Uncle Jim's Worm Farm European Nightcrawlers Composting and Fishing Worms 1 Lb Pack

Many negative reviews focus on the arrival size of the worms, so please read the vendor's description & instructions closely prior to purchase in order to know what to expect. These worms are dehydrated for shipping, so they will arrive quite small, but full grown they will reach a size ever-so-slightly smaller than a Canadian Night crawler (European Crawlers are the same as an Alabama Jumper if you experience with those). For those looking to save money on fishing bait, these worms will be of fishable size in a couple of weeks, and can eventually provide a self-sustaining population through reproduction. If you plan to start using these worms for bait in less than 5 weeks, I recommend purchasing the 2-lb package in order to prevent fishing out your base population before they have adequate chance to begin the reproductive cycle. Overall, these European Crawlers have proven to be a much better value than trying to purchase Canadian Crawlers or Red Wigglers by the retail unit, and they are much easier to handle than the Wigglers. Below are some tips based on my experience in raising these for bait:1. Arrival Size – Many negative reviews focus on the condition of these worms upon arrival. Please read the instructions closely, as the worms have been prepared for efficient shipment and are near dehydration. These worms will not be anywhere near adequate fishing size when they arrive. They will need time to grow. In my experience, (with proper feeding and moisture management) they will be of fishable size in a couple of weeks and within 5 to 8 weeks will be rather large and begin to breed new worms.2. Follow the Directions – As mentioned above, the worms are purposefully shipped in an almost dehydrated state. It is imperative that you follow the directions to rehydrate the worms immediately upon receipt. I have received three shipments in total, and have never had any issues with ultimate mortality to date.3. Habitat/Containment – Gardening use or compost production would be a totally different scenario than what I describe, as I am producing worms strictly for use as fishing bait. I have found that several different types of containment will work for these worms as the real key is substrate and moisture management. My main containment has been a HDPE (plastic) feed trough for cattle/horses. A containment of this size can sustain quite a population, and given time can be a self-sufficient breeding population without need to restock. The only reason I have had to restock for the upcoming season is due to my own negligence (moved the trough out of the shop and forgot about it for a couple of weeks, so the birds decimated the worm population). If you plan to store outside, you will need some mechanism to protect from birds. Furthermore, these worms are known as Alabama jumpers for a reason, and they will occasionally jump bail come nightfall, so either place a cover/lid on (with adequate ventilation) or put a light above the containment to discourage surfacing. All that being said, they won’t leave containment most of the time if temperature, moisture, food, and substrate conditions are favorable.4. Portable Containment – After a month or so, I usually have enough big worms to start a couple of “satellite” containers, as well. Typically, this is a five gallon bucket filled halfway with soil substrate. This makes for easy transport, and they will survive well in a container of this size. I used the same bucket of worms for all my fishing most of last summer, and the bucket still had a surviving population of worms well into winter (until I accidentally killed them all in January by adding dead leaves to the mix). I recommend “turning over” buckets every couple of weeks by pouring the soil back and forth a couple of times between two buckets. Make sure any lid or covering is adequately ventilated, or humidity in the air will likely condense into the bucket and create conditions that can become overly saturated. By the same token, keeping a moderately ventilated lid over the bucket will produce some condensation in humid weather and reduce the frequency of watering needed.5. Substrate – The best mixture I have found so far is a mixture of highly organic soil (such as potting soil without fertilizer), natural topsoil, shredded (brown) packaging paper, and a tiny amount of sand. Europeans supposedly prefer dense soil types such as clay loam, but I found that they will thrive in the above mixture and it remains workable. (The addition of sand is not for the worms, but instead keeps the soil in a very workable texture so that retrieving worms and turning over the bed is easier.) These worms will compost, but I do not recommend the addition of leaves or grass clippings to the substrate in a small container. I made the mistake of adding dry leaves to a 5-gallon container this winter, and within a couple of days the entire bucket had turned “septic” and all the worms had died. My best guess is that the tannic acid from the decaying leaves caused a quick and drastic change in soil pH, which killed a portion of the population, which then quickly caused anaerobic conditions in the saturated lower portion of the container which quickly killed the remaining worms.6. Food – The best quick and easy food seems to be unsalted corn meal. Apparently, no one advertises corn meal as “unsalted” any more, so you just have to read the ingredients on the label. “Aunt Jemimiah” brand has an unsalted version. (Do not use salted corn meal, as the salt content will eventually be fatal for the worms.) Corn meal is convenient, and it does not have any odor associated with it (unlike feeding scraps). Fruit and vegetable scraps are also viable foods (banana peels & corn husks work great), but they will attract insects and can produce odor. If you utilize fruit and vegetable scraps, mix the scraps into the soil and do not leave them directly on the surface to reduce insect attraction. Never use any meats or meat containing products such as dog/cat food. I also occasionally add finely shredded packaging paper, which has limited nutritional content but does provide a slower decomposing food source which enhances the soil substrate. I use unadulterated brown packaging paper, since it does not contain bleaching chemical remnants or dyes as newspaper or copy paper would. It also works better than corrugated cardboard packaging remnants, since the loose packing paper does not have glue joints like cardboard.7. Calcium - The addition of washed, finely crushed egg shells can help with breeding success rates. Earthworms need Calcium to produce their egg sacs, so if the soil substrate is Ca deficient, then an additional Ca source will be necessary.8. Moisture Management – Maintaining adequate moisture in the soil substrate is paramount. Most sources claim that these worms can tolerate extremely saturated soil conditions. In my experience, over saturated is definitely better than under saturated, but I would be careful with over watering, as well. In containment, whenever I have gotten too much water in the soil, they tend to start migrating out of containment. That said, however, under watering the substrate is fatal. Adding just enough water to give the soil a moist appearance is usually plenty. I typically add 4 or 5 oz to the 5 gallon bucket containers every 3 or 4 days. Unchlorinated or de-chlorinated water works much better than chlorinated tap water. Chlorine will evaporate from tap water if left out, so if city water is your only source, just fill the watering can up a day prior to using it for watering the worms. Putting a lid on the worm bucket will reduce needed watering frequency, but the accumulated condensation can also lead to overly saturated conditions during extremely humid weather, so ensure the lid is somewhat ventilated.9. Temperature – These are not Canadian Night Crawlers, and do not like extremely cool conditions. Those who fish Canadian crawlers know that they must be kept cold in a cooler or refrigerator to survive. These Europeans thrive in temperate conditions similar to soil conditions in the mid latitude U.S. (soil temperatures in the mid-South are usually above 50 degrees for most of the year). They don’t really like either extreme of temperature. If you place them in the refrigerator or cooler, they will usually survive for several days, but they become extremely lethargic and certainly will not grow under those temperature conditions. Keep this in mind when carrying them in the boat during fishing trips, as if you need an extremely lively worm for you target species, then you will not want to keep them in an iced cooler. That being said, they cannot survive in small containers in direct sunlight or extreme heat for long, so in these conditions they will need to be transported in a cooler or at least shaded. For long term storage, they will grow and thrive best around room temperature or slightly lower. Storing in a basement, shop, or crawl space under the house works best.10. Compatibility with Other Worms – I have found that these European Crawlers can co-exist with Red Wigglers in the same container bed. I originally worried about whether European Crawlers would reproduce well enough to keep a self-sustaining population, so with my initial order, I ordered 1-lb of Red Wigglers as well. (Through previous experience, I knew the Wigglers would reproduce well in captivity). As mentioned earlier, this was totally unnecessary as the Europeans (if given time) demonstrated sustainable reproductive rates. I no longer mix the two species, simply because the size of the European is far more convenient for handling purposes. The Red Wiggler is essentially only useful for small pan fish, whereas the European Crawler is plenty big for Catfish or Black Bass and can be cut up for smaller pan fish species. I did want to mention the compatibility of the two worm species, however, for those fisherman who want varying bait sizes.

