Wax Worms

Where do you guys dig for your wax warms? I dig earth worms and night crawlers in the summer but never find wax worms. Seem like everyone sells them in the winter, so they must dig them somewhere?

Thanks,
The at home Fisherman

Wax worms are a type of fly larvae. Technically they’re not worms at all and they don’t come from the ground.
I’d guess they come from a farm of sorts where they reproduce flies for the purpose of fishing bait.
Any bait shop with their weight should have them ready and waiting for you.

One source of a great ice fishing bait that you can harvest yourself is Goldenrod Grubs. They are one of the best and hardiest baits you can use for winter panfish. I use to collect a ton of them each fall and they worked great. They stay on the hook well and hold up for many fish. Its takes a decent amount of work to collect a good supply of them, but well worth it.

Wax worm are moth larvae. Spikes or maggots are blowfly larvae. Spikes hold up much better than wax worm and are easier to keep long term.

Wax worms need to be kept cool but not too cold, spikes can be kept just above freezing for months.

I’ve pulled plenty of grubs out of dead wood in the winter too. Usually going to have to be splitting it up, but no sense passing up free bait. They are typically twice the size of wax worms, but work the same.

If you can get to the plant called golden rod. In the fall if you can get the stem with the ball on it there is a little grub in the that is quite tastely to the fish. The only problem is you have to get them before the birds get them. The plant grows in groups.