Nightcrawlers

[WV Sawmiller]

   I grew up in NW Fla and never saw a night crawler in the wild till I got to WV. We had wigglers and a little further south of us they had earthworms that people fiddled or grunted (vibrated) out of the ground.

   Here we have plenty of nightcrawlers especially after a good soaking rain in warmer weather. It has been so dry here I have not been able to catch any and even digging for them was hard. Yesterday we had a long slow shower. The ground is far from soaked but a few worms are coming out. My mom is coming out next week and staying a while. I hope to take her to go catfishing. She loves to see a green limb shaking with a big catfish on a bushhook. I went out tonight to catch nightcrawlers to use to catch my live bait. It was far from a great night but I caught about 40 or so. If I can keep them alive that will be more than we need as I often catch 40-50 little bream on one decent worm cut into 3/4" pieces and threaded on to a #10 cricket hook. The little fish will bite as long as there is even a piece of a worm shell on the hook.

    Catching nightcrawlers takes some finesse. First you need a dim light as a bright light chases them back into the ground. You need to walk slowly as vibrations scare them underground. They always have a tail in the ground and can slurp back in amazingly fast. Scan the ground slowly looking for a worm shape but the first indicator is usually movement and shine. You seldom see the end so when I see one I pin it down in the middle of the exposed portion with my index finger. I hold it down till I see the head moving and can see which end is in the hole. Next I pin the worm right  at and against the side of the hole and get a firm grip on the head/body and keep pressure on till he comes out of the ground. Pulling too fast will result in a broken worm. If you touch a blade of grass beside the worm he will scoot back underground. You still miss a few and some slip out of your grip no matter how hard you try. Sometimes what looks like a really small skinny worm actually turns out to be a big worm that was stretched way out.

   I guess I caught about 40 or so in nearly an hour which is a pretty slow night compared to a really good warm night after a good soaking rain. Now I just need to keep them alive for a couple of weeks. If we get a better night I may go catch some more.

   Catching worms is one of those things that is a lot of fun to do with small kids. The biggest mistake most people make is to try to just grab the worm. The key to successful worm catching is to pin then pull.


 
A little hard to see but this is a 1 gallon bucket and the worms are in a sawdust dirt mixture. Some are the size of a pencil.

[ReggieT]

Night-crawlers go over big in my region...now if I just could get some time to catch them & a mess of fresh fish!

[WV Sawmiller]

Reggie,

   My BIL lives there in Birmingham and my wife grew up in Cullman. They never mentioned nightcrawlers although my wife did talk about "fiddle worms" (earthworms I suspect) they'd vibrate up by sawing off a small tree then using the handsaw to vibrate through the roots and worms would come up several feet away. I think the soil was too sandy where I grew up for many nightcrawlers.

   Hope you find the time to go fishing soon and catch a mess of big ones.

[crtreedude]

Something interesting is that night-crawlers are not indigenous to North America, in fact, we don't have them in the tropics. They are an exotic I do believe from Europe. I think the red-worm is indigenous.

When I lived in NY, I used to collect them at night and discovered what else eats night-crawlers. As I was grabbing one after another in my garden, I heard something in front of me, and looked up - and there about 3 feet from me was a skunk, scarfing up worms. I slowly backed out of the garden and left him the spoils of battle...  :D

[Onthesauk]

My grandfather had a spot behind the garden where he would dump all his coffee grounds and spade it under occasionally.  Use to be full of nightcrawlers whenever he went fishing.

[gww]

I always had my best luck in town at night on sidewalks.  Easy pickens.
gww

[Raider Bill]

We used to pick them and sell for .02 each for spending money when we were kids.
I also had 2 18" steel points I would stick in the ground about 3-4 ft  apart attached to a extension cord. I'd spray the area with water then plug them in. Worms would about run out of the ground during the day.
Got tickled more than once. In hindsight that may explain alot..

[thecfarm]

We use to flip over cow flaps,that's a good country word.  ;D They had to be on the dry side to flip them over and find the night crawelers under them.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I wonder how many different types of worms we are actually talking about in this thread? Wigglers (red and black), red worms, night crawlers and Earthworms are all different kinds of worms.

   We used to dump coffee grounds and such where our washing machine drained and I'd dig up wigglers there. Some people raised beds of red worms - building and putting worm beds under rabbit hutches was common and productive. Vibrating and shocking up earthworms was common south of us in and around the Blountstown and Two Egg Fla area. I think the State of Fla and timber companies lease worm grunting rights out down there and it is a sizeable industry.

