Why buy worms?

[Allen Morgan]

I just saw this on youtube.  I'll have to keep an eye out for black walnuts now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZutYfFwm8M&feature=related

[Leo Nguyen]

You got it nailed Tony. They used to be called Georgia Jumpers. Now, they're raised and sold so much from Alabama that they got their name from the sellers from the state. I bought them just last year to raise, and most of them died because they literally just bouncing all over the place, either died from cement death in the garage or trigger the birds to eat them in a frenzy after a light rain or a shower from the sprinkler. I only have a few left in the last drawer of the compost bin. I'm not touching that drawer unti ai see them in the upper drawers. My orange saddle earthworms are coming out nicely too. I have to thank the orange saddle worms for keeping the jumpers from going crazy.

[Dwayne Denison]

I wonder if these are what I have in my yard? My worms are a darker red than most crawler. It seems the skin in smoother, and hard as heck to pick up. The flip and jump all over the place.

[Leo Nguyen]

OOOO!! You may have the elusive jumpers Dwayne. Encourage them to grow more in your hard. It takes 9 to 14 months to reproduce 1 generation. So, feed them with plenty of dead vegetation, protect them from the aerial predators/moles, and you're set for life my friend. Use 12V 1.5A electrodes, 3ft long and shove them down to 2.5ft deep, space them 4ft apart, and you'll encourage them come to the surface within 10 to 15 minutes without killing them. 2A is pushing it. 2.5A to 3A, you're roasting their nervous system. 4A, they're marshmallow after the convulsion.

[Dwayne Denison]

The village I live in, is great worm hunting grounds. Seems everyones yard is full. After a rain my driveway looks like it is moving,so many worms. If I wash My truck I pickup, about 40 or so. I may be wrong, but I think it has something to do the the coal, that was in the mine here. Years ago everyone burned coal, to heat their homes and pored alot of the cinders in there yards. Also we have some great dark top soil. There are some huge robins flying around here also.

[Leo Nguyen]

Yep. Not just the coal, but the coal also allows high level of aeration to the top soil, down to 7ft. They love to stay within the first 3ft of the soil, as long as the soil contain high level of organics. It appears your areas are high in nutrients, and very high aeration. LUCKY!  If they come out of the soil, harvest them, and place them in an area to be prolific. They are gold in the fishing arena. I would love to have you send a few pounds of them if you're willing. Rather than spending my money at the worm farms, I rather spend with the BBG's family.

 

Hm..wonder if there's anyone own a worm farm here within the BBG family?

[Jacob Hill]

i vermicompost and use worms for fishing. they're great

[Vince Fusco]

I just started a red worm bed again today. My wife and I went fishing this morning and had to buy red worms.  $4.oo for 36 worms, UGGGG!  What ones we had left went were the first brood stock for the new bed. I guess Uncle Jim's Worm farm will be supplying me with the rest. Jacob, have you ever put just plain earth worms in with your red worms for breeding purposes? I just wonder if they will cross breed.

[Allen Morgan]

Hey, I may know an area here in OK that has them.  At least, 25 years ago, it might have.

I was on a campout with my Scout troop.  We had some free time, and went exploring.  We found an old brush-arbor chapel in the woods.  At one point, we were just walking through the trees, and came across a dry wash that had about 12" of dead leaves in it.  We kicked the leaves aside to walk through.  To our adolescent amazement, we saw a couple huge worms immediately wriggle away, about as fast as a lizard or small snake (which we thought they were, until we caught them).  We high-tailed it back to camp, grabbed an old styrofoam cooler that was there, took it out, put some dirt and leaves in there, then started filling it with worms.  We didn't have to buy worms for the rest of the week.

When we left, another Scout troop set up camp, and we ended up giving them the worms.

[Greg Rogers]

Tried the walnut hulls and the electrode method years ago.  Both worked but really, there are more efficient ways to get worms.  How I survived wetting the lawn and plugging it in to 120 VAC is a wonder.  I read somewhere that native Americans  used the walnut hulls catch fish in small waters.

[Leo Nguyen]

120VAC? on damp ground? Wow..you got someone watching you from way up there. I would have been a crisp corpse by now.

Depending on the walnut hulls, hopefully not the poisonous black walnut, low doses will indeed make fish belly up. But at the same, it will continue to kill until the poison is fully diluted to a lesser degree.

[Jacob Hill]

in addition you can raise your own worms very cheaply. i spend very little time and effort and have a thriving worm farm. redworms not nightcrawlers but  they work just as well for big gills for me

[Greg Rogers]

Yup.  Had those crawlers coming up like Poseidon missiles.  Yup, black walnut.  We actually used them once to catch minnows in a creek while on a camping trip one fall.  Happened to be a tree by a deep hole in a small creek off the lake we hiked in to.  Worked great.  Caught lot's of fish.