How to Keep a Worm Box

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How to Keep a Worm Box

An age-old trick for keeping bait on hand
By T. Edward Nickens



Nursing a summer-long batch of red wigglers is as easy as hammering a few nails and remembering to save banana peels from the trash can. It’s a classic trick, no doubt. But raising your own bait means you can slip out of the house and hit the pond before Mama comes home. Just like in the old days.

New-School Twist: If the summer heat becomes a concern, fill a milk carton with ice and push it into the middle of the bed.
Make the Box

Cut a sheet of CDX-grade plywood, which is made with water-resistant glues, to your dimensions. Nail it together and drill a dozen 1⁄2-inch holes in the bottom for drainage.
Fill the Box

Dig a hole in a shady spot and sink the box, leaving a few inches of freeboard. Fill it with shredded newspaper, leaves, peat moss, and soil. Moisten lightly. Cover and let sit for a week.
Feed the Box

Add a few hundred worms and feed them two times a week. Keep the bedding moist but not wet. On the menu: lettuce, fruit and vegetable waste, and the occasional nongreasy leftover.

[Rebel SS]

I used to bury one of those cheap "liquor store" styrofoam coolers in a shady spot (under a lilac bush) in the yard. Put the top on, and weight it down with a brick or something. You do not need holes in it.A florist buddy of mine gave me a bale of sphagnum moss, which crawlers feed on. It makes them "springy", not soft and mushy like a lot of container raised crawlers are. Just wet the moss, wring it out, and mix in a small amount of good soil (not something with fertilizer or weed killer in it!) I'd also mix some coffee grounds, veggie ends, and oatmeal in, I don't know if that helped or not, but they were always lively as heck. They'd multiply and supply all I and my friends needed all summer long. 

[glenn57]

Go figure you'd know how to take care of slimy worms!! my brother and I used to sell earth worms when we were kids. Living just off the horseshoe chain we did well. Coffee grounds were good for them.

[mike89]

 Coffee grounds

 that's all we used too.

[Rebel SS]

Speaking of little worms...no, NO, NOO! Not goin' there!!! 

[Coffee118]

From march 1 thru may 1 I save all the coffee grounds, filters and unsold newspapers in five gallon buckets, it's first come first serve. The old timers stop by every couple of days to get the grounds to feed their worms. The funny thing is that the old Italian guys don't use the worms for fishing, they put the dirt, worms and all in their gardens, they say that earthworms with fresh made compost soil is the best thing for their gardens.

[glenn57]

I was informed by a guy that has a biology major that said coffee grounds are an excellent source of nitrogen. He uses it a composite pile!