Uncle Jim's Worm Farm Super Red European Nightcrawlers for Composting and Garden Soil Aeration | Large Nightcrawlers Improve Soil Structure and Quality for Healthier Gardens | 2 Lb Pack

Arrival was quick. Worms where all in good condition and are mostly large adults. I have purchased from this seller previously with excellent results.

Delivery on time, night crawlers very lively

These are really healthy worms, and they are so great for the plants. They also help to create natural drainage for water run off. I have been buying these crawlers for a few years now and am very happy with them!

Just as ordered very good worms

I have ordered from Uncle Jim's for 10 years now and always receive the orders quickly and in good condition. Catfish in the Tennessee river cant resist them. First order was $39 bucks and each year it goes up just a little bit which I guess is inevitable. Haven't found any supplier that offers more for the money or better service. Will keep ordering from Uncle Jim's for as long as I can continue to fish which I hope will continue to be a long time.

If you need worms, this is your best bet. This my second order. I was very pleased with both orders. I highly recommend you get your worms here.

Overall, these European Crawlers have proven to be a much better value than trying to purchase live bait by the retail unit. For fishing bait purposes, I recommend the European Crawler size over the Red Wiggler. Last year I purchased both types, as I had initially feared that the crawlers might not reproduce well in a contained worm bed (and I knew form experience the wigglers would), but they sustained a population just fine. Below are some tips based on my experience in raising these for bait:1. Arrival Size – Many negative reviews focus on the condition of these worms upon arrival. Please read the instructions closely, as the worms have been prepared for efficient shipment and are near dehydration. These worms will not be anywhere near adequate fishing size when they arrive. They will need time to grow. In my experience, with proper feeding and moisture management, they will be of fishable size in a couple of weeks, within five weeks will start to get rather large, and within two months will breed new worms.2. Follow the Directions – As mentioned above, the worms are purposefully shipped in an almost dehydrated state. It is imperative that you follow the directions to rehydrate the worms immediately upon receipt. I have received three shipments in total, and have never had any issues with ultimate mortality to date.3. Habitat/Containment – Gardening use or compost production would be a totally different scenario than what I describe, as I am producing worms strictly for use as fishing bait. I have found that several different types of containment will work for these worms as the real key is substrate and moisture management. My main containment has been a HDPE (plastic) feed trough for cattle/horses. A containment of this size can sustain quite a population, and given time could probably be a self-sufficient breeding population without need to restock. The only reason I have had to restock for the upcoming season is that we moved the trough out of the shop and forgot about it for a couple of weeks, and the birds decimated the worm population. So if you plan to store outside, you will need some mechanism to protect from birds. Furthermore, these worms are also known as Alabama jumpers, and they will jump bail and crawl out of their containment at night, so either place a cover/lid on (with adequate ventilation) or put a light above the containment to discourage surfacing. (I don’t prefer the light method, unless I can’t find an alternate solution, as the European crawlers seem to prefer to feed on the surface at night, and I think they fare better when they can surface without disturbance). All that being said, they won’t leave containment most of the time if temperature, moisture, food, and substrate conditions are favorable.4. Portable Containment – After a month or so, I usually have enough big worms to start a couple of “satellite” containers, as well. Typically, this is a five gallon bucket filled halfway with soil substrate. This makes for easy transport, and they will survive well in a container of this size. I used the same bucket of worms for all my fishing for several months last year, and it still had a surviving population of worms well into winter (until I accidentally killed them all in January). I recommend “turning over” buckets every couple of weeks by pouring the soil back and forth a couple of times between two buckets. Make sure any lid or covering is adequately ventilated, or humidity in the air will likely condense into the bucket and create conditions that can become overly saturated.5. Substrate – The best mixture I have found so far is a mixture of highly organic soil (such as potting soil without fertilizer), natural topsoil, and sand. Europeans supposedly prefer dense soil types such as clay loam, but I found that they will thrive in the above mixture and it remains workable. (The addition of sand is not for the worms, but instead keeps the soil in a very workable texture so that retrieving worms and turning over the bed is easier.) These worms will compost, but I do not recommend the addition of leaves or grass clippings to the substrate in a small container. I made the mistake of adding dry leaves to a 5-gallon container this winter, and within a couple of days the entire bucket had turned “septic” and all the worms had died. My best guess is that the tannic acid from the decaying leaves caused a quick and drastic change in soil pH, which killed a portion of the population, which then quickly caused anaerobic conditions in the saturated lower portion of the container which quickly killed the remaining worms.6. Food – The best quick and easy food seems to be unsalted corn meal. Apparently, no one advertises corn meal as “unsalted” any more, so you just have to read the ingredients on the label. “Aunt Jemimiah” brand has an unsalted version. (Do not use salted corn meal, as the salt content will eventually be fatal for the worms.) Corn meal is convenient, and it does not have any odor associated with it (unlike feeding scraps). Fruit and vegetable scraps are also viable foods, but they will attract insects and can produce odor. If you utilize fruit and vegetable scraps, mix the scraps into the soil and do not leave them directly on the surface to reduce insect attraction. Never use any meats or meat containing products such as dog/cat food.7. Calcium - The addition of washed, finely crushed egg shells can help with breeding success rates. Earthworms need Calcium to produce their egg sacs, so if the soil substrate is Ca deficient, then an additional Ca source will be necessary.8. Moisture Management – Maintaining adequate moisture in the soil substrate is paramount. Most sources claim that these worms can tolerate extremely saturated soil conditions. In my experience, over saturated is definitely better than under saturated, but I would be careful with over watering. In containment, whenever I have gotten a little too much water in the soil, they tend to start migrating out of containment. That said, however, under watering the substrate is fatal. Adding just enough water to give the soil a moist appearance is usually plenty. I typically add 4 or 5 oz to the 5 gallon bucket containers every 3 or 4 days. Unchlorinated or de-chlorinated water works much better than chlorinated tap water. Chlorine will evaporate from tap water if left out, so if city water is your only source, just keep a bowl filled up and uncovered for a couple of days prior to using it for watering the worms. Putting a lid on the worm bucket can also lead to overly saturated conditions during humid weather, so ensure the lid is well ventilated.9. Temperature – These are not Canadian Night Crawlers, and do not like extremely cool conditions. Those who fish Canadian crawlers know that they must be kept cold in a cooler or refrigerator to survive. These Europeans thrive in temperate conditions similar to soil conditions in the mid latitude U.S. (soil temperatures in the mid-South are usually above 50 degrees for most of the year). They don’t really like either extreme of temperature. If you place them in the refrigerator or cooler, they will usually survive for several days, but they become extremely lethargic and certainly will not grow under those temperature conditions. Keep this in mind when carrying them in the boat during fishing trips, as if you need an extremely lively worm for you target species, then you will not want to keep them in the cooler. That being said, they cannot survive in small containers in direct sunlight on hot summer days, so in these conditions they will need to be transported in a cooler or at least shaded. For long term storage, they will grow and thrive best around room temperature or slightly lower. Storing in a basement, shop, or crawl space under the house works best.

Always receive a live and lively bunch of worms