Red Wigglers

[Behnad]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering how you guys care for your red wigglers before feeding them off. Is it necessary to put them in the refrigerator or can you I keep them at room temp? Also, do you need to feed them anything? Keep in mind that I'm not trying to breed these, just keeping them to feed to my turtle.
Thanks,
Ben

 

[lynnedit]

I started a worm bin so I could keep them on sort of an ongoing basis.
Sort of like this.

file:///Users/ditullio123/Desktop/Cheap%20and%20Easy%20Worm%20Bin!.webarchive

Then I bought 500 red wrigglers from a local supplier.
We'll see how this works: I add some fruits/veggies about weekly.
It's kind of gross to dig around for worms, but OTOH, I know they are good food for my box turtle.

Otherwise, when I buy containers, I keep them in a small wine cooler in my basement at about 55f, just because I have it.
You could also keep them at room temp. Or keep them in a small plastic container with dirt in it, drill a few holes for air, and throw in a few fruit/veggie remnants. They will last quite awhile this way.

 

[lisa127]

I fed them to my boxies when they were babies. I now feed nightcrawlers. But I kept them in the fridge just like the nightcrawlers.

 

[oneeyedClyde]

Red wigglers can stay room temperature. I used to just keep them on our entrance table till we feed them to Gladys. The place I was getting them from ran out, and ask they had was night crawlers, so I got some to feed to my boxies, that afternoon, Clyde died... I'm not sure if it was the night crawlers, but I will never feed my boxie night crawlers again

 

[lynnedit]

Oh, that's awful.
I did read that bait shop night crawlers shouldn't be used because they are raised in animal/rabbit p**p.

I don't think that is the case with reliable pet store sources.

Also why I decided to try to raise my own; I know what the worms are eating.
I won't mind using any from my yard when it warms up, because we don't use fertilizers or pesticides, just mulch.

 

[oneeyedClyde]

I got them from the bait shop... maybe that is why... my poor one eyed Clyde... my husband found him in his enclosure before I got home and called to prepare me so I wouldn't freak out when I got home... it was awful. My screen name is for him... he had a great personality... was blind in one eye... we were actually nursing him with vitamins for his eye using the worms as carrier for the vitamins.

 

[Saleama]

I have a few tubs of dirt I use to grow things in. I turn them loose in there. I also keep them in the enclosures with all my turtles and tortoises. They do not bother any of the herbivores and the box turtles will hunt them. They also grow and multiply in there. To find them, I just pick up the water dish and there they all are.

 

[tortoisetime565]

I buy them for my redfoot. He loves chasing them. I get them and put them in a little bucket with maybe an inch of dirt and I put all the left over food in there for them. So they eat the in eaten lettuce, carrots, etc.

 

[lynnedit]

I buy them for my redfoot. He loves chasing them. I get them and put them in a little bucket with maybe an inch of dirt and I put all the left over food in there for them. So they eat the in eaten lettuce, carrots, etc.

that's a great idea.

 

[Yvonne G]

Because I don't know how the bait worms were raised, I generally will dump the little tubs of worms into my worm pile. I have a big plastic drum, cut in half with drain holes in the bottom, filled with leaf litter, grass clippings and kitchen scraps like potato peels, apple cores, orange rinds, egg shells, etc. About once a week I turn the pile with a garden fork to aerate it. I lay newspaper on the top and plywood on top of that.

By adding bait worms to my worm pile, I'm allowing the worms to clean out their system of whatever bad stuff might have been in there from the bait worm farm. I notice that the worms in the bait tub have a pretty pungent smell, but the same worms harvested from my worm pile don't stink.