Nightcrawler Worms Grown in The USA

Over the years I have noticed an increasing trend when it comes to “worm farms” offering nightcrawlers for sale online. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, one of my favorites is the African nightcrawler which many do not raise as the time factor involved growing them out to full size.

However what I have noticed over the years is the increasing sales of European nightcrawlers shipped in weekly from overseas. Just for example anyone who was looking to purchase these worms back in April of 2010 had a difficult time finding any to purchase. This was due to the fact that the Iceland volcano had erupted encapsulating the flight paths in ash, shutting down major airports in the UK, hence eliminating any shipment of European nightcrawlers to the United States for a number of weeks!  In fact from some research I have been doing online, I have found somewhere around 90% of the European nightcrawlers sold in the USA are imported from Europe at one point or another. Some import and sell directly, while others broker through these same companies either directly or purchase from them to sell themselves. Still others use third parties to ship for them and usually the worms have originated… you guessed it… from Europe!

To date I do not know anyone personally raising Canadian nightcrawlers in the USA either. These are usually dug up by some using low cost laborers up near the Canadian border and trucking them back or shipped in weekly from countries such as Canada.

I mention this because of today’s economy, and I personally believe buying American goods whenever possible since I do live in this great Country. Also locally grown worms in the USA are usually healthier… For instance, many worms which are shipped into the country are usually crated and sent out to overseas airports over the weekend. Some arrive on Monday morning which are picked up and bought to their destination. They are opened, repackaged and shipped out later the same day to your home or business hence placing a huge stress on the worms.

I ran a test recently on a comparison of European nightcrawlers which I raise here personally and purchased some which were sent in overseas through a third party that receive regular shipments on a weekly basis. I started with 300 European nightcrawlers in each worm bin, used the same bedding mix, same amount of moisture, same type and amount of food in each, all worms being approximately 2grams and observed them for the past week in a controlled environment. The results actually surprised me as I had figured I would lose some of the imported worms for a day or two. However I have been losing an average of five worms per day (36 in seven days to be exact) in the bin containing the imported Europeans while losing “zero” which have been raised on our worm farm. Even this morning, one week later, there were four dead and dying Europeans on the surface of the bin containing the imported worms.

There could be several reasons for these results, first being the stress upon which the worms go through from being shipped out twice within a matter of days as well as perhaps the environmental conditions they are raised in overseas versus how we raise them here. One of the major differences we normally overlook is the availability of bedding and or feed supplies available from country to country.

Bruce