

Rowdie · Apr 18, 2017

You need to get a bait fridge in the garage, helps out a lot. Just get one of those big styrofoam crawler boxes, theones they sell at wallmart or Sheels, and get some worm bedding. Follow the directions, get some worm food, and store in fridge. I've been doing this for over 20 years. I have saved a ton of money and a lot of time since the nearest place I can buy them is 12 miles. I'm getting to old and fat to be out there doing this though. You can also cut the really big ones in half and double your catch. Go through them and make sure there's no dead ones weekly, especially right away.

Migrator Man · Apr 18, 2017

I would segregate the injured worms and use them first. Make sure to keep them cool but not that cool

LBrandt · Apr 18, 2017

I keep mine in a light weight foam cooler on basement floor. Use worm bedding and don't over populate. About 100 worms to cooler that is about half full of bedding. Check about once a week and take out dead or sickly looking one. I shake bedding to loosen it up. Have a few air holes in top so they can breath. Have been able to keep them alive most of summer this way. I buy like 250 in the bags at fleet farm in spring and most make it to die on a hook.

Duckslayer100 · Apr 18, 2017

Rowdie said:
You need to get a bait fridge in the garage, helps out a lot. Just get one of those big styrofoam crawler boxes, theones they sell at wallmart or Sheels, and get some worm bedding. Follow the directions, get some worm food, and store in fridge. I've been doing this for over 20 years. I have saved a ton of money and a lot of time since the nearest place I can buy them is 12 miles. I'm getting to old and fat to be out there doing this though. You can also cut the really big ones in half and double your catch. Go through them and make sure there's no dead ones weekly, especially right away.

Bait fridge is a good idea. We have a mini fridge at work that we no longer use. I should borrow it...

Lycanthrope · Apr 18, 2017

Some garages dont need a fridge, I know mine doesnt, keep them on the cement so they stay cool. Major issue with keeping crawlers is going through them to make sure they arent injured, a couple dead ones will kill them all in a week or two if left in the soil. After a few days, if they havent firmed back up and are limp or stretched out a lot when you handle them, they most likely have internal injuries that will kill them eventually. Feed them to the birds...

Once you know they are healthy they are relatively low maintenance. They make feed you can buy at walmart I think, but you can also just give them chicken scratch/crumbles. I actually had a few places in town that I would feed the crawlers using chicken scratch and a hand held crank spreader occasonally. IMO it will increase size and population density if done fairly consistently for a couple years. Dont use feed with antibiotics built in if you do this tho.

Dont mix the feed into the bedding, this will kill them, make a couple small piles on the surface, they will find it and come there to feed. If its been there a while and has mold or starts to look slimy remove it and the bedding directly below it about an inch and replace. They should eat whatever you give them within a few days. Its better to under feed them than over feed them. When you put the feed down, spray it slightly with distilled water, its easier for them to eat when slightly moist.

Make sure you use worm bedding or shredded newspaper or cardboard. If you have a decent cross cut paper shredder you can make your own. If you make your own I would soak it for a day or so in water and then wring it out by hand, this will get some of the dyes out of the paper and also dissolve/remove some of the binders used in the cardboard. Also dont use chlorinated water if possible, river water works great or you can use declorinator from a pet store.

Gimme some positive feedback or at least a thumbs up for edumicating your lazy asses!

LBrandt · Apr 18, 2017

Make sure that fridge is not set to cold. Natural ground temp for crawlers is around 50. cooler than that will kill them too.

jer79 · Apr 18, 2017

"worm king", well I used to be in the worm ranching business myself. I had a old six pack cooler I buried most of the way in my yard next to our shed and bushes, it stays very shady there and grass wont grow. I covered it with a plywood top I painted brown so it blended in for aesthetics and to hide from potential rustlers. they seemed to last about a month in there. I had some dirt and some worm bedding stuff mixed in there. it was nice to back up to the boat and walk to the backyard and grab 6,8,10 at a time instead of stopping and buying them. one day we got a ton of rain and it flooded them , lost the entire herd. that was the end of it for me. but it sure was convenient, and a guy seems to throw away half the crawlers he buys eventually (fridge too cold , etc.). and it's good fun for kids. looking back though at all the money I spent on worm semen, vet bills, and flying them to Canada for breeding... don't know if I came out ahead money wise.

Sluggo · Apr 18, 2017

When I was a kid, we had a garbage can full of dirt that we dumped our crawlers in....the can was kept in a shed in the back where it didn't get too hot. When we would go fishing, dad would tip the can over and the dirt would separate and one of us kids would reach in and extract a couple dozen crawlers. Takes up more space than a cooler but was able to keep it outside and didn't cost a thing.

Lycanthrope · Apr 18, 2017

jer79 said:
"worm king", well I used to be in the worm ranching business myself. I had a old six pack cooler I buried most of the way in my yard next to our shed and bushes, it stays very shady there and grass wont grow. I covered it with a plywood top I painted brown so it blended in for aesthetics and to hide from potential rustlers. they seemed to last about a month in there. I had some dirt and some worm bedding stuff mixed in there. it was nice to back up to the boat and walk to the backyard and grab 6,8,10 at a time instead of stopping and buying them. one day we got a ton of rain and it flooded them , lost the entire herd. that was the end of it for me. but it sure was convenient, and a guy seems to throw away half the crawlers he buys eventually (fridge too cold , etc.). and it's good fun for kids. looking back though at all the money I spent on worm semen, vet bills, and flying them to Canada for breeding... don't know if I came out ahead money wise.

