Nightcrawler Hunting and Vermiculture question

[annanicole18]

Have to say with it being so late in the year i didn't expect to see the hundreds of nightcrawlers in my backyard but seeing that they were there....Penned the goats got a flashlight and went hunting lol. Anyone else do this on occasion. Reminds me of the night before going fishing with my family if it rained real good. Don't think hubby is going to be happy that instead of making him dinner i was gathering treats for the chickens and food for our dumpys tree frog. Now i had seen some post on vermiculture recently could i use these worms i caught and have treats for the girls and dinner for the frog all year long? Thanks

 

[Rising_Phoenix]

Yes, It's not to hard to keep worms. If you have a basement like I do this is a way to keep them make a 3 ft wide by 3 Ft long by10 in. deep square box out of wood. Then get a plastic liner I used some old pond lining we had. Get some dirt from outside to fill the box, go to a place with no pesticides or fertilizer used on it and gather some old leaves and grass clippings, take some old newspapers and shred them, put the dirt, grass, leaves, and Newspaper in the box and mix it very well. Then wet the dirt and add the worms to keep them moist cover the box with an old trash bag or other material so you don't have to water as often. As a side note worms only mate when it rains so to simulate this you can water them just enough to wet the soil because other wise you will drown the little guys. You may need to feed the worms once a week I used coffee grounds and banana peels. I use to own a small mouth salamander so I needed a steady supply of worms and this design worked out great for it.

 

[annanicole18]

Thanks for the reply i have a plastic container that i made into my worm box today. We discovered that our dumpys tree frog likes worms just as much as crickets so why on earth pay 11 cent a cricket at the petstore!?! We tried the bulk cricket route when we had two anoles, a beardie, and the frog but it got stinky and we didn't use them fast enough to justify it. I read somewhere that you can feed them chicken crumbles? Neither of us drink coffee and the banana peels have always gone to the bunnies the rest of the table scraps either go to the chickens goats or dogs. But if chicken crumbles wont work then someone in the chain is going to have to make some sacrifices...lol