    The ones we have here come out at night and sometimes after a heavy rain during the day. They are the ones you see robins doing a tug-of-war with sometimes which is a real sight. If the robin ever loses his grip on the nightcrawler it escapes. Nightcrawlers  have a flat spot on their tail for their gripping characteristics I gather. Earthworms exude a milky slime that is hard to get off and a tougher bodied than the others. You can actually hear nighcrawlers slurping back into the ground as you walk on a damp quiet night.

   For sizes the ones I have seen and used rank from largest to smallest: Earthworms, nightcrawlers, wigglers then red worms.

    Wigglers are by far the most active with earthworms the most lethargic and red worms and nighcrawlers in between.

[Raider Bill]

These were nightcrawlers. Stretched out some could get 8-10 inches long. They'd also come out on the streets after a good rain.

[WV Sawmiller]

These were nightcrawlers. Stretched out some could get 8-10 inches long. They'd also come out on the streets after a good rain.

The biggest nightcrawlers in the picture will be that long too. I have never been able to collect them for bait on a road or sidewalk but have seen them crawl up there like that and can see where that would work. On a trip to Dixie County Fla one time I remember seeing the big brown mole crickets around a gas station at night there and thought the same thing - this would be the perfect place to collect them for fish bait.

[ReggieT]

Reggie,

   My BIL lives there in Birmingham and my wife grew up in Cullman. They never mentioned nightcrawlers although my wife did talk about "fiddle worms" (earthworms I suspect) they'd vibrate up by sawing off a small tree then using the handsaw to vibrate through the roots and worms would come up several feet away. I think the soil was too sandy where I grew up for many nightcrawlers.

   Hope you find the time to go fishing soon and catch a mess of big ones.

Yep...very familiar with both. When I was younger my brother & I would catch everything from large-mouth bass . huge bream and big catfish on fiddle worms.
Now the fiddle-worm peddlers are rare...I haven't had a box of fiddle worms in 15 yrs I bet.
Never tried to raise em via the fiddle or electrical method...hmmm?? :P :D
Night-crawlers, even the nuclear dyed green ones are everywhere these day.

[coxy]

has anyone ever dug water worms   we use them for ice fishing also the crappies go nuts over them

[thecfarm]

Water worms?? Is that like calling all trees that has needles pine trees?  :D Might be a region slang word. Latin names are better.  :D

[coxy]

you dig them in old beaver dams and spring runs  they are light gray to jet black some get the size of a pen and 1/4-1/2in long but most look like a maggot on steroids you make a net with small wire(not window screen its to small) about 12x12  square or a little bigger take a tater digger start digging and the net will get them when the float down stream   

[thecfarm]

coxy,never heard of them. Or seen them.

[Ianab]

There is a NZ species of earthworm that can grow to ~4ft long. Just a regular worm, but jumbo size.

The local one that live in undisturbed forest soil might be 12-18" long, but in fields / gardens you get the regular sized ones.

Interestingly enough there is a tiny nematode worm from NZ that preys on earthworms. But the local worms have natural deferences against them. The  nematodes got introduced into the UK with some imported plants many years ago, and started wiping out local earthworms (like the recent topic about introduced pests) and that started affecting soil fertility in their fields.

Solution was to import some regular NZ earthworms and reseed with the resistant worms. 

[Kbeitz]

In Georgia it was called  worm grunting or grubbin.
You would pound a broom stick in the ground and
take a brick and rub the top of the stick. The vibrations
would tickle the worms out of the ground.

[SwampDonkey]

A good rain will have the driveway crawling. But we always had easy digging for worms in the garden and especially in under raspberry canes. The soil would be all covered in round peds on the surface from earthworm works under raspberries. Never fished with them a whole lot except early spring. Most large streams here that had any inkling of a salmon, you was only allowed to use artificial fly. And when I trout fished on the shallow lakes in central New Brunswick we only used flies. After awhile the hook was bare and they kept on biting. The water boiled with brook trout. ;D :D

When we still had lots of deer, those lakes and dead waters had nice deer paths to walk on through neck high heaths. The good old days. ;D

[kiko]

I know where Two Egg is,  just north of Sneads. 

[WV Sawmiller]

I know where Two Egg is,  just north of Sneads. 

   Yes, I understand they have a street festival or such there in Two Egg where the have a worm grunting contest and a possum beauty contest every year.

