Sunday I bought 2 dozen nightcrawlers and headed out to the lake to fish.
It was so crowded I left, came home, and put the worms in the refrigerator along with the other half dozen I had from last week.
So now its Wednesday, and twice when I opened my refrigerator, looking at the worms I felt pangs of guilt.
I then noticed the 2 dozen container -- all the worms were at the top!!
I thought maybe something is wrong.
I then shook it around and realized there were hardly any dirt/earthworm bait stuff for the worms to bury themselves in.
I dumped it out and was horrified to find the entire container was mostly just worms!
The poor worms weren't able to do anything but lie on top of each other, without any dirt to crawl through.
So then I took both containers and added real rich soil I got from the mountains and some cucumber peels and put them back into the refrigerator.
But that still isn't enough rooms for that many nightcrawlers.
The one worm had his head poking out of the dirt, over the edge of the container as if to say "egads, I'm trapped in here!"
Made me wonder...do earthworms have any feelings at all?
What makes for a happy worm?
What is a proper container and environment to house a worm in, even if you plan to eventually use it as fishing bait?
On the average, earthworms in the wild can live up to about 2 years!!
They can consume up to one third of their own body weight in a day.
Here is a link to an essay about worms feeling pain:
Do Earthworms Feel Pain?
Here is a link about giant earthworms:
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptotourism/the-giant-worms-of-japan
Foods to KEEP OUT of your worm bin
-No Bones
-No Onions/Garlic
-No Oranges,tomatoes,lemons (no acidic fruit)(more experienced bin owners can or will get away with small amounts of these added)
-No Meat or poultry
-No Milk or milk products,don’t forget about yogurt and cheese products being a milk product
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This is some advice on care of earthworms:
Worms may be kept in shipping container for short periods. Upon arrival, mist with water to moisten, but do not make soil wet. Worms can be kept in the refrigerator for short periods of time. To maintain worms for a longer period of time, keep at room temperature in diffused light, feeding crushed dead leaves or cornmeal sprinkled over the surface of the soil. Add rich soil (preferably humus) as needed, and remove any mold as it appears.
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Environment for worms:
It’s fine to keep a worm bin indoors. If managed properly, there won’t be any problem with odors, flies, etc! Indoor worms are much happier during the cold winter months, and they’re more likely to survive and keep reproducing. You can keep a bin under the kitchen sink, in a pantry, or mostly any place that’s convenient for you. If you keep your bin outdoors, it should be located on the north side of the house (away from direct sunlight). Keep it in the shade, protected from rainfall, and as insulated as possible during the winter.
Worms need a nice comfortable home, similar to their natural habitat. Bedding should be light and fluffy, so that air can flow through. It should also be moist, like a wrung-out sponge. Possible bedding materials are shredded newspaper (non-glossy), straw, or leaves. You should have about 6 inches of moist bedding at the bottom, and a nice thick layer of dry bedding on top, to cover and insulate the worms.
They hate light! Optimal temperatures are 55-77* F. They need air and will drown if bedding gets too saturated. So holes for aeration and drainage are very important. Your goal is to create a 5-star worm hotel!
Worms eat a primarily vegan diet of fruits, veggies, and grains. They can eat coffee grinds and citrus, but only small amounts so it’s not too acidic. Meat and dairy contain pathogens and tend to produce strong odors, so don’t feed them to your worms! Experiment with how much food your worms can handle at a time they like it moldy, but if you find lots of VERY moldy smelly food piling up, then you’re probably overfeeding. If all the food is gone every time you check, probably feed more. Chopping small increases surface area, so they can eat it faster.
Yes: tea bags, coffee grounds, egg shells (ground up0, veggies, fruit, etc . . . No: citrus, meat, dairy .
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One article told of a study:
OSLO (Reuters) - Worms squirming on a fishhook feel no pain -- nor do lobsters and crabs cooked in boiling water, a scientific study funded by the Norwegian government has found.
"The common earthworm has a very simple nervous system -- it can be cut in two and continue with its business," Professor Wenche Farstad, who chaired the panel that drew up the report, said Monday.
