Raising Worms?

[RedSidedSPR]

I caught 20 or so earthworms (I LOVE VA!!:D) very surprised since i have so much trouble down in NC... plus it hasn't rained in forever..

I' can prob catch more tomorrow... want as many as i can before i leave

anyway, how do you care for them, raise/breed them (if i choose to do it)?

What is a good bedding? Right now they're in the dirt i found them in. (i made it damp)

And what do i feed them? I want them to be nice and nutritious before harvest time :D


And yes, my baby ate one. First worm he's eaten.

It was one of the pale ones Steve likes... but for some reason i only have found a few of those. Yo, Steve, do you do anything different to find them, than you do earthworms/nightcrawlers?

[guidofatherof5]

The pale-nosed worms are hard to keep in my opinion.
I've never tried to raise them or keep them for any long period of time.
I use them right up.
I don't think they go every deep in the soil(top 3 inches)
I wish I could raise them.
Congrats on your snake eating.

[d_virginiana]

I've only raised nightcrawlers, but peat works as a good bedding. There's other brand name stuff especially for worms, but peat works fine. You moisten the soil, put their food on top, and cover it with damp newspaper (this should be in a solid tupper ware container) and close the top and leave it in a cool area like a basement. They should start reproducing pretty quickly. For food, you can use pretty much anything, but to avoid mold it's better to give them a brand name worm food. It's pretty cheap, and sort of similar to reptile vitamin supplements. idk if that'll work for the type of worms you have, but I hope it helps! :)

[RedSidedSPR]

It did help thanks guys. that's probab;y all i need to know.


If anyone else knows additional info...

[RedSidedSPR]

Where can i find worm food?

[ConcinusMan]

Look under your feet when you're outside.:p

[snakehill]

Google it. I've had my worms for a few months (started collecting them before I got my snake) I have them in a tupperware container with a few inches of the dirt I found them in. I have a few flat rocks and a little log along with some moss in the container. They eat oatmeal and coffee grounds(not sure if thats good for the snakes or not though.) Make sure you keep it moist but don't soak it or the oatmeal will get moldy. They need to be kept in a dark place also. I haven't lost one yet.

[RedSidedSPR]

Thanks. I'm sure the oatmeal and coffee does nothing for the snake, other than keep him awake. ;) But if it keeps the worms alive that's good for now,

I have googled. But I wanted the GARTER KEEPER APPROACH. :D

[snakehill]

Maybe I should give up trying to raise a baby garter and just raise worms instead lol:D

[RedSidedSPR]

lol, don't give up, he'll eat.

[kibakiba]

I raised worms for a while, they died out when my mom dampened the soil too much unfortunately. What I fed them was any left over organic fruit/veggy pieces that had been cut up and lightly sprinkled it on the top of the newspaper and peat that they were in. I also added an eighth of a teaspoon of my calcium powder per 24 worms. They seriously go crazy for it. It's usually gone within a day. It also makes it so you don't have to add as much calcium to worms, since they already have it.

[RedSidedSPR]

Thanks! I'll try that. You mean reptile supps as the vit powder?

[kibakiba]

You could use that if you wanted to, they seem to go for the calcium more than anything else. Oh, and crushed/powdered egg shells and bone meal are also EXTREMELY worth the cost. Egg power doesn't cost anything, you just crush the eggs to a fine powder. Bone meal is about 15 dollars for a pound of it. You only need a very light sprinkle of it to drive the worms crazy ;)

[d_virginiana]

I'm not really sure you can change the nutrition value of worms like you can crickets and other feeders (not for garters obviously, lol). Like, when I gutload my frog's crickets with carrots their poo turns orange and eating them brings out his yellow and orange markings, and also if they've eaten high calcium diets, they don't need to be dusted with supplements. I've never heard of anyone gutloading worms for vitamins/minerals before, so I don't think there'd be any real difference as long as you don't feed them anything toxic :)

[RedSidedSPR]

it helps i think... makes them more healthy. but i agree. Not to worried about feeding them like that.

That's cool about your frog.

[kibakiba]

Well, with the calcium powder when the worms eat it, they get a bunch of white poop. So you can technically gutload them. I do it all the time.

[RedSidedSPR]

i definitely want to use calcium. What do you use?

