Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help HOW TO START A WORM BED

HOW DO YOU START A WORM BED? I WOULD LIKE TO RAISE SOME FOR FISHING.

Tony, I used to have one. As I recall, I used about 1/4 peat moss for moisture retention and 3/4 topsoil. It doesn't hurt to mix in some manure as long as it isn't too green. Put the worms in, lay newspapers on top of the dirt, and stand back. They are prolific.

BTW, don't buy that junk about letting them dispose of your household garbage. Thats a good way to have a maggot farm. Its ok to toss coffee grounds, corn meal and stuff lie that in. Put it in rows. They will eat it and also the moistened newspaper. Put a lid on it to keep vermin, varmits and cats with bowel problems out. Keep them semi-moist.

when i go fishing, the fish hate nightclawlers , never get anything, they love redworms , i put bunch of flat rocks by some trees, flip them over, plenty of bait, there allways there. just and idea.

I recently saw an article in the WSJ that talked about how regular earthworms had found a place in the ecosystem where they were essentially destroying low lying fauna in woodlands in the mid-west thus effecting the habitat of critters that live there (most probable introduced by fisherman disposing of unused bait). After introducing them, there seemed to be no way to control the population.

Just something to look into if you're putting a worm bed on your property.

One warning. Worms can not live in water. They drown. Don't build a worm bed that can be flooded by rain.

Can you overwinter an above ground worm bed or will they freeze? I'm in Texas.

You will have no problems in the winter in Hico. I had mine in an old, metal military wall locker on cinder blocks. On super humid Spring days, hundreds of them will crawl out. No sweat. There will be thousands of them left. Those suckers are tough and prolific; at least earthworms are. Texas is too hot for nightcrawlers.

I have a 16' by 16' by 4' fenced in area with shade cloth on the inside that I grind all my leaves (lots) every fall and put in there. I also get kitchen scraps such as coffee grounds and leftover parts of veggies. It is loaded with worms and they over winter fine here in North Alabama you can actually see steam coming off the compost pile on cold mornings. I made it to get rid of the leaves but now the girls have a place to get worms to go fishing.

Your topic gave me an idea. I think I will try to establish a good population of nightcrawlers on my island...