Norway might have considered banning the use of live worms as fish bait if the study had found they felt pain, but Farstad said "It seems to be only reflex curling when put on the hook ... They might sense something, but it is not painful and does not compromise their well-being."
The government called for the study on pain, discomfort and stress in invertebrates to help in the planned revision of Norway's animal protection law. Invertebrates cover a range of creatures from insects and spiders to mollusks and crustaceans.
Farstad said most invertebrates, including lobsters and crabs boiled alive, do not feel pain because, unlike mammals, they do not have a big brain to read the signals.
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Here is a link - Worm Digest - has everything about earthworms:
Worm Digest
I found this on the internet about earthworms:
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What's it like to be a worm? How would the world look, sound, and feel if you lived at ground level or below, if you couldn't control your body temperature or even shiver when you were cold, and if you had no arms or legs and could only wiggle to move about?
- Seeing: Earthworms have no eyes, but they do have light receptors and can tell when they are in the dark, or in the light.
- Hearing: Earthworms have no ears, but their bodies can sense the
vibrations of animals moving nearby.
- Thinking and feeling: Worms have a brain that connects with nerves
from their skin and muscles. Their nerves can detect light, vibrations, and
even some tastes, and the muscles of their bodies make movements in response.
- Breathing: Worms breathe air in and carbon dioxide out, just like
us, but they don't have lungs. They can't breathe through their mouth, and
certainly can't breathe through their nose because they don't even have one!
They breathe through their skin. Air dissolves on the mucus of their skin,
so they MUST stay moist to breathe. If worms dry out, they suffocate. As
fresh air is taken in through the skin, oxygen is drawn into the worm's circulatory
system, and the worm's hearts pump the oxygenated blood to the head area.
The movements of the worm's body make the blood flow back to the back end
of the body, and the hearts pump the blood forward again. Carbon dioxide
dissolves out of the blood back to the skin.
- Eating: Worms do not have teeth, but their mouths are muscular and
strong. Nightcrawlers can even pull leaves into their burrows using their
strong mouths. The front end of the worm, its prostomium, is pointed
and firm, making it easy for worms to push their way into crevices as they
eat their way through their burrows. (The mouth of the worm is just behind
the prostomium.) Worms swallow pieces of dirt and decaying leaves, and the
food passes through the pharynx, (located in body segments 1-6), the esophagus (segments
6-13), and into the crop, which stores food temporarily. The worm's stomach
is very muscular, so is called a gizzard. Like a bird's gizzard, it
grinds up the food, which then moves into the intestine. The intestine
extends over two-thirds of the worm's body length. In the intestine, food
is broken down into usable chemicals which are absorbed into the bloodstream.
Leftover soil particles and undigested organic matter pass out of the worm
through the rectum and anus in the form of castings, or worm poop.
Worm poop is dark, moist, soil-colored, and very rich in nutrients. That's
why farmers and gardeners like to have lots of worms in their soil.
- Cleaning out the blood: Worms don't have kidneys, but they have
something serving the same purpose. Worms have nephridia to filter
out the dead cells and other wastes that are sloughed into the blood. Wastes
from the nephridia are eliminated through the same opening as the digestive
wastes. Worm urine is more dilute than ours, but has ammonia as well as urea.
- Heartbeats: Worms don't have just one heart. They have FIVE! But
their hearts and circulatory system aren't as complicated as ours -- maybe
because their blood doesn't have to go to so many body parts.
- Moving around: Worms have two kinds of muscles beneath their skin.
The outer layer of muscles are circular muscles, which decrease the diameter
but stretch the length of the earthworm's body when contracted. The inner
layer of muscles are longitudinal, which shorten but widen the body when
contracted. Every segment of a worm's body (except the first and last) has
four pairs of tiny, stiff hair-like projections called setae. To move
forward, this is what a worm does:
- First it grips the soil with some of its back setae so its back part can't move.
- Then it squeezes its circular muscles, which makes its body get longer. Since the back of the body is gripping the soil, the front part of the body moves forward.
- Then the front setae grip the soil and the back setae let go.
- Then the worm squeezes its longitudinal muscles, which makes its body shorter. The back part moves forward.
