Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Hungry redears

Does anyone know of a source for nightcrawlers? I'm going to need about 80 dozen per month starting October. I'd like to get a good price, but I'd also like the nightcrawlers to be as large as possible. There are multiple growers on the internet but I have no way of determining quality without a reference. I also have to take into account shipping to Nebraska. Has anyone had a good experience with a particular vendor?

Bruce , why not start some worm boxes in your basement. you keep the bedding damp , feed them coffee grounds and left over veggies ground up. easy and free worms.

Where does one get ahold of a good worm box? More importantly...what do I tell my wife is living in the boxes???

Wife: "What's in the box?"

Bruce: "Box??, What box?"

Disclaimer: Results may vary.

Bruce, raising red worms in your basement is fairly easy but not night crawlers. Can you get by with red worms? They are much, much smaller but might work better for your redears.

I've had good luck with the worms from Gib Van Hill, PO Box 2, Alvord, Iowa 51230 712-473-2246. He has both red worms and gray night crawlers.

I just emailed Mr. Van Hill. Red Wigglers would work just as good for the redears. Maybe better. I could possibly order a quantity of wigglers, then use some for feeding and others for breeding. Have you ever raised any red wigglers?

Red Wigglers, "The Cadillac of Worms"

Theo,I see we have another WKRP fan on board.
Russ, I got a good laugh out of that one!

Bruce, I haven't raised them but have had them establish around our house. That shows that they have a great deal of cold tolerance. This is inspite of studies showing that there were no native worms this far north.

Red wigglers seem to do well with rabbit, sheep and cattle manure but not hog manure. You might be able to dig a trench, line it with a tarp and fill it with manure. Add worms and cover with leaves. To all of this, you have to make something to keep out mice or other things that might eat the worms.

Bruce, just out of curiosity...whatcha doin' with that many worms?!!! mark

heres a great site , worms.com , everything you need to know about worms , types , bedding , bins , feeding , it's all there. check out the forum.

After hinting to my wife that I might try my hand at raising some red wigglers she invoked the little known “Invertebrate Clause” of our prenuptial agreement, which reads as follows:

“Except as otherwise provided in this Agreement, the undersigned party hereby waives, releases and relinquishes any and all right, title or interest whatsoever in the possession of, within the boundaries of said home or dwelling, any and all invertebrates, including, but not limited to crickets, grasshoppers, crayfish, mollusks, scuds, night crawlers, red wigglers (heretofore known as the “Cadillac of Worms”), mayflies, dragonflies, damselflies, or leeches for any reason including, but not limited to, use for capturing fish, or production of additional bait items through reproduction of said invertebrate.

No exemption shall be provided from said limitation through use of Ziploc and, or paper bags within any household appliance used for refrigeration of common food items and use of said appliance to house invertebrates shall warrant a breach of contract by the undersigned party.”

This wording was found right after the part about fidelity and right before the section on use of kitchen for filleting fish.

Bruce, I can't believe it but the wording of our prenuptial is almost identical to yours.

Aquinas H.S. at David City, NE is raising red worms as a means of reducing waste, making some money and teaching the students about recycling. Pius X in Lincoln might be doing the same thing or be willing to start if they know they have someone interested in buying the worms.

Mark!

I just recently built a lined pond. Coincidentally, I was draining another
small pond at the time which just happened to have 15 really healthy age-2
redears which needed a new home. The new pond is ultra-clear and just small
enough (50' X 105') that I can observe behavior of these awesome fish! The
only problem is that the redears don't recognize pellets as something
desirable just yet, so I'd like to keep their tummies full with some worms
until they adapt to artificial feed. I'm really blessed to have 5 smaller
ponds to go with my primary pond so I'm always wanting to try something new.

Bruce - Where there is a will there is a way. There seems to be a tiny loophole in your prenuptial. Just big enough to get a worm through; at least a small worm.

Bill--Do you know any "fishing lawyers" who would check this prenuptial for possible loopholes? Surely someone who frequents this forum has a law degree.

Bruce - I got a visitor and had to preempt my earlier post. The prenuptial says household appliance for refrigeration of common food items. Assuming common means general household/kitchen. Your loophole is to buy your own used refrigerator or better yet buy your wife a new frig. ,,, and use the old one in the garage for your refreshments, bait and etc. Depending on one's definition of home or dwelling and if it does not include the garage with home/dwelling, then you can put the bait frig in the garage. If the agreement includes garage in with the home/dwelling then you will need to house the extra frig in a shed or out building. PS :: Remind your wife that shrimp, crab meat, clams or oysters from the market are included in the dreaded "invertebrates" category and the agreement has probably already been previously broken. Another taboo item that probably occurs in many wild caught fish (even from markets) more than realized is the rare incidental parasite that occassionally occur in fish flesh/fillets. These too are invertebrates and contribute to a previous violation of the agreement. Often these are very inconspicuous and always harmless when fish is cooked. Also the prenuptial does not specify dead or living invertebrates. Loopholes . Note: I realize this may not be a real serious topic/thread - LOL. All wives have to be pretty tolerant to be married to a serious fisherman.

Redworms are easily grown in a compost pile. I have them in a compost pile shared by two houses. A family that has a garden can easily generate enough kitchen/garden waste to grow tens of thousands of rapidly reproducing worms. The worms like fresh table scraps and vegetable/fruit kitchen waste on a weekly basis. They are a major part of the decay process of this fresh organic material. The major disadvantage to these worms is they are small; dia 1/8" and 2" long. The other disadvantage is one has to pick thru decomposing garbage to collect the worms. The worms are most concentrated in the half rotted garbage and ocur sparsly in the fully composed more soil like material.

