they are thought to be invasive and damaging to the biodiversity of the upper midwest. here in nys they seem to be everywhere, even in wilderness areas.

hebdemnobad; Not night crawlers, but certain earth worms are called invasive. they are not the same critters.

Curt

Hi All; In order to keep things from being miss under stood the scientific names of the earthworm species should be used. The term nightcrawler is too generic to be used and can mean any worm that comes out to feed and breed at night.

Lumbricus terrestris (North American Nightcrawler,Lob,Dew,Canadian Nightcrawler) earthworms are the earthworms that are sited as one of the invasive species in certain pristine areas where the forest floor duff is being consumed and destroyed. There are certain types of plant life that require that duff for their survival.

To let them loose in say Texas I do not believe the worm could survive very long. The type of soil they need to live in requires them to tunnel down as much as 12-15 feet in order to keep cool enough to survive. The decaying plant matter around the tunnel must be sufficient to keep them alive. Soil that is too sandy or gravely will not do it.

In my opinion the conditions in most of Texas is too hot,dry and unless near a waterhole that is a permanent one the worms will die.

Now if you want to setup a small conducive environment for them the best way to do that to keep say 500-1000 worms can be done. you need a shallow bin say 8-10 inches deep a way to keep it at 60 deg f or a little lower. Small air conditioned room or a bin that is water cooled with deep cool ground water. The bin should be large enough to hold the number of worms you plan to keep.It should be insulated. Fill to within 1 inch of the top with Buss-Bedding damp enough to just get a drop of water when squeezed very tightly. Sprinkle oatmeal on top for food and feed again when the top is clean. The worms will eat the bedding and food so they will have to be cleaned about every 6 months. I have had Lts living in my bins and reproducing for going on 4 years now.

All Species that are not native to a eco system can be labled invasive.

Yes well they say they need more studies/money.

Curt

You should not release them. That's how forest destruction has occurred - fishermen toss their worms that they don't use. You could give them to someone who will use them for fishing, or who has fish that will eat them. Or toss them into a pond where some fish will eat them.

Deanna

Can I put them outside for the birds to eat?

I discovered this posting while reviewing some old threads. The idea that Canadian night crawlers could become invasive in Texas or destroy a forest fascinated me. I too was under the belief that Canadian night crawlers would not survive in areas like Texas, however I knew a walleye fisherman in Kansas who established Canadian night crawlers in his back yard by disposing his left overs there for over twenty years.

I have tried for ten years to establish native worms in my garden without success. I purchased some European night crawlers about a year and a half ago which did not fare well in my peat moss based media bins, so I transferred them to a sunken raised bed with aged cow manure/straw. I also added some Canadian night crawlers to this bin, left over from fishing. Then red wigglers found their way into this sunken raised bed and pretty much took it over.

I infrequently find evidence of both Canadian and European night crawlers in this bin. The one surprise was finding European night crawlers in my nearby garden when digging up my potatoes.

Two feet under my garden is bed rock and our winters are so harsh, establishing any kind of worm in the garden is questionable. I have been adding several cups of red wigglers from my indoor bins to holes dug for various crop transplants and this seems to be helping, at least during the growing season.

My garden sits in the center of an 80 square mile valley so I don't think I will be doing anything environmentally unacceptable. So I will take whatever I can get established in the way of a worm population.