So it rained a good 3 inches last night and I decided to get my own. Within 35 min I had 2 dozen. I was never able to get them by hand whole, but using hemostats (surgical clamps that look like scissors act like vice grips) I can gently grab them and not rip them apart. Then I put them in my Wonder Worm Box with the Wonder Worm Bedding, they'll stay alive for weeks if I keep the box in the shade and moist. I tried using a blue LED flash light but that scared them back into their hole so I switched to white LED. The red filter flash lights are too hard to see the worms.
From Canadian Geographic:
"a skilful picker to gather upwards of 6,000 victims — at $15 to $30 per thousand, depending on demand — in one session. The record, it is said, is 22,500 worms in one night, by one man, with only two hands."
From Yahoo:
"People often wonder how picking your own worms can help the environment. Worms most commonly come in a Styrofoam bowl with a plastic lid. Styrofoam is Non-Biodegradable and can take hundreds of years to decompose. If you can keep from using Styrofoam products, you can help to keep our landfills less full. Using biodegradable products will help keep the world a cleaner place."
From Wormdigest.org:
"Worm picking 101
Amateur worm pickers might go out with just a bucket in the aftermath of a rain to see what they can find, and do pretty well. But real pickers, like Morabito, have tactics and equipment they use for the task:
* A good miner's cap or miner's headlight is essential, to free up the hands for picking while casting a little light down to locate the worms.
* A pair of good gloves (it can get slimy).
* A bucket with a handle.
Once you have these, the next dilemma is finding a good spot. Many local golf courses will allow pickers to go out on them; parks are also good. Anywhere where there is a large area of mown grass works well, Morabito said.
“After dark they start coming out and you see them with the headlight,” he said. “Sometimes when you go down to you pick them up you can get them right away, but the majority of the time they have their tails in the ground so they can scoot back in if they are disturbed in any way.”
When they see the light, Morabito says, they have a tendency to sink back underground. “You have to be fast,” he said."
From trails.com:
"Shine your light away from the night crawler once you spot it. Right before you try to grasp it, put the light back on it. Use your thumb and first two fingers to grab the worm as close to its hole as possible. Often you cannot determine where the hole is, so your best option is to grab the night crawler by its thickest end. Squeeze hard enough so the worm cannot escape and pull up on it. If the nightcrawler is all the way free of its hole, you will have no problem catching it. If it still is partly in its hole, you must apply steady pressure until it relents and comes out all the way. Refrain from pulling hard, as this will break the nightcrawler in half. Put the nightcrawler in your container, and continue.
Read more at Trails.com: How to Pick Nightcrawlers | Trails.com http://www.trails.co...l#ixzz24qyv7Yw3
There you have it, for all you fruglers, now if we could just get the fish to bite.........
