Worm Digest - Re:Am I being too impatient?

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1) General Earthworm Discussion Forum

wormdirt
User

A Hatchling Earthworm

Posts: 16

Am I being too impatient? - 2008/08/04 21:46 my daughter and I have a 2'x6'x8" wooden bin. we started with 1 lb of worms 6/13/08, the is a mix of top soil, cow manure, and newspaper. I am thinking i should have divided the box in 1/3 until i could expand to another 1/3, wouild this be a good idea? I feel like when i put some food down it is not being eaten in a timely manner, however the worms are all over the place and i am scarred that some are not eating?

My daughter wanted to start this farm to sell worms and i am happy to be helping her. I am just having a tough time in the wait of things. we have red wigglers, i wanted to find rubellus but could not, any body know where to find some and is this what the call the African NC or am i way off. sorry for rambling i guess you can tell i am new to the forum, i just want to make the girl proud.

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WFike

User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 224

Re:Am I being too impatient? - 2008/08/04 22:06 Yep the 1/3 idea would keep the worms togeather more and produce more eggs. 1 lb. is not many worms but if you just take care of them they will multiply. All you are missing is a dash of patience.

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 126

Re:Am I being too impatient? - 2008/08/04 22:48 Way off on the Lumbricus being African as the leaf worm, red worm or whatever you call it is Lumbricus rubellus and the African is Eudrilus eugeniae. Even though I am sure that the big red worms that I have are Lumbricus I am awaiting positive ID by an expert.
I don't think that the red wiggler, E. fetida, makes as good a bait as rubellus and it's not as big of a worm either. Locally a lot of people have sold the little things as "Red Worms" and even some as "Giant Red Worms", "Giant Red Wigglers", etc., etc. and a lot of people that I have fished with over the years really think that they got ripped off and I have to agree. To me they're not worth the hassle of trying to hook the little devils.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll have the time to weigh up a pound of the red worms that I have just to see how many of these makes a pound. When done I'll post the ct.

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wtman
User

A Juvenile Earthworm

Posts: 33

Re:Am I being too impatient? - 2008/08/05 14:11 timnbama,
I agree, the ef's are not very good for fishing as far as size goes. I bought enc's from carolinapetsupply.com and they are huge mature worms when you get them. i bought 45 pounds of them at a rate of 95.00 per 5 pounds and am very happy with the way they eat and the size of them compared to the ef's.

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WFike

User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 224

Re:Am I being too impatient? - 2008/08/05 19:52 I beg to disagree with you on the efs making good baitworms. Yall are just getting half grown worms and not good bait size reds. There is nothing better for bream and shellcracker fishing than good baitsize reds.
If you are going for bigger fish then you need a bigger worm like an african of even bigger "encs".

Post edited by: WFike, at: 2008/08/05 19:54

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wormdirt
User

A Hatchling Earthworm

Posts: 16

Re:Am I being too impatient? - 2008/08/05 23:35 thanks all i am going to break the bin into 1/3's now until they multiply, i am interested in ANC's i think i live in a climate area for them here in the south. about Rubellus does any one know where to find some?

Post edited by: wormdirt, at: 2008/08/05 23:40

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 126

Re:Am I being too impatient? - 2008/08/06 09:27 Wormdirt where in the south do you live? The ANCs are very prolific and they start breeding at a very young age. I am pretty sure that the red worms that I have are rubellus and hopefully I'll soon have expert confirmation of that. From the worm's description of the clitellum's location and the segments that it should cover on rubellus I'm pretty sure of it.
I wound up having to buy several bait cups to get a start of this worm and now have a couple pounds of very large mature breeders. They are no where near as prolific as the ANCs no matter what trick has been tried.
Finally a local store told me where they got them so I contacted the supplier to see about buying some in bulk and was quickly told that he don't sell them that way. They must be a closely guarded resource from the luck that I've had trying to find a bulk source. The ones that I've found in the stores here were packed under "Giant Reds" and some were in plain blue cups with nothing other than "RW" handwrote with a marker on the lid.
Last night I weighed up 4 ozs. of worms and it took 63 of them. I have a set of scales that will weigh down to 1/70,000 of a pound with there being 7000 grains to a pound. 5 worms that were weighed a few minutes ago weighed 29, 34.3, 28.1, 26.7 & 25.9 grains each. That would equal out to about 243 worms to a pound. These were just grabbed and weighed at random. I guess that the average count would wind up being about 250 a pound which is a pretty good sized red worm I'd say.

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wormdirt
User

A Hatchling Earthworm

Posts: 16

Re:Am I being too impatient? - 2008/08/08 18:09 i'm in Louisiana, from what i researched i think i can defintely benefit from ANC's of course i am going to start small. i am thinking on bringing an assortment of the reds to the local college to see if they may be able to identify some Rubellus, as i look in my bin i have some large reds and read somewhere that sometimes they get mixed in with EF's unknowingly. i love all the info available here is there any other forums of interest.

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timnbama
User

A Protected Species Earthworm

Posts: 126

Re:Am I being too impatient? - 2008/08/08 23:13 Take a look at the clitellum and see if it goes all the way around the worm, if it does then it's the fetida but if it starts down at the lower sides with a smooth belly then it's rubellus. I've bought a few more cups full of them the past couple of days which when fully mature they equal out to about 7 cups of worms to a pound. At $2.50 a cup that works out to $17.50 a pound which isn't too bad. A couple of the cuups were loaded with a bunch of small ones which is ok as they will grow up soon. I think I'll get some more tomorrow while my nephew is here to help me bed them.
What did surprise me today was to find that my grey wigglers were laying cocoons in a plastic tub. They got transferred to an outside bed today so maybe they'll pick up production now.

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