# Best type of bedding to keep nightcrawlers



## iceman

Does anybody have any special tricks or tips for keeping nightcrawlers alive...growing up my dad used a product buzz bedding came in yellow bag...I have heard coffee grounds and saw dust...I work at a golf course and I picked a bunch of worms off greens and fairways this morning...I had them in some top dressing mix and I added some coffee grounds...I also soaked some coffee grounds (coffee flavor was terrible) just in some water and tossed it in there as well...activity level of worms not good right now I think the combination was not up to their liking...
My dad used to keep a styrofoam cooler in basement and they did really well...I don't know if refrigeration is better but I keep the beer fridge in garage pretty cold right around 32 degrees so maybe too cold for bait I'm thinking??
Any thoughts, suggestions or old sage advise appreciated.


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## matticito

Buzz bedding. My parents have used it for dozens of worms they'd go out and pick out of grass.

In canada we'd go out and find some kind of moss. I remember what it looks like but never knew the name, guess it would always keep moist and was kinda shaggy. Worms loved that stuff and stayed in grandmas root cellar.


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## iceman

I used to get in trouble if I got any grass in buzz bedding...my back used to get sore when I was young picking worms I can't imagine now


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## saugmon

Rolled up newspaper.Cut them in half or quarter them so you have 8-10 pgs together.Roll them or twist them. Soak them in a 5 gallon bucket of clean water...I'd use the crisper drawers in the garage fridge.Avoid the colored pages.Black and white is what you want.

1) Get the bottom layer of rolled up newspapers in what you are storing them in.Squeeze the rolls so they're not too saturated.
2)dip the worms in clean bucket of water to clean off the dirt,leaves,etc.#)toss a few dozen on the row.
3)start another row of saturated and layer them up.

Change paper once a month and unroll the worms out of the old paper and toss them in the clean bucket again and layer them again.You may lose a few but cleaning them again will help. Toss them into a smaller container of newspaper when time to use them.The best part is,you'll have a cleaner boat after using worms for the day.


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## iceman

Awesome info! Much appreciated


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## FISHIN 2

That stuff is called BUSS Beding, ground paper. Peat moss is best, worms need kept at around 38-40, used coffe grounds work well but not a lot, a little oatmeal or cornmeal works too. Need to change a bit of the bedding every few weeks if they last that long. Pick dead ones out weekly, you can keep em for months, COVERED with air holes in bucket.


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## meats52

iceman said:


> Does anybody have any special tricks or tips for keeping nightcrawlers alive...growing up my dad used a product buzz bedding came in yellow bag...I have heard coffee grounds and saw dust...I work at a golf course and I picked a bunch of worms off greens and fairways this morning...I had them in some top dressing mix and I added some coffee grounds...I also soaked some coffee grounds (coffee flavor was terrible) just in some water and tossed it in there as well...activity level of worms not good right now I think the combination was not up to their liking...
> My dad used to keep a styrofoam cooler in basement and they did really well...I don't know if refrigeration is better but I keep the beer fridge in garage pretty cold right around 32 degrees so maybe too cold for bait I'm thinking??
> Any thoughts, suggestions or old sage advise appreciated.


Are you sure it was buzz bedding and not Buss Bed-ding? This is what I use and it works really good. I've been using it for a lot of years.


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## iceman

Yep that's it... Thanks


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## fastwater

As kids we never kept them in the house.
Dad built a wooden, lidded bait box in the ground. Seems box was about a foot...maybe 1 1/2' deep and maybe 3'x3' and about 3-4"s of the box out of the ground.
Box was filled with a mixture of rich dirt from the garden, damp shredded newspaper and dried leaves. Wanted the soil to not compact but stay loose. We would mix coffee grounds in as well. Remember we changed box contents out every fall. Garden vegetables(leaf lettuce,tomatoes,potatoes,green beans,etc)not fit for us to eat and peelings were thrown in for added food every so often as well. 
During the dog days of summer, we would check to make sure box contents stayed moist.
Even supplying many of our buddies with crawlers, we never ran out.


