The Set-Up

The story began when the family decided to go fishing. A few of us ventured out back after dark and began hunting for night crawlers in the area that I had heavily watered earlier in the day. We were amazed to catch a good number of them and we placed them into an empty Gatorade container to be used as bait the next day at Trial Lake.

We had great fun and success the first day fishing, so he decision was made to do the same the next week. We repeated the same ritual of catching night crawlers the night before heading to the lake. This time at the lake, we found ourselves using the entire supply of night crawlers and left when the bait was no more.

We decided to go a third time. This time we caught many, many night crawlers so as not to run out on this trip. We took 96. We used a lot of them, but when we came back, we had maybe 20 or 30 left. The best thing may have been to return the worms to the soil, but I had an idea…the start of many ill fated adventures!

My idea went back to the time I spent with my grandfather in summers long gone. We fished nearly every weekend at Strawberry reservoir. We would, during the week, shock worms up out of the yard and place them into an old refrigerator that had been ¾ buried in the shade of the northern side of the southern fence.

Inside the refrigerator, or worm bin, was a layer of soil and then layers of burlap sack. Within the layers of burlap the worms would find coffee grounds, kitchen scraps, and moisture. The night crawlers, once removed from the lawn, would find a home in the soil and plenty of night crawler social life within the layers of burlap.

When it became time for fishing, one needed only to lift open the door of the worm bin and pick through a couple of layers of burlap to find all the worms one would need for a weekend of fishing. When we returned, the remaining worms would go back into the bin and replacement crawlers caught during the week. The goal was always to replace more than what we had used.

Upon returning from Trial Lake, I decided to start my own worm bin. I wanted to eliminate the need to catch worms the night before and somehow begin a sustainable population of my own and maybe recreate the memories and fondness I held for those times spent with my grandfather but this time with my children.

So as any great idea that needs further information in our age, I “Googled” “raising night crawlers”.