worm bed

[pastorp]

Any of you guys keep a worm bed. Where I grew up in Florida everyone had one. I wonder if I could keep one going here in Alaska?

Worms make great trout bait. I use them on a fly rod, cause I'm a purist don't ya know.

I would add that in southeast Alaska we don't get below zero temps. usual winter temps are teens to 40s. We do get 150-200 inches of rain.

Regards,

[Graybeard]

About the only way you'd be able to do it in AK would be to do it inside. They can't take being frozen six months of the year. We used to keep one here but can't anymore because of the fireants.

[Arier Blut]

May I suggest meal worms for inside instead of worms. Worms would smell a little too musty for me. Meal worms can be kept in a butter bowl with tiny air holes in the top they eat grain so no smell. Here's an instruction page and a few distributors. BTW trout like them better than worms here.
http://www.cannibalsall.com/mealworms.html

[Siskiyou]

I had three large worm beds as a kid in Northern California.  I sold worms to the local sporting goods store.  Freezing temperatures started in mid to late September and continued on and off into early May.  Every once and while we would get down around 18 degrees for a few days during winter.  A week or so of snow on top of the beds did not seem to both them.  Before freezing weather we would clean the rabbit hutches and put everything on top of the worm beds.  This fed the worms and insulated them.  We also put spent plant material on the worm bed, normally tomato vines and bean plants, and others.
This created high nutrition worm beds.  I think the waste from the rabbits super charged the worm beds.  The worms produced in the beds were large then those normally found in the stores.

[Arier Blut]

+1 on the rabbits. That is my worm beds. I have a screen at a 45 degree angle under the rabbit hutches. The urine goes straight down. The pellets role into a pile to the side. I use it for the garden. I never put worms in there, they just showed up. Scraps of linoleum are on top of the rabbit manure. The worms stay under the vinyl. I feed the worms to the chickens every now and then. I also throw the worms in the garden to help the soil out.

[hillbill]

my gpa had a redworm bed in wisconsin that was awesum. turn over a fork full and pik worms out for 10 min. big fat redworms, we caught a lot of bluegills with them.he used hog poop and coffe grounds and table scraps to feed them.when he moved to arkansaw he tried to start another one but even tho it was in the shade he said it was just too hot for them.