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For those of you that use night crawlers, now is the time to get out there and get them.
I went for my daily walk yesterday but only found smaller ones, so we did not bother to collect them but today was a different matter. It normally takes us about 45 min to walk our normal route of 2.5 miles but today it took us 1 hr and 10 mins because we found so many. We only collected the big ones but we got 136, I thought we had around 5 or 6 dozen but was I surprised when I counted them, as I put them in a 5 gal bucket. We did not collect any of smaller ones, if I were to guess, I'd say we saw at least triple the amount we got. It rained the whole time we walked and they were washing down the curb and gutter and where the water was pooled up there would be 20 or 30 in each spot, it was crazy. If they all survive, we should have enough for months[  ].
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How or what do you store that many in. I would like to gather some but, prefer not to put them in my fridge.
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For now I just put them in a 5 gal bucket and filled it with the rich dirt from my garden but when it starts getting warm out and staying warm, I'll bury the bucket in the ground, so the top of the bucket is even with ground, then I'll cover it with some type of insulation, to keep the sun from beating down on the lid. I do keep small amounts(1 or 2 dozen) in my fridge and as long as they are in those sealed worm container, my wife don't care but I also have one of those small mini fridges.
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Related question: What temp do you set your mini-fridge at to keep worms alive? I have one out on my deck, set to "beer degrees" but I'm afraid that's too cold for worms.
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Unless it's below 37 degrees, I doubt it'd too cold because that's what mine is set at.
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Get on line- search how to keep crawlers- I use the 2 rubbermaid container method- use mostly chopped up news paper and a little soil- feed left over veggie/salad scraps I keep the container on the basement floor- keeps them all year.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000]A quick Google search turned up this table:
Kinds of Bait/Recommended Temperature
Nightcrawlers/40° to 50°
Garden Worms/60° to 70°
Red Worms/65° to 70°
Crayfish & Shrimp/40° to 50°
Also, this is generally for short term storage (a couple of weeks or so). Long term storage would require bedding boxes, compost piles, etc. where you can control the food and bedding process better. Curt's 'bury the bucket' method is also better than long term in a fridge.[/#][/font]
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Bob Hicks, from Utah
I'm 81 years young and going as hard as I can for as long as I can.
"Free men do not ask permission to bear arms."
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Thanks! Now if I can just get them to wear little ID tags that say "Night" or "Garden" or "Red"...
Regardless, it does seem that my "Beer" setting is probably too cold for them. I don't usually keep leftover crawlers that often, anyway. I generally give them away at the takeout ramp.
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I don't use newspapers but the stuff in my garden has always been fine in the past. In the Fall I put about 60 bags of leaves in there and till them in, then in the Spring I get 3 truck loads of manure and till that in. Just finished doing all that, so it is pretty rich soil with all that stuff in there. I like you idea too, sounds like it will work great. So did we go out and collect those nightcrawlers too?
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Google is great with all the info they can get you but what I'm talking about is first hand info. I have been keeping small quantities of crawlers in my 37 degree fridge (up to 24) for years. Leaving them in there for months at a time, especially when I don't use many of them during the Winter. Never had any issue with them dieing but the bedding material does dry out after that long. I just use those blue containers they come in, when you buy them at a store, I don't change the bedding they come with. One word of caution, from a lessen I learned years back, when I first started doing this, do not water them any more than a few drops at a time[  ].
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Back when I used to keep/sell them we would throw used coffee grounds in with them every other week, not sure if it was the right thing to do but it sure didn't seam to hurt them at all?
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LOL, funny you mentioned that because I do the same thing.
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Curt, I do the same thing. Rain sucks, but at least it gives me a chance to restock my work bucket and fly boxes. Back to making wooly worms, one of my favorite Gill flies.
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