Crawler Bedding?

I know you can buy bedding at a reasonable price but, with all the newspaper I have to recycle I thought, why not make my own, and the crawlers are out big time for the pickn’ right now!
So after making a box and filling it with shredded paper I was wondering about the food. Do I lay my vegetable matter, egg shells and coffee ground on the top of the bedding, in the middle or just mix it all in? I was also curious if there is a formula for how many crawlers per square foot to keep them at there best and how often should I change the bedding?
Any tips will be greatly appreciated

Bret

I would like to hear some thoughts on this too. My son and I bought some Magic Worm Bedding (that’s the real name)from Wally’s World. We followed the directions and mix it with some water. After the first rain we started collecting worms from the driveway. Now after a few weeks the container really reeks. My son says it is from the worms that he broke off a chunk from and put back. He may be right as the are some dead pieces in there.

Other years I have tried dirt and other scraps and that didn’t seem to work to well. I am sure my neighbors think our family is a little nuts. We go out in the rain or right after with a light broom and dust pan to collect them. I have put many into my garden and I think they help……though the tiller must do a job on them later!

Well Bret….I looked it up in my book “Facts About Nightcrawlers,,,No angle left unturned” by George “The Worm Czar” Sroda
And it says to put 2 rows of food along each side of the box.Either directly on top or mixed in an inch down.
It also said not to mix into the bedding….the decaying food will creat heat and acids that will harm the crawlers.
If you want to borrow the book,it’s full of tips and facts – let me know….I’ll meet ya someplace……

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My son says it is from the worms that he broke off a chunk from and put back. He may be right as the are some dead pieces in there.

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Get those dead pieces out or they will kill your other crawlers!!! If a crawler breaks, it is toast and should be thrown away. Only keep lively crawlers together.

Yep, live whole crawlers are to go in the bedding. I also read that egg shells not only provide a calcium source for the crawler but, it helps keep the odor down from the vegetable matter. I’m new at the game and appreciate all the input guys
Mudshark, thanks for the book title. I will be purchasing it for my collection

Another tip…When picking crawlers that have been forced up by the rain…make sure that it’s alive and healthy looking…….some of them drown and are dead ..they decay real quick!!
Make sure the bedding is not too wet also.

Corn Meal makes for a few more bedding changes but the crawlers LOVE it. It is the only stuff that I use They spray everywhere when stuck with a hook

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Mudshark, thanks for the book title. I will be purchasing it for my collection

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Anytime Bret The book is a promotional deal for the Magic Worm Co. But it has abunch of info anyway,
Just looked at Amazon and they had a couple for $1.25 up to $10

i use to raise night crawlers, and picking them up from your driveway and off the road or out of the gutters is a bad thing. the gases and oils from the cars are on the worms and will poison them. also if you break a worm don’t keep it, in the wild only the front 1/2 will live. if you want to keep the ones off the road or driveway keep them in a separate container.

I tried my hand at keeping crawlers and found it more trouble than it was worth. I had one of those small bedding boxes. They say be careful with the food because if you over feed them, they’ll get sores and die off. That’s what happened to mine I think. For me when I had a yard that was full of crawlers, it was just easier picking them as I needed them. If I had left overs they would go in just normal dirt and into the basement fridge where they’d keep for weeks. The only time it was hard harvesting them was during excessive dry periods or the heat of the summer. Otherwise we could force them up by soaking a small area in broad daylight. I hope those new to it have better luck than I did.

My brother keeps crawlers in a 5 gallon pail at his cabin. He usually has the soil more than just damp and yet those things will last the whole season.

Bret I have found that just shredded news paper will hold crawlers for a long period of time. Make sure it is damp not soaking wet, and keep in a cool place. Watch what you feed them as they will get heated from certain things. And also go through them about every 3 days to a week at least and pick out the dead and the weak.
I had a bait shop for years and took my news papers to the feed mill across the street from me to grind for my bedding. Worked better than any commercial stuff. Never had to feed them either.
Good luck

The Frabill bedding is estensially shredded paper and they also carry crawler food that is a finely ground corn meal. I can keep more than a flat all summer and rarely have many die.

Terry Hagstrom
Terry’s Guide Service

I always thought that coffee grounds seemed kind of funny to feed the crawlers, I picked up a couple dozen a few weeks ago, mixed dirt and grass clippings then put a covering of grounds on top, looked in there a few days later and they had gone through and cleared up the grounds. So I got to thinking about an advertising campaign. We use fully caffinated grounds, not decaf, so our crawlers work harder and get out of bed earlier.

Use shredded corrugated cardboard and some shredded news paper, that’s it, no need to add any food. The glue used to hold the cardboard together is all the feed they need and will last for weeks, there is cornstarch right in the glue. Get the card board and paper damp, not dripping, doesn’t take much water. Once the cardboard starts to break down replenish it. That’s it, seems to simple but that’s all you need.

BIRDDOG

When I pick crawlers, I just toss them into my compost bin, which is basically an 8 foot square box with an open top. I throw in all of our compostable garbage layered with dirt. The crawlers help break things down more quickly. When I need a few ceawlers for fishing, I just dig down about a foot and get all I need. They stay very healthy in there.