Worms arrived as described, they were small (as was expected), but alive and squirming. I put them in 3 of my 4 raised garden beds, which I have been building up over the last four months with leaves, grass clippings, and (organic) kitchen vegetable scraps. I've done a lot of research on the European Nightcrawlers (and worms in general), and wasn't sure how they would do in my garden beds, but so far they seem to be thriving.In prepping the garden beds for them, I loosened the dirt, mixing it with the organic matter that I've been piling on it, that was at various stages of decomposition. The dirt is heavy clay, and was fairly compacted before loosening. Using a hand tool, I tilled the dirt a good 8 to 12 inches. Once I got the organic matter mixed in with the dirt, I mixed in some crab shell meal, and kelp meal (Neptun's Harvest) and then topped the beds with a good 12 inch layer of fresh grass clippings/mulch. I made a hole in the middle of the beds, and put a glob of Uncle Jim's Euro's in each, then gently covered them with some dirt, and mulch. I watered the beds and let them be.It's been about three weeks now, and the worms seem to be doing great. We've gotten quite a bit of rain, so I haven't needed to water, but as things dry up, I'll be sure to keep the bed's moist. I've pulled back the mulch and moved the soil around just enough to see if they are still in there, and sure enough, there are big fat, juicy euros squirming about. They definitely like to hang out inside the dirt, versus on top, but there always seem to be a few near the surface at all times. I don't go digging in the soil too much, as I don't want to distract them from their wormy business, but if the health and vigor of the ones I have seen are any indication, they are doing quite well. Also, it is my understanding that if the Euros do not like their environment, they have no problem vacating over the side, and so far I have not seen any escapees, another good sign they are happy where they are.I'll be planting my vegetable garden soon, and summers here in central Cali can get pretty hot, so time will tell how they do. I'll keep the beds well mulched, with only organic fertilizers/amendments, and of course, I'll keep a steady supply of kitchen vegetable scraps coming their way. I kept my fourth garden bed free of Euros, as a control group for my little experiment. I'm curious to see how that dirt fairs over time, compared to the beds that had the Euros put in them. I'm also curious to see if there is any noticeable difference in the plants grown in that bed versus the others.If all goes as planned, the Euro's will have a nice raised garden bed to call home, and my plants will have a nice steady supply of fertilizer (worm castings).

Really healthy wiggly worms! I know they sell by the count but we got tons of healthy big fat worms! I worried about the freezing cold weather, but the worms came through just fine and got right to work eating kitchen scraps!