# Nigh Crawlers...



## JesseD (Mar 26, 2003)

i went outside with a flashlight and a bucket and i caught a ton of night crawlers.

this is how many i caught *after* i fed a bunch to my rhom, red bellies, and oscars.

now i have plenty of worms for my fish.

does anyone know if freezing worms is possible?


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## tweaked (Aug 3, 2003)

Damn ... that's a load of them! Where do you live where there are that many??? I would hate to fall on my ass in the backyard and be covered by those things.

As for freezing them ... you can, but they will dry out. The best way to keep them is in a wooden or plastic box. Shred some newspaper and mix in some leaves. I would recommend about a 1" of gravel to help with drainage so they sown drown. You can feed them any veggie matter. Keep a lid on the box and somewhere cool and dry out of direct light.

Looks like you'll have a nice breeding colony with treats for the life of your P's.


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## tecknik (Jul 18, 2003)

Thats a shitload of nightcrawlers! You struck a goldmine! I've never froze them before but when I buy them, they are usually in a container with soil and I just put them in the refigerator.


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## tweaked (Aug 3, 2003)

Oh forgot ... the newspaper should be soaked in water and rung out. Keep the top few inches moist. They will turn the content of the box into some great molt and can be used for gardening if you wish.


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## JeFFLo (Aug 29, 2003)

wouldnt those things have diseases or pesticide and crap?


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## tweaked (Aug 3, 2003)

It depends on where he got them from. I personally would box them and feed them to flush all the crap out of them first. Q them for about a week or two.


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## akio525 (Sep 4, 2003)

i think theres a good chance they could have some pesticides or disease but I have no idea how to properly quarantine worms.


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## Atlanta Braves Baby! (Mar 12, 2003)

akio525 said:


> i think theres a good chance they could have some pesticides or disease but I have no idea how to properly quarantine worms.


 I agree, it seems like a big risk. I just buy mine.


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## JesseD (Mar 26, 2003)

tweaked said:


> Where do you live where there are that many??? I would hate to fall on my ass in the backyard and be covered by those things.


i live in Michigan.

it had been raining all day long on the day that i caught all of them. they come out and onto the grass to keep from drowning...i just had to grab them very quickly and try to pull them out of the hole before they slithered away and got down their hole.

thanks for all the tips guys


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## Red Bellied Bad Ass (May 25, 2003)

I picked up a bunch of them also that got flooded out. I put mine in a bag and put them in the fridge for a day to poop out the dirt and then threw them in a few a day until they were gone. They live a long time in the fridge.


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## EXIT 11 (Nov 6, 2003)

You dont need to store these at all, just change up your approach. You don't need to run around your back yard with a flashlight to get these.

Get a piece of burlap or something like it, like 2 or 3 sq ft.

Rip the grass out of the ground and throw the berlap down.

Wait a couple of days go back and pick up the burlap, the worms will get tangled in it.

Pull out what you need for your fish, and also pull out and toss the ones you dont need. you dont want a bunch of dead worms on there.

By the way, when does the ground freeze in Mich.?


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## roller03hockey10 (Oct 23, 2003)

my personal opion, the ones u buy will have the same amount of chance of diease or parasite compared to the ones u dig up from your back yard. is there a chance if u catch a lot of earthworms u could rasie them the same way i raise meal worms?(as quickly)?


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## Black-Phoenix (Oct 21, 2003)

yeah just keep there eath cool and damp they will doubble in size (number wise) every month...feed they some leaves and plants...just mix them up in the soil like compost....also cover the containor or have a low watt light shine on it at all times or they will do some waundering.


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## SiameseDream (Sep 7, 2003)

I think my old man once said if you take a car battery and put screw drivers into the ground and charge the screwdrivers lots of worms will come to the surface


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## j0kergrizzly (Oct 29, 2003)

do ur p's reallie like them. i haven't tried it yet but i will soon.


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## Guest (Nov 23, 2003)

I collected alot of earthworms during this past rainstorm, also. I never turn down an opportunity to catch worms this close to winter. I found them in my parking lot. The people in my condo complex must think I'm nuts!

If they are nightcrawlers and not the small compost worms, I keep them in plastic Chinese take-out containers and coffee cans filled with dirt and compost. I store the cans in the coolest place I can find that's indoors.

When I have the time, I am going to look into keeping and breeding red worms so I have a supply of fish food and bait for the whole year.

The two most common mistakes I see people make when keeping worms is keeping too many in a container and letting them get too hot. I never keep more than a dozen small worms per quart of dirt.


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## Red Bellied Bad Ass (May 25, 2003)

SiameseDream said:


> I think my old man once said if you take a car battery and put screw drivers into the ground and charge the screwdrivers lots of worms will come to the surface


 That is an old trick that does indeed work, another simpler one is driving a stake into the ground with a sledghammer, the vibration drives them crazy and brings them out of the ground all around you, even in the middle of the day. Works best with two people, one hitting the stake and the other collecting the worms as they pop out of the ground.


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## Hannibal (Dec 2, 2002)

akio525 said:


> i think theres a good chance they could have some pesticides or disease but I have no idea how to properly quarantine worms.


 how would they have pesticides in them? Unless they were found in a farmer's field or something who uses pesticides. If someone just found them in their backyard, the average person.... i would think doesnt use pesticides in their back yards. It should be pesticide free. Birds are eating those worms and I dont see them dropping out the sky. It should be ok.


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## JesseD (Mar 26, 2003)

EXIT 11 said:


> By the way, when does the ground freeze in Mich.?


 the ground freezes around december. so the ground should be frozen pretty soon.



> do ur p's reallie like them. i haven't tried it yet but i will soon.


my piranha absolutely love earthworms. they are also very good for them to eat.

thanks for that method, EXIT 11. ive never heard of doing that before. i may try that.

and thanks to everyone else for all the tips...i definently learned some stuff


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## Lyle (Jan 29, 2003)

A buddy and I took 2 12" metal rods (cut a hanger or whatever's handy) and an old extension cord or cord off an old appliance...strip the wires and attach one to each rod...tape up. Place them 2-4' apart in the ground, plug it in....You'll get a crapload. Kind of unsettling, though you can feel the current in your feet if you stand in between the rods. Takes like 5 seconds of current to get them up to the surface...


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## eodtec (Oct 23, 2003)

That wont trip the circuit?


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## Lyle (Jan 29, 2003)

It never did...we did it quite a bit


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