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Boardwalk :: Forum List Six (6) New Worm Digest Forums 1) General Earthworm Discussion Forum
Bev Warden
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A Hatchling Earthworm
Posts: 24
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 Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/12 11:09 My father was an electrician and inventor.

When he died, he left me a probe that he made that he used to get fishing worms. (He had a great sense of humor). It is a rod that you stick in the ground, has a cork handle on the end with an extension cord built into it.

I have never used it, as I was afraid it would hurt the worms. (Talking huge nightcrawlers here).

Do you think it would be cruel to use it and gather the worms to put in my outside bin?
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WormMainea
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A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 149
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 Re:Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/12 11:25 Hmmmm. I recall reading something somewhere (?) about a particular frequency or vibration that worms respond to and flee. I don't remember if this response was species specific or not. Maybe try it on your outdoor worms first. WormMainea.com
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glowery
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A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 127
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 Re:Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/12 12:05 I am thinking Bass Pro sells a gizmo like that for the fisherman that want to harvest their bait themselves. I would think it would really stress the poor creatures to no end but I guess if they are going on the end of a hook in short period of time it wouldn't make that much difference.

I just wonder if it would take them longer to settle in a bin situation if they were harvested in that manner. I guess as long as they were not hurt in anyway from the shock. Just sounds a bit cruel, but maybe it isn't.

Glenda Glenda

I always wanted to be somebody; I guess I should have been more specific.
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Bev Warden
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A Hatchling Earthworm
Posts: 24
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 Re:Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/12 12:13 I really wasn't thinking of harvesting my bin with the probe, I was thinking of using it down in the back by the creek, and bringing the worms up to my outside bin. Then I would use those nightcrawlers to fish with.

(I could never shock my indoor babies with a probe).
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CarolV
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A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 44
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 Re:Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/12 12:35 I have heard that it is hard to raise the big nightcrawlers in a bin because they live vertically and go so deep in the ground. (so much for thier living under a cardboard box)

I also read that worms were being raised as food for another critter and they would "shock" the worms at feeding time so they would come to the surface so the other critter could feed on them. They set the voltage just right so that only the correct size worms were affected and thus the worm population was maintained in a perpetual cycle.
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Bev Warden
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A Hatchling Earthworm
Posts: 24
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 Re:Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/12 13:27 Hi Carol,

There is no way to set a current on this probe.

I don't have a bottom in my outside worm bin, I just throw my waste in the bin. It is just an old waterbed frame with 2 lids.

There are a lot of nightcrawlers in it already. It is in a damp shady place behind the garage.

One thing that concerns me is that there are hundreds of pill bugs in it and a few snails. Can I get too many pill bugs?

Thank you for the info!
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glowery
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A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 127
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 Re:Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/12 13:55 When you have the big out door bins like many of describe, how do you harvest the castings?

Glenda Glenda

I always wanted to be somebody; I guess I should have been more specific.
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Bev Warden
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A Hatchling Earthworm
Posts: 24
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 Re:Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/12 14:01 I don't harvest them. They are just for fishing worms.
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CarolV
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A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 44
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 Re:Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/12 18:16 Bev,

If your probe gets them to the surface where your can pick them up and if your outdoor bin with the conditions you provide keep them there, then you have it made.

Keeping food and something moist for them to be under should keep them where you can get them when you go fishing. Anything organic and light proof (cardboard, layers of paper, leaves, flat rocks, etc) (Ok, rocks aren't organic, but they still like to hide under them if the moister is there), should keep them on or near the surface. Some people around here keep them in a old refrigerator in a near dormant phase for fishing. Before I started keeping worms, I dumped some leftover canadian night crawlers into a 5 gal bucket with potting soil in it. added some oatmeal to the surface, covered with newspaper and put it on the basement stairs where it was a bit cooler. Didn't have any idea if they would live or not, just no other way to keep them. They were still alive a few months later. I don't fish very often.

Catching them at night in rain is another way to getum. Red light helps people to see them without them seeing the people. Crawling around the yard in the middle of the night in the rain with a red flashlight is a sport only fishermen can appreciate.
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WormMainea
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A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 149
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 Re:Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/13 19:04 I don't harvest worms from my outdoor bins, rather its the castings I'm after.

I harvest as if I were doing an indoor bin. Tarp, bright sunny day, shovel up a good sized mound and pull off the topmost material to be sifted. I find that the outdoor bins typically have LOTS of uncomposted sticks and such. I just put this and the worms I find at the bottom of the mound back on the pile. I suppose one could harvest the worms at that point. WormMainea.com
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wellsworms
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A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 511
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 Re:Electric probe to bring worms to surface - 2006/05/15 15:59 I have heard of this but never tried it .I was told that they, the worms just squirt out of the ground . but I think I will just use wet cardboard being in a wheelchair I think it would be safer FEED IT TO THE WORMS
WELLS,vermont
jerry walker 2008
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Boardwalk :: Forum List Six (6) New Worm Digest Forums 1) General Earthworm Discussion Forum

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