Nightcrawlers

[Selkielass]

Steve, here in Iowa do we have red wigglers? Where do the wigglers call home. I feed my W/C night crawlers right from the yard. I find some about the size that two to three of them would make that nice little belly bulge (not to much) and place them in live and crawling. She eats them right up. Now that she has had her second shed and getting bigger, I tried on Friday when I feed her to set in 5 versus the normal 2/3. She ate 4 of the worms like it was nothing, I think her appetite is getting bigger.

I have read that they are from china.
In Michigan all earthworms are introduced species. Glaciers wiped the area clear and it remained so until màn interfered.

Has anyone here 'fiddled' or 'grunted' for crawlers? Seen some cool videos but I've never seen it in person.

[InsanePirateDragon]

I've heard of it, but I never done in real life though. I have my red flashlight for that though, its how you usually do it out here and you can usually get quite a few that way.

Of course Marley won't touch the wild worms and prefers his from the bait stores, which are probably wild caught to begin with.

[EasternGirl]

Grunted or fiddled? What do you mean by that? I want to try the red flashlight trick this summer. I do know that my neighbors must think I'm crazy by now because I can often be seen in the summer when it's raining...out in my backyard creeping like a cat and then jumping up and down cursing at the worms when they always seem to know I'm coming and quickly retreat back into their holes at lightening speeds before I can catch them. Ha ha...it must look really nuts to people if they don't know what's going on...or, actually, even if they did know I was hunting worms!

[InsanePirateDragon]

Grunting involves a stake and a file sort of iron.

You pound the stake into the ground a bit, then you rub the top of the stake to cause the ground to vibrate to cause the worms to come to the surface.

To Get Worms Out of Soil, Just Grunt - YouTube

[EasternGirl]

Cool...I think I will try the red flashlight first. My neighbors might call the "men in white jackets" to come and get me if they see me out in my yard pounding stakes and then jumping for joy when I catch a big nightcrawler!

[Selkielass]

I've picked crawlers with an ordinary flashlight, never a red one.
A. Car battery attached by jumper cables to metal stakes driven into wet earth will also drive worms, but they wont be very healthy- use them up immediately.

[EasternGirl]

Dear lord! My neighbors would definitely call the cops if they saw me doing that! My family might actually call the looney bin if they saw me trying that one. Knowing me, I would some how manage to electrocute myself!

[Selkielass]

How to Catch Worms With a Car Battery | eHow.com

[InsanePirateDragon]

The.red light might be a country thing, but it doesn't startle the worms that bad.

I've never used a battery personally or seen it used.

[Steveo]

I used to catch nightcrawlers in the back yard when I was a kid, but now that I'm supposed to be an adult I pretend to have some dignity and buy them at the store It also helps that we don't get much rain in Denver. I just used a regular flashlight, which works pretty well as long as you don't point it right at the worm.