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## fastwater

dp


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## baitguy

coffee grounds are good food but to much is not good, soil gets to acidic ... they'll eat the newspapers and also cardboard ... throw in some crushed up some eggshells ... fruit and veggies are great food, they particularly like melon rinds ... watermelon, cantelope, honeydo ... tea leaves are another, as are dead leaves and grass ... keep them cool ... good luck


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## CDUCK

they use to sell a fiberboard box with , excuse the spelling spaghmatum moss hard to find any more. we used to take crawlers on our annual Canadian trip, we would run news paper [ black and white print only] through the lawn mower mulcher, dampen with a little water and put it in a Styrofoam container, and throw in the worms, take a few empty pop bottles and fill with water and freeze and put in the box, change out when they melt, still had worms to bring home after 2 weeks. they love chopped up news paper , but I guess good luck finding news paper anymore, its getting harder to clean fish anymore.


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## jkiefer1362

Damp newspaper works best for me. Breaks down nicely 

Sent from my SM-S908U using Ohio Game Fishing mobile app


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## PromiseKeeper

I wonder if using the paper out of the shredder would work?


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## baitguy

PromiseKeeper said:


> I wonder if using the paper out of the shredder would work?


shredded paper is great, better than big sheets ... make sure there's only black ink and preferably newsprint ... no glossy paper and colored ink has chemicals that could potentially kill them ... and mix in a little actual dirt, maybe a few eggshells if you have them ...


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## RollingRock

When I would take out crawlers from my long term storage container, I would never put them back in. I would keep them in a separate container to use next. The ones you took out could be damage a bit from being to hot or miss handling and could cause problems. When changing bedding, I would place a damp bath towel on top that would cover the whole thing and then place the crawlers on top of the towel. The good ones would go into the bedding, bad ones would stay on top..


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## M R DUCKS

My dad was the “ worm king” in Tiffin, OH. Probably in the 1940s
he use to have to pay the water bill…I think he said it normally was a couple bucks, but when he was catching big numbers for the guys headed to Canada the water bill was in the $20s
He boxed the worms in “peat moss”,
I think he said it was the stuff they use to pack ammo in, at times it was hard to come by.
I think he got maybe 15 cents for 2 doz.


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## bare naked

CDUCK said:


> they use to sell a fiberboard box with , excuse the spelling spaghmatum moss hard to find any more. we used to take crawlers on our annual Canadian trip, we would run news paper [ black and white print only] through the lawn mower mulcher, dampen with a little water and put it in a Styrofoam container, and throw in the worms, take a few empty pop bottles and fill with water and freeze and put in the box, change out when they melt, still had worms to bring home after 2 weeks. they love chopped up news paper , but I guess good luck finding news paper anymore, its getting harder to clean fish anymore.


Canteen Bait Box Co. out of Oberlin-Ohio. Out of business for years.


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## JCarp

All good suggestions. I've personally had poor long term results with it, but you can definitely get sphagnum moss mail order. However, the Buss Bedding vendor used to sell both a sphagnum moss product and the shredded newspaper product and both worked well short term for me (a month or so). You do need to feed them if you're in it for the long haul. My favorite bedding is about 1/2 way composted leaves. You make a leaf pile in the fall, the next spring, you use that material and maybe add a bit of garden soil or finished compost if the leaves are too wet. For keeping worms a month or two, I like a 2/3 way full five gallon bucket or 2 with lids and vent holes in basement. Tilt buckets every few days to check on things and add fresh air, if too moist, add some shredded newspaper, paper towels, dryer soil. They will eat leaves up over time. I like 2 buckets so all my eggs aren't in one basket. 

If you do the wooden box in ground, it must be in shade and it must be 100% tight. They are escape artists. When I was a kid, one neighbor used two washtubs above ground with covers and another guy used a clawfoot bathtub that was about 1/2 full of compost and sunk about 1/2 way into the ground. I lived at a place with seriously clay soil. Dug a small 12 inch deep trench in shaded spot, filled with better soil and maybe 4 dozen "leftover" nightcrawlers - they stayed put for an extended period....I dug a dozen or so several times...


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## ohiotuber

jkiefer1362 said:


> Damp newspaper works best for me. Breaks down nicely
> 
> Sent from my SM-S908U using Ohio Game Fishing mobile app


I shred it, dampen & add a few ice cubes daily.

Mike


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