Why buy worms?

[Allen Morgan]

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

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

[Eddie]

Ok... Tell me more... U just hook up to battery and put the electrodes in the ground ? How large an area will it work ?

[Allen Morgan]

There was another video on youtube where a gent connected a lamp cord to an old, long, screwdriver with a wooden handle.  Electrical tape where the positive wire (I think) wire connected to the shaft of the screwdriver.  He plugged it into an outlet, and stuck the screwdriver into the ground.  Worms came boiling out of the dirt.

[Tony Livingston]

Wow... that sounds like a great way to test the integrity of your home's circuit breakers, while possibly getting to know your local EMT's at the same time....

Seriously though, I used to see commercial units for sale that used electricity to encourage the worms to surface. No idea of the in's and out's of the device, haven't seen one in some time.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I know right Tony? I wouldn't do that in this old house....

[Allen Morgan]

That's why I haven't decided to try this one.  I don't feel like buying a Darwin Award.

[Leo Nguyen]

Yep, just have the positive on one 3ft metallic rod (steel is best), and negative on the other. If the ground is already moist, no need to induce water. If the ground dry, add a gallon of water to ever two square feet of soil. Let the water soak in completely. I normally use a nice 5gal bucket, pour all over the soil, and sit back, relax, enjoy a sandwich for about 10 minutes, and go to town. Push the electrode in, and if the area is loaded with worms, they'll jump right out. The effective area is based on how much juice you have in your 12V battery, and how much AMP-HR that battery can push out. High AMP-HR will pretty much fry the poor thing. I mod my old wire with rheostat to regulate the current between 700mA to max of 2A. The effective diameter is 4ft. 5A will yield a whopping 10ft.

[Eddie]

thanks... I may just give this a try !

[Tony Livingston]

Leo! I should've known you would have this device! So was this your preferred method of calling worms to the surface, back in the days before raising your own?

Did anyone other than myself ever see the episode of "Dirty Jobs", where Mike Rowe called up the worms with, I think, some type of vibrating stick?

It beats the smell of burning hair!

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

"Banjo stick" - some great stuff on your tube about that.

[Leo Nguyen]

LOL..yep..Played with the electrodes since I was 6. Didn't incorporate the rheostat until later in highschool. I didn't know about Dirty Jobs as I have used it, then saw the show, and discovered quite a few YouTube segments as well on the worm culling. But since high school, I switched from culling the worms, put them in my compost bins, and went to town ever since.

[Tony Livingston]

I haven't fished with worms in a long time, but as a kid they were all I had available so neccesity being the mother of invention and all, I learned to turn over the somewhat drier "cow patties" and find them that way. At least until the ground got as hard as concrete in late Summer.

[Johnny]

I remember reading something like this when I was a kid except they smashed up the green hulls & maybe dried them, the article read the walnut hulls depleted the oxygen in the water & fish would roll up to the surface for the taking.

 

Alaway wanted to try it but never got around to it, mostly outta curiousity.