Raising European Nightcrawlers

Cool video. Do you have part II yet of the video?

hehe! Not yet! The worms won’t ship until Monday. Which means they won’t be here until next week this time. It’s always tricky when shipping live animals like that.

I ordered worms once before and they sat in the Post Office and rotted, the Post Master had a few choice words for me. Fortunately the company. The best thing is to let them deliver to a friend’s house or take a the day off or something where you know you’ll be at home on the day of delivery.

Maybe I should do a how to buy worms online.

Are Earthworms an invasive species?

Food for thought or stir the pot?

I’m not raising true soil-dwelling earthworms. I’m raising composting worms that only live in and inhabit the leave layer. European nightcralwers (Eisenia hortensis) don’t burrow down into the soil. They won’t even survive in your garden. That’s why I bought them.

Worms like Alabama Jumpers (Amynthus Gracilus) and Canadian nightcrawlers (Lumbricus terrestris) are true soil-dwelling worm that won’t survive in a compost pile. Completely different animals.

Wasn’t trying to take a shot at you Damon. Just found it interesting since I had recently read about this topic & then saw your post.
I have seen other articles claiming all earthworms are invasive. Especially in Minnesota. It surprised me to learn that some people believe all earthworms are invasive. I’ve used them for bait many, many times in my youth.

Damon wrote:

I ordered worms once before and they sat in the Post Office and rotted, the Post Master had a few choice words for me. Fortunately the company. The best thing is to let them deliver to a friend’s house or take a the day off or something where you know you’ll be at home on the day of delivery.

Maybe I should do a how to buy worms online.

That might be a good idea to do a how to order off line. Did you ever consider that the postal system doesn’t know what they are delivering? Just a thought?

Good idea if it’s important and perishable to have the bases covered.

Now with the few comments made, Damon what do you use these for for fishing?
Panfish? Or something else?
Thanks for your post!

bullcans, I use them for fishing, use the poop for soil conditioner and fertilizer. As far as fishing I use them to catch anything that will bite.

Joel, sorry. I got the wrong impression. After years of gardening and farming, the benefit they give the farm, I say let the invade all they want.

riverruns, yes, I’ve ordered worms many times online. Only once did they die. You have to consider the time of year. There’s a reason this video is shot in Feb-March and not in December or July.

The one time they died was when I requested they hold the worms at the Post Office. I missed the delivery notice by a couple hours before work. The next time I had them delivered to a lady freind’s house where I instructed she open the worms immedieately to let them cool off.

Farmers around here order spring chickens through the Post Office all the time, so down here the Post Office does know that this time of year in the rural area in which I live farmers and outdoorsmen do ship live animals and are quick to deliver.

That’s not to mention that every baitshop in existence had to have the worms shipped across country via truck to their store, often through the Post Office.

I’ve ordered mealworms that same way. It’s a different culture down here, river.

Thanks Damon, another great video. I’ve used red wigglers for composting in the past, but they are a bit small for bait for most fish. I’ve totally switched over to composting using black soldier flies (Hermetia). I never realized you could use this size of worm for composting? I might need to order some for walleye bait, I have 4 worm bins going unused.

Do you ever have problems with the Hermetia compost and the European noghtcrawlers? I know I had a number of bins of wigglers infested with flies at one point and they suffered.

We used to get boxes with 50-100 rockX chickens each spring. The folks at post office loved the peeping boxes!

I don’t know, but I’ve read that black soldier flies and worms get along well, that you can raise them together. I’ll be finding out soon enough!

Do you actually get the crawlers to reproduce and increase in #’s? Or, do they just grow a bit bigger and get used up eventually? The red wigglers reproduced pretty quick once they got established.

Yes, euros reproduce and multiply to fill the earth.

Here’s part II

Great video…You talked about Canadian nightcrawlers – are they the same as European nightcrawlers? Also, once your farm gets established how fast will they reproduce?

The British are coming ????

kwp, na. They are completely different animals. Canadian nightcrawlers (Lumbricus terrestris) are soil-dwelling worms. European nightcralwers (Eisenia hortensis) are compost-dwelling worms. They only stay in the leaves and decaying matter. They can’t burrow down into the soil.