Free new food source

[esoxlucius]

I usually get all my worms from my worm heap at the bottom of the garden. But to keep the numbers I require for regular harvesting I have to constantly feed it with scraps, and keep it well moist. If I don't the worms numbers dwindle, and this is the case recently, so I needed another source!

A regular local walk I do with my son takes us past a farm, which has a huge manure pile, and I've had my eye on it for a while now. So this morning I went up with my son and got permission off the farmer to have a dig about.

I couldn't believe it. 10 mins of digging and we had what's in the bowl below. Another 10 mins of chopping, rinsing and spooning into old bloodworm blister packs, popping in the freezer, and I have a few weeks of treats for my fish.

A brilliant free, and highly nourishing food source for aquarium fish.

 

[Rtc/tsn]

I usually get all my worms from my worm heap at the bottom of the garden. But to keep the numbers I require for regular harvesting I have to constantly feed it with scraps, and keep it well moist. If I don't the worms numbers dwindle, and this is the case recently, so I needed another source!

A regular local walk I do with my son takes us past a farm, which has a huge manure pile, and I've had my eye on it for a while now. So this morning I went up with my son and got permission off the farmer to have a dig about.

I couldn't believe it. 10 mins of digging and we had what's in the bowl below. Another 10 mins of chopping, rinsing and spooning into old bloodworm blister packs, popping in the freezer, and I have a few weeks of treats for my fish.

A brilliant free, and highly nourishing food source for aquarium fish.

View attachment 1472104

View attachment 1472105

Now that’s an impressive amount of worms.

 

[krichardson]

Now that’s an impressive amount of worms.

Yep and for the best price ever!

 

[Deadeye]

 

[jjohnwm]

They may not cost any money...but, in manual digging through a manure heap...you are paying a price!

When I was a youngster, I was a member of an elite cadre of specialized workers...professional worm pickers! We would scour golf courses, lawns, parkland...anywhere with short grass after a rain. Red-lensed headlamps, cans strapped to our ankles, steely gleams in our eyes and aching backs. Nightcrawlers come to the surface and reach across the ground with their "nether regions" lookin' for love, in the form of another worm's equipment. Catching them requires skill; just grabbing and yanking causes the tail end to break off in your hand. The head, which remains anchored in the ground, escapes to re-grow a new set of naughty parts. The tail in your hand...dies.

Tails were useless to our buyers (bait stores), so a good picker develops the delicate touch that allows you to keep pressure on the worm without breaking it off. After a minute or so the worm tires and relaxes, its bristles lose their grip on the inside of the burrow, and it pops out. Big tough 'crawlers often required several alternating pull/relax cycles before surrendering completely.

Only the most skilled pickers could manage to grab the tail ends of two intertwined mating worms...with their heads in their respective burrows a foot or more apart...and finesse both to give up simultaneously.

Ah...memories...

 

[esoxlucius]

Ah...memories...

Yes, when I was a kid, mad on fishing, and with no money for maggots from the bait shop, worms became our go to bait, for three reasons. They were free, best reason of all. They were easy to collect if you knew where to look, and they were hands down the best bait for perch, my favourite fish.

We had a small manure heap on the small holding where I lived as a kid, that was the main source of our "redworms". These were small worms. There was also a fantastic worm heap at the local cemetery, where the groundsman put all the rotting flowers and such. That was a good source of "brandings", a medium sized stripy worm. And the other type of worm we used a lot was the biggest, "the common earthworm". As you say, on a mild damp night you'd be able to collect them from lawns, all you needed was a torch and a bucket.

Nowadays, although I do still go fishing on occasion, it's my fish that I collect the worms for. My wormery was great but to keep the amount of worms I needed it needed lots of kitchen waste and it soon became apparent that I just couldn't keep up with their insatiable appetites. Plus, in summer, I had to water my wormery more than my plants! It became a pita, so my new source is ideal. I don't need to do anything other than go and collect them.

I'll never ever be able to get my head around the fact that people actually buy worms!! Lol.

 

[Backfromthedead]

Cant beat good worms on the free.

 

[krichardson]

Cant beat good worms on the free.

Nope,when I worked the gatehouse I would collect them by the hand full when it would rain.They would come out and be all over the parking lot.

 

[tlindsey]

Before I started using a lawn service I was able to collect many night crawlers at night after a good rain on my driveway.

 

[Backfromthedead]

Nope,when I worked the gatehouse I would collect them by the hand full when it would rain.They would come out and be all over the parking lot.

Too easy. Humans 1, fish 1, worms 0!