Don't throw out extra fishing worms
If you are a typical Arkansas fisherman who uses worms for bait on occasion, you've had the experience of ending an outing with a container partially filled with those worms - and you don't want to throw them away.
Don't discard them. Take them home and start your own worm farm. This can, and should, be a dual or triple purpose project. One, produce worms for fishing. Two, produce excellent compost for flower and vegetable gardening. Three, make use of some of your household wastes.
Growing worms can be as small or as big an operation as you make it. Let's assume here, though, the objective is for your own use, not for a commercial venture.
Before you get a supply of worms or bring home a container of unused fishing worms, prepare a bed for the worms. A few minutes on the Internet will bring you all sorts of information, some of it contradictory, so let's keep it simple and logical here.
A good-sized plastic storage container will cost just a few dollars at a discount store, or you may already have one on hand. Do you have a big cooler, around the 54-quart size, that has become mildewed and cruddy? This will work.
Shred a bunch of newspaper by folding sheets and running them into an office document shredder or by just tearing into inch-wide strips by hand. Dampen the shredded newsprint and mix with some soil. What you want is worm bedding that experienced raisers call "crumbly damp, not soggy wet."
Fill the container about three-fourths full with the bedding, add your supply of worms and add something for them to eat. Kitchen leftovers are fine with a few no-nos. Don't use meat scraps. These will attract pests. Go easy on citrus material that is too acid for worms. A little orange peel along with other food won't hurt. Cooked egg shell is good, like the shells from hard-boiled eggs. Crush these finely before putting in the worm bed.
Cereal and pasta without meat sauce are good. Many worm growers routinely put their old coffee grounds into the food mix, and the paper filters can go in as well. Bread, even stale, and corn meal are good worm food. So are potato peelings and apple peelings. Trimmings from cabbage and broccoli are good.
Opinions vary on whether the food should be spread on top of the worm bedding or mixed into the top inch or so. The majority of growers seem to prefer the latter - and just lightly raking it into the bedding is sufficient.
Don't put in too much food, and you will avoid having a smelly mess on hand. How much is enough? When the worms eat all the food in a few days is enough. If all the food is gone in a couple of days, you're not feeding enough. If food is left after a week, you are feeding too much.
If you have a compost pile at home for gardening use, it may not be good for raising worms. Heat is the factor here. A pile of chopped leaves, grass clippings and garden weeds and wastes gets hot in the center when the pile is fresh. It will become cooler as it ages, and a mature compost pile may well attract worms and nightcrawlers on its own.
Location of the worm bed is highly important, with temperature a major factor. Worms can make it from a range of about 40 degrees to 90 degrees but do best and reproduce when the temperature is in the 60 to 90 range.
If the bed is outside, pick a shady location for summer heat protection. Partially burying the container will help when weather is hot, too.
The worm bed should have a cover, partially open to allow air circulation but a shield from rain. Drain holes in the bottom with some mesh window screen over them will handle excess water.
Worms reproduce rapidly in good conditions. Several methods can be used to remove worms and to use the composted bedding for gardens. This compost includes the worm castings, which is a polite term for worm poop. It is rich stuff.
One common method is to dump the container on to a sheet of plywood. The worms will burrow toward the bottom. Carefully remove the top of the bedding pile a little at a time until you have a mass of wiggling worms and a little bedding at the bottom.
Take out what worms you want to use then dump the rest back into a container of fresh bedding.