Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Worms not reproducing

I bought Eurocrawlers form a site mentioned here somewhere in a post (wormguys i think)and they're thriving (huge fat and lively) but not reproducing. Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong?

(it's been 3 months by the way)

Tom,

First of all, welcome to Pond Boss. I apologize that no one answered this question before this. I guess my friends were waiting for me. Over the years I've somehow been nominated as the chief worm dude and roadkill head chef.

I gather from your profile that you are up at the Soo. My first question would be -- why raise European night crawlers? I've got to believe that if you are in town, or have access to yards and parks in town, you could go out on a cool rainy night, and get more "Canadian" night crawlers than you could carry. I believe a large percentage of the "Canadian Night Crawlers" sold in the eastern US come from near you, the Houton-Hancock area, Northern Wisconsin, and Northern Minnesota.

If you could pick a bucketful one evening, you could easily keep a washtub full of them in the basement all year long, as long as you feed them. In your area, they could be kept in a tub in the shade for most of the summer. With several feedings of kitchen scraps and coffee grounds per week, they won't reproduce, but they won't shrink either.

When we were pre-teens and teenagers, my cousin and I picked and sold thousands and thousands of night crawlers to fishermen traveling US Route 2. As 12-year-olds, we could each pick a bucket full of crawlers in a few hours.

I figure I have about 58 years of worm catching and keeping experience. I don't know much about European Night Crawlers. I do know that my computer virus protection won't let me go to most of the sites that sell them. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it certainly makes me suspect.

Earthworms are not native to northern North America. The earthworms were all wiped out by the glaciers that scraped North America to the bedrock. The earth worms we now have in the northern parts of the continent were brought here from the dirt packing the roots of plants and trees that our grandparents brought from their Mediterranean, European, and Scandinavian homes when they emigrated. We now catch and fish with the decedents of the true European night crawlers that thrived from our grandparents.

As for three months, if your worms were happy and reproducing, you should have seen results by now. You should have thousands of small worms and eggs. The eggs look like tiny green seedless grapes. If not, they may be worms that won't reproduce in captivity. I"m assuming you are feeding them plenty of fresh non-meat food, like potato peels, lettuce scraps, coffee grounds, stale bread, etc. No citrus or tomatoes -- too acidic.

If that doesn't work, and if you can't get natural night crawlers, I'd head to the local bait shop and buy several cartons of just plain old "red wigglers."

Good luck,
Ken

Cat -

Your post clearly shows why you have been nominated "chief worm dude."
Thanks

- Russ

He prefers the term Worm Czar.

It is actually "Dr. Worm" to my friends -- but, I'm not so egotistical that you can't call me . . . .

But, I can handle criticism!



Where is Sunil when I need him??!!??

Dr. Worm sounds more like a....

....never mind, I can't think of a way to finish my post without getting moderated.

It's the "roadkill head chef" that concerns me...

But hey---my husband may just have you beat. He drives lots of country roads for his job, and a few weeks ago, he saw a big old bullfrog about to cross the road. He was going to stop and put it in a bucket and bring it home for the pond. Well, the frog had other intentions and jumped in the truck's path.

Needless to say, we had frog legs for dinner that night.

All right! A man after my own heart.

We'll probably be driving to Edmond, OK after the next Pond Boss conference. Last year when we did that, we saw a lot of really good roadkill between Branson, MO and OK City. We didn't dare pick it up, as our older son and his wife don't have an appreciation for some of my recipes.

How far are you from the OK City area? Maybe we can enjoy an exotic recipe together. I'll bring the meat.

Ken

Ken,

We're about 90 minutes NW of Edmond. Nobody ever comes here purposely...they are either lost or passing through on their way to somewhere else.

But if you make it up this way, we'll pass on the road kill. DH raises a few head of cattle, so we could throw a T-bone on the grill instead.