Bubba goes searching for garden worms

Today while walking across the lawn, from going to the mail box, I saw some weeds that needed to be pulled. I bent down, started pulling the weeds and lo and behold some earth worms started to come up out of the ground.
Remembering some one posting about using some boards to vibrate the ground to drive the worms out, I took a garden fork and a 3' section of rebar.
I pushed the garden fork into the ground and proceeded to push and pull the bar across the top of the metal fork ( the area where you use your foot to push the fork into the ground)
It is surprising how the earthworms react to the vibrations of the tines in the ground. They will just come to the surface and start crawling away.
I live in the eastern section of the Piedmont in North Carolina, where the soil is just starting to warm up.
The worms are just like the blue gills and crappie, their enviorment needs to warm up before they become plentiful.

Flycaster

When I was a kid my uncle used to electrify the ground to shock the night crawlers out of the ground. I dint remember the specifics just a rod in the ground after wetting it down after dark. Anyone know about this?:confused:

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Originally Posted by Reelcrappiefisher

When I was a kid my uncle used to electrify the ground to shock the night crawlers out of the ground. I dint remember the specifics just a rod in the ground after wetting it down after dark. Anyone know about this?:confused:

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That's why this was written : http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml93/93075.html

Best way I know how to gather nightcrawlers ... wet lawn, or wait until after a rain - go out after dark, with flashlight, and catch them by hand. Don't use bright light flashlight, or cover flashlight lens with red lens or thin red plastic wrap. Walk softly. Carry a bucket with damp leaves (dead leaves, not green ones) and a little bit of very lightly damp dirt ... even shredded newspaper, lightly dampened, will suffice. Keep them cool for transport.

...... cp :cool:

50 years ago, I bought an old telephone redone to use on worms. The ad said it would bring them up and it did-but they would die soon thereafter!

crappiepappy,
You can also find a shady spot covered with leaves and spread some cornmeal(or anything like laying mash/wormfood)....Keep it watered good and just wait till the worms find it....Make a "dependable" worm bin....I also built me a "hot compost" pile out of store bought stuff like peatmoss and organic fertilizers....the first week I was on the road and the heat settled down in the pile, it was invaded by "Red wigglers"....Farther down in the pile, huge nightcrawlers was working the bottom.....Just a thought....DemoMan

I used to live in North Florida (Sopchoppy,Panacea)area and believe it or not that is considered the worm capital of the world. I have been out with the Wormers and was taught how to (grub) for worms.You take a wooden stake (oak or cherry) about 3' long and drive it in about a foot and then take a piece of metal (1 car spring) and start rubbing the stake in long slow back and forth motion and it will start the vibration and in a few minutes they start coming out of the ground. What I couldn't believe is they do this barefoot because of steping on the worms with shoe's will bruise them. This is not the business or job to have they only make $11.00 per 500 worms.And the snakes are everywhere (RATTLERS)

does the metal have to be a spring? that sounds interesting

we dont have crawlers naturally down here but I have a compost pile about 3' wide and 3' high in a fiberglass tube and it works great for red worms. throw in all the grass trimmings and kitchen scraps. I can take the spade and find a few hundred in probably 3 shovels full.

It doesn't have to be a spring but that was what they said worked the best. I saw some of them use a flat piece of metal about 3' long and it was a 1/4 thick and about 2" wide. Sometimes they had some 6' long that they would use 2 people to start then would switch to the smaller one.I could never do this very long because it would vibrate so much it would cause your feet and legs to start aching from the vibration but if there were worms around within 50' of the stake they were coming out of the ground.

Hey Flytyfish--they even have a worm grunting festival down in Sopchoppy now. Can you imagine the worm grunting queen!

c

I use green palmolive dish soap.Just put a few good squirts in a five gallon bucket,fill the bucket with water and dump out on ground,worms will come out of ground ready for pickin.:D

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Originally Posted by stinkbait

I use green palmolive dish soap.Just put a few good squirts in a five gallon bucket,fill the bucket with water and dump out on ground,worms will come out of ground ready for pickin.:D

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stinkbait:
How long will the worms live after you pick them up???
does the soap have any effect on them??

flycaster,1or2 days for sure.not sure about long term,always just picked what needed temporarily.Since i had a yard full.

After a good rain with dim flashlight is the way I was taught.

When I was a kid we would find where street runoff would run into a deep ravine, which would usually form a pool and a creek. On either side of the creek 50yards from the pool, we would throw down fallen leaves then cardboard on that, then more leaves, you get the idea. It would all be soaked with rain and always damp in the ravine. Then whenever we went fishing, we would lift up each layer of cardboard, and the worms would be on the cardboard, . We'd even get a salamander or two in there.

Make you a wormbed....

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