Fishing worms

Okay, since starting my new venture into raising red wigglers for gathering poop... I have mentioned it to a few folks at church.... and they are asking if I am selling fishing worms..... the red wigglers are kinda small for fishing it looks to me..
Is there a way to fatten em up or should I perhaps start a seperate operation just for nightcrawlers? We live close to the Tennessee River and it might be a good way to supplement our SS income just little bit.
Then if I made it a business, I would need a name.....someone came up with Tennessee River Wigglers... and show a worm or two in hula skirts.... lol hooooboy....
I have already made an arrangement to barter a nice onion / potato bin for a pick up load of composted cow poop for my woims... that I think is a great deal and a super way to get my worm venture off to a great start....

So, my vermi friends... any thoughts and suggestions or advice.... I am open to anything y'all have to offer.

Carolyn

As far as I know there really isn't any way to fatten the composting worms up. I too thought about a venture of this sort, and did some research online through people who currently have worm businesses (never thought I'd use those 2 words in the same sentence, lol). It seems common place to market the night crawlers for bait as the wigglers are too small, and the wigglers for composting as they consume more than the night crawlers.

Hope this helps.

I think I actually read somewhere that the red wrigglers are good for bait. Because they are used to being wetter, they don't drown as easily and therefore are little more lively. I've fished for 40 odd years and night crawlers drown pretty fast. Next time I go I'll take some of my wrigglers and try a little experiment.

Juanita

Juanita, that would be grand... I don't fish anymore or I would try it myself. Just yesterday a fellow mentioned that he had gotten some "crawlers" from a local store and that they told him to keep them cool or they would die.. and he said that all the "crawlers" he has found need refrigeration... so I am thinking they are all Canadian .... so maybe the European might just be the ticket here in Tennessee.... He paid 20 Cents each for them...

Carolyn

That is so funny, I just bought a Worm Factory (got tired of cleaning the muck out of the bottom of my homemade bin) and I read about a recipe to fatten them up for fishing:

5 parts chicken layer mash
2 parts wheat or rice bran
1 part agricultural lime
1 part wheat flour
1 part powdered milk

Mix together and put a handful every day on the top of the pile or mix with the regular food. It will take several days to fatten the worms.

I know they love cornmeal and coffee grounds - my kids get whole coffee beans and grind them up at their houses. I'm not a coffee drinker so they bring their own to my house, gourmet brand of course. Well since they do it every time they come and they come here often, I usually find expired beans in my freezer. I grind them up in the food processor with cornmeal and freeze it and add a handful to the worm bin every so often. The worms seem to really like it and I think it makes them eat the food scraps faster. Kind of like worm treats - I give them extra when I am going through the bin and scooping the muck out which makes them a little anxious.

Just wanted to add that my worms came from a rabbit farm, they lived in the manure pile and they were pretty big and fat, about 5" long and almost fat as a pencil.. My bin is pretty small, so the eventual generations got smaller until the biggest they get now is about 3". So I would say to get bigger worms, you would need a big bin.

I got the worm factory too recently for the same reasons. So far I really like it. It is easy to harvest from. I just take an extra bin and scoop a little "stuff" from the working bin into it. Then I shake it over a few sheets of newspaper, kind of like a sieve, and pick up any stragglers that escape. It works terrific.!

Juanita

Could you not use a kitchen sieve to seperate the castings from the worms?? Just a thought...

Carolyn

Carolyn I actually tried that at one time. I have an old one I use for rinsing the stones in the betta bowl. The mesh was too fine. In the worm factory bins the bottoms have this nice gridwork about 1/4 inch square. It works great.

Juanita

Does anyone know of a source of good ol' Southern or Louisiana-Texas Nightcrawlers that don't need to be so cool? I want to make a paper-manure-coffee grounds (and other good stuff) bed under a sick Oak tree to aireate the hardpan soil and hopefully restore the tree to health.