I have purchased high quality, large, sized nightcrawlers from Knutson's Recreational Sales in Brooklyn MI (1-800-292-9318-MI & 800-248-9318 US&Canada). They do not have a web site. They are primarily a bait and tackle wholesaler but do have a retail store. I have a wholesale account with them. You can get 1000 worms shipped to you for $48.00 plus shipping; not sure of ship costs to your location. 500 nightcrawlers=$27 and 2000= $94.00. You need a vendor's license.

Personally from my experience, I would scrap your idea to get these 15 older redears onto artificial feed; unless you currently need a real personal challenge. By the way - did the Ridgeview Fin Farm send you a reply to your email request? Just curious. (R.FinFarm will have 6"-7" feed trained eadears by spring). If you can get your 15 redears on feed, their offspring will also be fairly difficult to get habituated to feed. I think you will be much farther ahead if you start with either feed trained fingerlings / juvenile fish or try and train some 2" fingerlings yourself. Smaller fish train to feed much easier than older fish. I have learned that some older stubborn fish, even as small as 3", will starve rather than eat pellets. I currently have a few "stubborn" starving, perch in a cage with plump, growing, pellet, eating siblings. Training older redears will be quite difficult and very expensive in worm money and time as you are discovering. By the time you are done, these fish if trained will be worth about $20 to $50 each. The thing that I think will help you get your existing redears to eat pellets is to first soften the pellets and individually roll them so they are shaped like a Physa snail and sink along with decending worm pieces. Since your fish are not currently eating your pellets, these fish have already "learned" or have been conditioned to ignore normal hard floating-sinking pellets. As I see it at this point, using softened pellets will be your simplest and quickest solution to training them to eat fish food if in reality they are "trainable".

It looks as though I've been saved from my prenuptial by your keen legal
mind!!

Ridgeview FinFarm hasn't called back but I hope to hook up with them at some
point.

Knutson's Recreational Sales sounds like the best deal yet for night
crawlers. They'll be hearing from me this week.

My time and effort feed training the redears is made easier by the fact that
there are several dozen male bluegill with a wR of about 120 waiting to
vacuum up the excess food items. If I get good footage on the camcorder
maybe you would like to see it. Following is the website that should allow you to see a 910g bluegill caught this summer by my daughter.

http://www.bizfunctional.com/wipers/gallery/PhotoView.asp?PName=bluegill_003

Dandy bluegill! No wonder your daughter is smiling. I also see you are teaching her how to best hold a fish for photos.

No reply from the FinFarn does not suprise me, he is way too busy. I asked him to copy me with any of the info he sent you. He may not reply. Sometimes he is hesitant to share his knowledge esp to strangers.

At Knutson's, I take my own container when I get worms. They may want to charge you a couple dollars for the insulated shipping container.

Bruce - placing several sets of tomato plants in your worm box may provide some "cover" for your clandestine operation, but will necessitate a lamp of some sort to provide some legitimacy to the hoax (which may also benefit the underlying "crop").

Surely the little lady would welcome the thought of fresh tomatoes - though they aren't likely to materialize. But, she'll really appreciate your "effort".

I've got a better chance with your tomato plant ruse than the rabbit manure gambit suggested by Norm Kopecky.

Bruce, at one time I raised a bunch of earth worms. There is no way to raise a small bunch of worms. They are so prolific that you would swear that someone is feeding them Viagra and Spanish Fly. My container was an old metal Army wall locker filled with 80/20 mix of composted peat moss and top soil. Then I added what a guy told me was 1,000 worms. Actually, he filled a one gallon milk container with the dirt and worms from his worm bed. Within a couple of months, I had zillions of worms. On humid nights, they crawled out and were everywhere. Place newspaper over the dirt, keep the bed a little bit moist and feed them dried manure of any kind and/or seasoned grass clippings. They also eat the newspaper. Don't use the green manure. Maggots will be everywhere and it can get pretty hot. Share the dirt and worms with your flower bed or lawn and replace the worm bed dirt. It sure beats making a compost pile.

I still believe in the worms. Thanks to Bob Koerber, I raise banana trees. Every time, I transplant a pup, I go get some earth worms and put in the dirt. The soil appears to be very healthy and I'm a believer.

Your wife and her Family Law Attorney are right on this one. Due to their traveling habits, they make lousy house pets. Also, make sure that the container can be closed. I learned that cats are always looking for outhouses. BTW, I read an article that said nobody raises Night Crawlers. They go out at night and pick them.

Interesting end to the worms. I sold the whole bunch for a truly obscene price to a couple of 60's type hippies that were going into the marijuana business. They evidently were successful worm and dope farmers. One of them called a year later to see if I would buy the worms and their progeny back. Said they needed lawyer money.

Bruce try superworms instead, much cleaner and will live 6 months

www.superwormfarm.com

I looked at the superworm website and they looked like a grub...reminiscent of waxworms? Have you used them for bait? They look tasty, if you're a fish. Definitely a no-no to keep in the house with my prenuptial agreement.

Fish love them. They are similar to a meal worm except they store at room temp. My wife will put these on a hook herself which she will not do with a regular worm. I tried raising earth worms a few years ago before I found these. Superworms are far superior raising and for fishing.

I usually order 1000 in early spring then 1000 more in the summer.