[ConcinusMan]

I'm not really sure you can change the nutrition value of worms like you can crickets

Sure you can. Most of the calcium found in worms is in the lower half of their digestive tract. Worm castings have many times the calcium of the surrounding earth they live in.


i definitely want to use calcium. What do you use?

People tend to forget that calcium does absolutely no good, and cannot be absorbed if it doesn't also come with the proper ratio of vitamin D and phosphorus, both of which can be overused to the point of overdose.

Unless you're raising rapidly growing babies it's not really necessary to supplement and even then, it's best if you use a product formulated for reptiles such as reptical, and use it very sparingly. Personally, I've never had to use any supplements if the snakes eat plenty of fish and worms, preferably whole fish, and pinkies (or parts) occasionally.

Problems arising from deficiencies really only happen when one continuously feeds a deficient food such as fillet only, over a long period of time. I see problems arising from over supplementing much more often.

Simply raising worms in rich leaf compost and sprinkling lightly with reptical once every couple of months at feeding time, really is enough.

[kibakiba]

I use a calcium and D3 supp. I don't have it near me, but I think it might have been flukers, or something.

[RedSidedSPR]

Ok... so i buy "leaf compost" and supp when i feed every month...cool. Thanks.

[ConcinusMan]

No, don't buy it. Collect it from very old composted (fully or nearly fully decomposed) leaf piles, create it, or purchase food/bedding especially intended for earthworms/night crawlers. Purchased compost has been sterilized. That's not what earthworms need. They need the live organisms in the dirt/compost. And this reminds me, all this talk of feeding worms oatmeal, organic fruit/veggy pieces, coffee, etc. is all wrong. If we were talking about red wigglers or other composting worms, that would be fine but earthworms do not create compost from these scraps. Putting things like that in with them only invites bacteria and mold, and will likely do nothing but kill earthworms and that's probably why Chantel is having problems with dead worms.

They eat material that is already composted and fully broken down by compost worms, bacteria, mold, etc.. They eat rich earth and that is why they call them earthworms. They don't actually do any composting, and don't tolerate rotting things in their food/containers. If you want to create compost for feeding it to earthworms, then go ahead a create a compost pile and put all those things in there along with plenty of leaf litter, but let compost worms and bacteria do all the work. The rich, dark, musty smelling dirt that this stuff becomes after it has been fully broken down by time and other organisms, is what earthworms/night crawlers eat.

[RedSidedSPR]

OK... good to know. lol cause i sure as hell wouldn't have known that from the freakin websites.

So (this'll sound dumb) how do i make the compost?

[ConcinusMan]

It doesn't happen overnight, I can tell you that. A nice rich compost that can support earthworms can take several seasons to create.

http://www.howtocompost.org/info/info_composting.asp

[RedSidedSPR]

oh... thanks :D

[d_virginiana]

OK... good to know. lol cause i sure as hell wouldn't have known that from the freakin websites.

So (this'll sound dumb) how do i make the compost?


We used peat for our worm beds, and it worked pretty good. Though I remember it took us forever to find a brand that was organic and oriented toward vermicomposting... But we also gave them worm food, so idk if that type of soil would be enough without it?

[RedSidedSPR]

idk either...

[snakehill]

I don't know. have been feeding my earthworms coffee grounds for the past few months. That was what was recommended by the worm sites.I did stop feeding the oatmeal because of a mold problem though. They seem to be thriving and I haven't lost one yet. I did notice that they buzz around the container alot though,lol. :D

[RedSidedSPR]

thats what i'm afraid of :D

Not really, i don't want to feed coffee because that would do nothing for the snakes

[snakehill]

I'll have to google "the effects of caffeine on earthworms" lol.

[kibakiba]

I actually found that my floppy worms got really buff when I fed them coffee. It was like a wormy steroid. They seemed very healthy after that. I didn't like having floppy worms, but I do keep them for at least a week in my own mixture of stuff before I feed them. If they die, I'm happy because they weren't fit to eat in the first place, if they remain floppy and mostly lifeless, I keep them for at least a week longer, and if they're strong (and I mean all of them, not just one) I feed them to my snakes.

[RedSidedSPR]

ok... i just want the best (and easiest) way to keep them alive and healthy till harvest time :D

[ConcinusMan]

How to Make a Nightcrawler Bin | eHow.com (http://www.ehow.com/how_8632235_make-nightcrawler-bin.html)