Raising redworms

[Nathan]

Hello everyone,

I'm kinda new here so I thought I would introduce myself really quick along with a question. My name is Nathan and i'm 18 years young. I love fishing for anything but panfish are at the top of my list, whether it be pumpkin seed or bluegill it is all fun. I'm more so a fly fisherman but am more than willing to put down the fly rod if it's windy and toss a worm into the drink. I live on the west coast and the panfish don't get very big here so you probably won't be seeing any mosters from me. My biggest is around 8" bluegill.

 

Now the question, I have started an endevor of raising worms afew years ago. I started with nightcrawlers and was hoping to move on to super worms, red worms, and meal worms, along with wax worms and some others but never really made it past meal worms. I started a nightcrawler club but during the summer I was fishing more than I was tending to them and slowly my nightcrawlers died off. I was gone a lot since my parents are split and it's hard being in two places at the same time. Anyhow, I then bought super worms and tried them, to find out they are just as challenging to raise. They're easy to maintain but hard to get to multiply. Then meal worms were next, these were much easier. I started with 50, managed to get 30 beetles to breed then ended up with a couple hundred. Now the cycle is restarting and I am on my third generation. I just recently tried redworms, and after getting some, I made a foolish mistake of leaving them in the sun, killing them all. :'( Well tonight I got new ones, and I bought some Frabill Fat and sassy worm bedding. I added a dash of water and put them in there. Now I am just waiting to see how this works out. My question though is if anyone can tell me the best way to keep them alive, or if anyone here raises their own worms and has some tips or tricks that would also be greatly appreciated. Does anyone here raise worms?

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Nathan.

[Nathan]

Just an update, I started collecting nightcrawlers to raise along with my redworms, a lot of them died but afew of the more hardy guys seem to be doing fine. My redworms are doing well as well, very lively, and they dont seem to be trying to escape as much (A lot of them have already escaped though. Doh.)

 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, advice and information.

 

-Nate

[Jacob Hill]

Hi again Nathan the common nightcrawlers we have in US soil need a vast tunneling system to survive and do not do well in our confined bins. You should stick to redworms or maybe European Nightcrawlers. The redworms are better.

[dick tabbert]

Night crawlers go deep and are hard to raise and in the summer if they get to warm you may loose the crawlers you have now so my suggestion is to use your crawlers up 1st. The red worms will generally be where the food is and can stand warmer temps. Find the coolest place you can and store them there and never put in direct sunlight and what Jacob said.

[Nathan]

Thanks guys, so does anyone have a good source or can tell me what the difference is between a euro nightcrawler and what I have here in Oregon? Where can I get euro crawlers, I have heard they are more hardy than the normal ones(?)

Thanks

[dick tabbert]

European Night Crawlers are the closest thing to the red worms as we can get. They do not get as big as the Canadian or African Crawler but are larger than our red worms probably in the 6" range at full growth.The upside is they are the easiest to raise of all the mentioned Crawlers. You can raise them like you do the red wigglers and they do not need to be refrigerated as the Canadian Night Crawlers do. They eat the same food as the wigglers. Prep the soil in the same way as you would for the red wigglers again some people use them for there castings. Casting or worm poop is used for plants and the water you catch off the bottom of you bin is call worm tea also a great fertilizer for your plants. Hope this can answer some questions. I raised Canadian Crawlers last year and will tell you the upkeep is time consuming to sat the least if your going to attempt to raise them.

[Nathan]

Thank Mr. Tabbert! Godo info. So it's starting to get warm over here and I think I will release my nightcrawlers. Is there a way to tell a european from a african and a canadian nightcrawler? I live in Oregon which is somewhat close to Canada, so I will guess they are Canadians. Also do you know somewhere I can get European NCers from? Preferably a good source :) I was doing some research about trying to find out how to tell the different species (Didn't find anything useful) but I found somewhere saying people sell redworms and call them European Nightcrawlers, so I would like to actually get some Eruo's. Thanks!

[dick tabbert]

Nathan we know you don't have Africans and European so my guess is Canadian which will have to be refrigerated. European  you can buy over the internet just make sure they are European Crawlers. Or you can stay with what you have just keep in the frig witch will work till your wife finds them crawling around in the bottom of the frig.