- Nice food for Asian lizards and turtle amphibians

- Used as fishing bait

- Used as a natural fertilizer

- Easy to care

- Low maintenance cost

Night crawlers are nothing but a type of earthworms. There are two types of them – Canadian night crawlers and European night crawlers. Canadian night crawlers are mostly liked by the fishermen since they are larger in size (14inches). They can be easily fitted in a fish hook and even if they are submerged in water for 5 minutes they won’t die. Hence they can be used to catch carp, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, sunfish, trout, walleye, catfish and other freshwater fish. Night crawlers can’t survive above 65°F. So in bait shops they must be refrigerated. While fishing they should not be kept under hot sun.

Canadian night crawlers can be harvested in some parts of North America. At night when there is a lightly drizzling rain, they will come out. Hunters wearing yellow painted headlamp can collect 20,000 night crawlers in a single evening and can earn $800. Then they are shifted to a refrigerated room. They are manually counted there and packed in a box and then shipped.

You can cultivate night crawlers in your own home. It’s really an easy job that you will enjoy. A translucent plastic container is selected. Below the top edge small holes are drilled on all sides which provides aeration for the night crawlers. Peat moss should be soaked overnight. Instead of peat moss, you can also use soaked coir bedding. Night crawlers feel good if their bedding has a moisture content of 60%. So the soaked peat or coir should be squeezed and placed inside the container upto a depth of 6 to 7 inches. The night crawlers are then introduced. Since they prefer darkness they start burrowing. Peat moss should be kept loose so that they can easily tunnel through it. If the peat moss is permitted to dry, night crawlers won’t come to the surface for feeding. Hence it must be damped using a misting bottle. Usage of water hose should be avoided since it will drown the night crawlers. They shouldn’t be kept under heavy rains or hot sun.

Night crawlers are voracious eaters. They like fruits and vegetable peels, tea bags, crushed egg shells, stale bread and grass clippings. Citrus, garlic, onion, meat, bones, plastic and diary products shouldn’t be placed in their housing. If you want to supply your night crawlers to nourish the pets, feed them with high-protein chicken mash and calcium-rich greens. This will keep your worms more nutritious.

Harvesting of night crawlers must be done before feeding. If the food is mixed with the bedding “protein poisoning” will occur which will result in the death of the night crawlers. This can be avoided by spraying finely mashed food. New food should be added only if they fully consume the older ones.

If you see night crawlers in your lawn, don’t get panic. They aerate the soil and produce a fertilizer rich in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Hence your lawn will remain healthier.

If you desire to get much nutritious food for your fish or herps and if you want to have a continual supply of fishing bait, nurture night crawlers which a much easy task. 1lb of night crawlers costs about $33. For more details visit these websites.