Thread: Pick Your Own Red Wigglers

I have been raising european crawlers for I guess about 6 mos. and have them in two heavy duty plastic tubs from home depot. 20"x30"x14" deep. they have done well, and have made plenty of babies, zillions. I need to start one or two more bins, as shellcracker fishing uses up alot of them. I will have to say that the european crawlers are alot tougher or durable than the regular redworms, they don't die under water real fast like redworms either, and the skin is tougher. Illinoisgiller, got me going with a generous couple of seed batches. but they say redworms multiply the fastest of the species. I have had problems with mites in the beds tho, and they are impossible to get rid of, but they don't hurt the worms.

One thing you can do for the mites is stick on some fly tape just above the soil line on the sides of the container they should get stuck to it. I have never personally tried it but I have raised all kinds of worms for aquarium fish over the years and have read a lot about this method. Another is cut back and or bury it under the surface and be sure to remove any left overs when you place new food in there. They don't harm anything but they are annoying I had them show up in red wiggler cultures in the past and just cut back the food and over time they slowly died off from lack of food but that doesn't always work.

Good luck and I need to get a culture going as well, I can't find any locally and the one time I bought them out of town they were all dead when I went to use them as I was in a hurry and didn't check the cup before I took off.

thanks jubs, I'll try that.

Originally Posted by tocoldtorace

do you put a few in there to get em started or will the worms come up from the ground through the holes.

I started with 3 doz wigglers two months ago and now I have close to 500 in the container shown.

Good info "Old Ship"
You are a good teacher
for those that want to raise their own

Originally Posted by Bob # 1

Good info "Old Ship"
You are a good teacher
for those that want to raise their own

Thank you. I try!

This is a great thread, thanks everyone for the info

Has anyone tried to raise the African night crawler? Do not have to keep them cool. They do have to stay warm. I just started reading about them.

Originally Posted by 1perchjerker

Ship, do you put hardware cloth (to keep the birds out) over the Coffee grounds for the solider fly larvae?
1perchjerker

Shredded newspaper and burlap kept damp. The lid on the cooler has air vents. Fine wire screening is calked under the lid.

Why the night lite? They scared of the dark? Seriously, what does the night light do?