Rather than buying bait worms this year, I want to collect and keep my own night crawlers. I can't go fishing that often so five dozen crawlers ought to cover me for the year, no problem.

I've got a few small Styrofoam boxes from prior crawler purchases and an old Styrofoam minnow bucket I can use. I also have a refrigerator in the garage I can keep them in.

Is there an alternative to commercial, purchased worm bedding? I have a compost heap of old table scraps and lawn waste from past years. If I use that instead of commercial bedding I wouldn't guess I'd need any worm food.

I might have a little peat moss left I could mix with the compost.

Any suggestions for bedding and keeping worms alive in a refrigerator over the summer?

When I was younger, I sold nightcrawlers an was able to keep them for a long time. Through the winter, on occasion. I used newspaper torn into 1/4 strips, then soak in water for a few minutes, then wring out most of the water by squeezing with your hands. After that, fluff it up a bit and it's ready to go. Keep them refrigerated and check frequently. Remove any "sick looking" works imediately. If you find any dead ones, remove all of the live ones and place in a clean container with new bedding. Keep in fridge @ around 40 degrees. Never use newspaper with colored ink, it will kill your works. Use styrofoam containers and try not to overpopulate the container if long-term storage is the goal.

BTW, it works best to soak newspaper in rain water. City water will kill them too.

We have always just took 1/2 black dirt 1/2 swamp
Moss and layed a wet newspaper over the top of them
In a styrofoam cooler. Would keep them from spring picking until
Late October perch fishing.

I have tried keeping worms and have found that all my home-made stuff became to compacted. What works best, for me, is the store-bought worm bedding. For 10 bucks you can keep a lot of worms for a long time. I found it easier, and much better, to buy the stuff rather than try to make my own.

Also, I have found, it is better to store small quantities of worms. For example, rather than try to keep 1000 worms, keep 10 containers of 100, or reduce it even more and only keep 100 containers of 10. The fewer the worms the better they keep, in my opinion.

Yep, me too. Too hard on the back to risk a bunch of dead nightcrawlers. You can buy a bag of Buss Bed-ding for about $5-6 and it keeps them in great shape! Only mix up what you need. For 5 dozen/year that bag will last three years easy.

Brown bear has the food in it. Best Ive ever used!!

Keep it damp, but not soggy wet. And check for sick ones often.

Please, forget I responded, I obviously haven't a clue on the subject.

When I was a kid my grandpa sold mules. We would take a wagon of stable manure to a man who had several concrete worm boxes. He gave us free worms. Red wigglers. Granpa had a lady friend who liked to fish.

Shredded damp newspaper. If long term sprinkle a SMALL amount of cornmeal on top for feeding. Check daily for dead ones.

Newspaper strips as stated above will work no doubt.

Chris

I buy a block of Peat Moss Cheap and feed rolled oats, as needed, which ain't often.

I find news paper as described above works well when I'm out of commercial bedding. There is a bit of a learning curve to making it correctly, was for me anyway. I use the plastic coffee cans with the snap on lid for long term storage in frig. I drill tiny holes all around top 1/3rd of main container and lid. I also run a twine through small hole in lid and attach it to main container. I've got three cans set up like that right now with bedding so Im ready to go "picking".

If Im going out all day fishing I'll transfer to Styrofoam cooler. If just running setlines in spring or just going out for an hr or two I take the can.

Ttt.

Same here and I feed once a week, when it starts to break down and you get a lot of castings- replace.

Buss bedding,,store in old refrigerator set at 45 degrees,,,rig the interior light so it stays on 24-7,,,put lid on box.

my trapping partner has got me into drift fishing for walleyes on a large lake. He has stored crawlers for years. He stores his crawlers in cottage cheese containers and does 2 dozen per container max. He uses the commercial mix but has found that when he puts in new material about very 4-6 weeks the worms last much longer, are more full and lively.
He will collect 10-20 dozen in the spring and that will take him through the season.

Bryce

Peat Moss. Now's the time to find it marked down and cheap. Wet it first, but it takes several days to soak up enough.

Ttt.