   When I think of Sneads I remember heading home to Escambia County Thanksgiving Day 1981 for my grandfather's funeral and my wife was driving from us Parris Island. I was in the back of the camper with a 1 & 3 year old. I told her when she took over driving to fill up in Homerville Ga and I woke up when she pulled off the highway at I-10 south of Chatahoochee. She opened the camper top and asked "How far can you go when its on E?" (This is at 4:00 A.M on Thanksgiving morning). I told her not very far and asked if she was out. She said no but the needle wasn't moving any more. I asked her why she didn't fill up in Homerville and she said "We had a half tank then" and I told her there was nothing open after that and she said "I know that now". I took over driving and we got back on Hwy 90 and topped the hill above the Jim Woodruff Dam south of Chatahoochee and the truck died and coasted half a mile till it ran out on the military crest of a small hill. When it died my wife said "I'm sure glad you were driving, I've never run out of gas." I told her "You're the one who passed the last open gas station!" I left them (wife, 2 kids and a German Shepherd) and walked about a mile into Chatahoochee and as I got into town a guy pulled up beside me and asked where the next gas station was. I told him I was looking as I was out so he took me and we stopped at a 7/11 and asked and clerk said was 5 miles ahead at Sneads so I bought a gas can and they took me to get gas then took me back and followed me till I made it to the station so I really wasn't out there an hour from breakdown to resolution. They were on their way to Mississippi for family reunion/weekend. Every time I get a chance to help someone I think of them.

[gww]

WV
I have had simular kindnesses preformed for me.  I sometimes still am selfish and don't stop for every situation that I could help in too often and when I have no real excuse for not stoping.  I usually wonder about myself during those times.  I do stop pretty often and feel decent.  It makes me wonder about the times I don't stop.  Leggman gave me guides, I had a log come off a trailer and two bikers stoped and helped.  My diesel blew a gasket in the fuel filter and a guy coming from church run me back and forth till it was going.  I could go on and on.

Your post makes me renue my commitment to try and be a better person.
gww

[WV Sawmiller]

WV
I have had simular kindnesses preformed for me.  I sometimes still am selfish and don't stop for every situation that I could help in too often and when I have no real excuse for not stoping.  I usually wonder about myself during those times.  I do stop pretty often and feel decent.  It makes me wonder about the times I don't stop.  Leggman gave me guides, I had a log come off a trailer and two bikers stoped and helped.  My diesel blew a gasket in the fuel filter and a guy coming from church run me back and forth till it was going.  I could go on and on.

Your post makes me renue my commitment to try and be a better person.
gww

GWW,

   About a year ago my wife, (then) 3 y/o granddaughter Molly and I spotted a dead vehicle on I-64 with a couple of occupants and a guy walking with a gas can. I stopped, took him a mile or so to next exit and to the gas station there. Waited while he paid for a gallon of gas and Molly kept telling me to go and I told her we were waiting for the man to return. She said "He stinks". I guess he was a little gamey and she figured she was the one in the back seat with him but we waited, took him back and followed him to the exit to make sure he made it okay. I told Molly we were supposed to help people when they needed it and we could. Not sure if the lesson stuck but we try.

[coxy]

 :D :D never heard that before   gamey  :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

:D :D never heard that before   gamey  :D :D

I have, but not from the old timers, from a friend of mine a few years back. But talking about some garbage in the apartment that he left to ripen a bit when he was running between there and girl friend all summer.  And no I was off working for the summer, and he was never house trained too good. ;D :D

[Raider Bill]

My Stepmother used to say that when my Dad was sweating out the bottle from the day before ;D

[Ron Scott]

Can Compost Harm the Environment?

        (Duluth, MN - September 28) - In a radio segment, a junior scientist at the University
        of Minnesota Duluth's Natural Resources Research Institute revealed that an
        aggressive Asian earthworm could decimate Minnesota's woods.

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/09/28/invasive-worms

The E-Forester

[WV Sawmiller]

   We had some rain yesterday so I got out and caught some more last night to use next week while my mom is out for a visit. I guess I caught 30-40 in half hour. For some reason they were easy to catch last night. Light was sufficiently dim not to scare them and they just weren't spooky. They were far enough out of their holes plenty to pin and not too much to pull back in quickly.

Ron,

   I'd never have thought too many worms could be bad for the soil. Thx for posting.

[coxy]

how do you keep them that long mine always die in a few days  ???

[WV Sawmiller]

how do you keep them that long mine always die in a few days  ???

   I find they will keep longer in a damp sawdust and horse manure mixture. The biggest threat to them is heat. Keep them cool and they do pretty good.

[Chuck White]

We used to pick nightcrawlers back when we were kids!

Mom used to take care of them.  She used an old galvanized tub, kept in the cellar and we would gather leaves from the woods and Mom would put them in the tub and wet them down a little and put the nightcrawlers in the tank.  She would cut us cardboard boxes and soak them and the night crawlers would feed on them.

Over time, some would mate and there would be hundreds of little inchlings crawling through the leaves.

Back then, Mom would sell them for $.02 each

[Den Socling]

I was looking at some old pictures reviewing a vac kiln installation in New Zealand. They're currently having a problem and I'm looking for clues. I came across their worm farm that sits outside their door. I don't remember what they feed them but I imagine it's table scraps.



 

There's your always-available supply of worms!