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Now
you will have to be able to go into stealth mode to catch the worms or
they will burrow into the ground out of reach before you even see them.
The best thing to do is be very quiet and tread as softly as possible
so your vibrations do not warn the monster wrigglers off. You will need
to crouch down very low so you can get ready to grab the unsuspecting
worms. Once you see one in the wet grass you will then notice lots more
as your eyes focus in on them, be quick though or they will dissapear.
Some of the worms will be easy to pick up but others will bury themselves
in their hole, you will not be able to get them out again without breaking
them. The reason they dissapear so quickly is due to the fact that one
end of the body is already down the hole making an easy escape route if
in danger. You can try placing your fingers towards the end of the worm
that is in the hole and it should relax, making it easier pull out. Once
you have mastered te art of collecting worms you will have free bait whenever
you need it!
Other
methods of collecting worms include:
Laying a wet towel on the grass at night and in the morning the worms
will have collected there ready for you to place in a bucket and go fishing!
Pouring washing up water on the grass will bring the worms to the surface
too but they must be rinsed off asap in clean water.
You can also try tapping the ground to simulate rain or sticking a garden
fork in the ground and hitting it with a rubber hammer, the vibrations
will send the worms up. I have not tried this method but have seen it
done whilst watching a worm harvest championship once on TV, one of those
days when you have 100s of channels of crap to choose from!
Keeping
your worms in top condition
There
are a few ways to look after your worms once you have collected them,
they are as follows:
Keeping
them in plenty of damp moss is my favoured approach as they seem to always
appear in top condition. The moss helps them to retain all the natural
goodness they need to be healthy specimens, it even makes them go much
plumper and the skins toughen up a great deal too. I place six decent
size lobs in a bait box filled with moss and damp shredded paper then
pop it in a fridge to keep them nice and cool. The worms last for ages
in this way but I only tend to keep a few boxes at a time as I tend to
think that if the worm is not in the garden it will not be laying any
eggs for future Lobs.
Another
type of bedding to use for the worms is shredded newspaper damped down
with rainwater and a few tea leaves from a used teabag. You can then store
the worms in the same way as above or in one big bucket with a lid. You
must remember to put some small holes in the lid for air and keep your
worms in a cool place or they will not be happy!
You
can create yourself a wormery if you have the green fingers of a gardener.
Glen has a few wormeries going and breeds some monster lobs that are second
to none and the cats absolutely love them, only once have we blanked on
them in several sessions! Glen uses a container filled with compost and
adds a variety of vegetable peelings at certain times depending on how
many worms are in the container and how much they eat. I have tried this
approach myself but the worms all seem to go down hill and end up smaller
than when I put them in, my fingers are not green it seems!
Other
methods include burying a bucket in the ground and placing your worms
in rotted leaf matter, keeping them in a mixture of damp chipped bark
and compost and also vermiculite insulation! I am sure there are plenty
of other ideas out there, if anyone has any please let us know.
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