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How to Raise American Nightcrawlers

Many fishermen are familiar with American nightcrawlers, because these wiggling worms are popular fish bait. To ensure they always have a plentiful supply of healthy worms, some fishermen choose to raise their own nightcrawlers. Aside from fishing, there are other reasons to raise these creatures; nightcrawlers are a welcome addition to a flower or vegetable garden, for example, because they provide an ideal environment for plants by creating tunnels that allow air and moisture to pass through the soil. If you would like to raise your own American nightcrawlers, you may be surprised at how easy it is to get started.

Things You'll Need

Plastic bucket with lid, or other opaque plastic container
Garden trowel
Nightcrawlers
Shredded newspaper
Garden soil
2 crushed eggshells from hard boiled eggs
Fruit, vegetable and/or bread scraps

Instructions

- 1
  Dig some nightcrawlers from your garden or other area where you are allowed to dig; early spring is the best time to find these worms in your garden. Start with about a handful of nightcrawlers for your worm farm.
- 2
  Add the newspaper shreddings to your plastic container and moisten them slightly with water. Use the black and white pages of the newspaper only, since the dye in the color pages may harm your nightcrawlers.
- 3
  Add the soil to your plastic container. Soil dug from the area in which the worms were originally found is best since it contains the organic matter that your worms are accustomed to.
- 4
  Add the crushed eggshells to the container, along with any fruit, vegetable or bread scraps you have available. These items will serve as food for your nightcrawlers.
- 5
  With your garden trowel, mix up the contents of the plastic container. Add the nightcrawlers to the container and gently move the bedding around to help bury them. Make sure that the bedding is moist, but not sopping wet. Nightcrawlers need moisture to flourish, but too much water can drown them.
- 6
  Partially cover the plastic container with its lid. Do not completely cover the container, since the worms need air. Move your new nightcrawler farm to a dark area of your home, where the temperature is consistently between 40 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 7
  Check your worms' food supply daily, or at least, every other day. Add more food scraps when you notice the that the scraps already in the container have decomposed to the point that they have become unrecognizable.
- 8
  Check the moisture level of your worm farm daily or every other day. Add water as needed to keep the nightcrawlers moist, but not sopping wet.
- 9
  Harvest your worms when the combined soil, food and worms fill your container almost completely full. Dig through the container with your trowel and pick out the worms one at a time. If you want to add the nightcrawlers to a garden, you can simply dump the worm farm onto your garden area; the worms will burrow into the ground on their own. Remember to save a few worms if you would like to keep your worm farm going.
- 10
  Repeat from Step 2 if you would like to continue your worm farm, using the nightcrawlers that you have set aside from your worm harvest.

Animals & Science