This works also, I would suggest using a tote that is fairly sturdy and use a whole saw (1 inch or so) to cut holes in the bottom, one in each corner and a couple in the middle. "glue" metal window screen over the holes on the inside using gasket latex. Also make a couple holes just under the lid on the top on each side so fresh air can blow through, glue screen over these also. Under it put some river rock or pea gravel so water can drain out if necessary, about 2 inches and bury it deep enough so the lid is a couple inches above the ground. Best to have the lid a light color so it reflects light and doesnt heat up if it gets some sun, paint it white or buy one like this. Doesnt hurt to throw some dead leaves or brown grass/twigs into your mix. The worms will nibble on that stuff also, but dont use green grass or anything high in nitrogen. Still need to feed them occasionally if they are kept like this.

Duckslayer100 · Apr 18, 2017

Ya know...I never thought about just keeping them in the garage on the concrete. That's not a bad idea at all. There's a corner near the main door that never gets the sun and is a pretty consistent temperature. I think I might try the garbage can idea, but instead use a 5-gallon pale. Fill it halfway with dirt and top with wet, brown leaves and see what happens. And stop at FF to see if there's any worm food available...

Lycanthrope · Apr 18, 2017

Duckslayer100 said:
Ya know...I never thought about just keeping them in the garage on the concrete. That's not a bad idea at all. There's a corner near the main door that never gets the sun and is a pretty consistent temperature. I think I might try the garbage can idea, but instead use a 5-gallon pale. Fill it halfway with dirt and top with wet, brown leaves and see what happens. And stop at FF to see if there's any worm food available...

As with minnows, dont crowd them too much, if you give them enough room to move around, they will live indefinitely, if they are super cramped they wont last nearly as long. There is a big difference between storing them and giving them a place that they can live and survive in. Id suggest starting out with about 100 in a 20 gallon tote, maybe 150. When I used to keep them, they would actually reproduce and Id find a lot of baby crawlers at the end of the summer.

Duckslayer100 · Apr 18, 2017

Lycanthrope said:
As with minnows, dont crowd them too much, if you give them enough room to move around, they will live indefinitely, if they are super cramped they wont last nearly as long. There is a big difference between storing them and giving them a place that they can live and survive in. Id suggest starting out with about 100 in a 20 gallon tote, maybe 150. When I used to keep them, they would actually reproduce and Id find a lot of baby crawlers at the end of the summer.

Ooooh totes! Why didn't I think of that. Same area, but easier to manage. I do have an extra garbage bin, but I don't like the idea of dumping that thing out and scrounging through it every time we need a dozen crawlers.

Hookin8easy · Apr 18, 2017

I just recently watched someone freeze crawlers in your ordinary run of the mill container you buy them in, froze em for a week, set em out for couple hours on the deck and them sons a bitches came right back, looked as healthy and wiggly as when they were froze. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Gonna try this myself, appears they'll keep better than just in the fridge a week or two

should note they were in bedding not soil, not sure if that makes much difference other than thawing nicely

Lycanthrope · Apr 18, 2017

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Homz-15-Gallon-Tough-Tote-Black-Yellow-Set-of-6/21119244

- - - Updated - - -

Hookin8easy said:
I just recently watched someone freeze crawlers in your ordinary run of the mill container you buy them in, froze em for a week, set em out for couple hours on the deck and them sons a bitches came right back, looked as healthy and wiggly as when they were froze. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Gonna try this myself, appears they'll keep better than just in the fridge a week or two

should note they were in bedding not soil, not sure if that makes much difference other than thawing nicely

want dead worms....
Great idea if you

pluckem · Apr 18, 2017

I'm sure the above posts pointed you in the right direction, but buy the big Styrofoam box marketed toward crawlers and keep in fridge.

A couple of other notes.
*Many times the crawlers picked up on the concrete, driveway, or puddles are to far gone or stressed and will die. Best luck is with the crawlers you pick in the dark that are hanging half out of the hole.
*Other thing you can do to assure long term health to the farm is to spread the crawlers out on top of the bedding in the Styrofoam box and put the lid on. The healthy crawlers will move deeper and disappear. After 30 minutes or so go back and check, take all the crawlers still on the top and separate them into a container and use these as bait first.

johnr · Apr 18, 2017

Pull cranks, its cleaner, and less time consuming.

Hookin8easy · Apr 18, 2017

Can't say how the frozen looked a day later, but at the time ok, I've read the same as you probably had and that they were complete mush and worthless, I have done the fridge container and food with flats w great success

Colt45 · Apr 18, 2017

For what its worth, here is what I do with crawlers. I do pick them every spring, usually in May. I usually quit around 500 or so. I split them in a couple of foam boxes/coolers. I use shredded newspaper for bedding, get it damp with rain water, I never use tap water, and I put 3 layers for rain water soaked newspaper (not shredded) but over the top of the bedding just underneath the lid. I do add worm food, but I think the crawlers eat the shredded newspaper. After getting them in the farm, check them after a day or 2 and pull out every injured/dead one. What remains should be healthy crawlers, but you still need check and sort every once in a while. Once I pull crawlers out of the farm and use them for fishing, I never return them to the farm, I keep the worm bait box in the fridge and just add more crawlers to it as needed from the farm.
I have successfully kept crawlers up to 9 months with this method. Keep rain water on hand in the event your bedding starts to dry and add rain water as needed over the course of the summer. I have learned the hard way that setting the fridge to cold will result in dead crawlers, so be mindful of your temp setting, mine is set midway and seems to be just right for crawlers.
And I do change the bedding about once a month, I just shred more newspaper, soak it in rainwater, remove the old bedding and rinse out the box, and replace the bedding.

I am the worm king!!

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