@Clive
Well-known member
Worms from the tackle shops and supermarkets in France are ridiculously expensive. Around two quid for 15 dendras and three quid for ten lobs. I used to rear my own and top up from the little compost bin, but we haven't now got a small compost bin, it all goes in a much harder to access large clamp and worm farming wasn't that successful in our basement. I find a few lobs in our and other people's gardens, but never enough. So I started to freeze any left over lobworms in my bait freezer. Sea anglers use frozen lugworms and ragworms, so why not lobworms? The initial batch went well. I caught bream and barbel on the thawed out worms.
I had a look online for mail order worms. The prices were no less than the shops once delivery was added. Then I came across a guy who runs a Carpodrome, basically a commercial fishery, who rears worms as a sideline. The premises are situated less than two minutes from my Monday working route so last time I was passing I called in. Monday wasn't the best day as he dispatches all the mail order packages on Monday morning, but he got me a mixed tub of dendras, redworms and brandlings for €10. I worked out that this was 50X the amount I would get at the tackle shop.
I put some compost and leaf mold in the bottom of a 5 litre bait sealed bucket, drilled some holes in the top, tipped the worms in and put a thick layer of moss over them. So far I have fed them tea leaves, dried breadcrumbs and powdered milk every three or four days and it is looking good. The redworms inhabit the attic moss, the dendras are in the middle layer and the brandlings are burrowing away in the basement compost layer. I have ordered a tenner's worth of large dendras to collect next week and I'm thinking about splitting the brandlings off and having two buckets, one mossy bucket for the reds and dendras and a compost filled bucket for the brandlings.
Hopefully I can be self-sufficient in future and plan to start taking some worms out, cleaning them and freezing them in small batches to be used to make chopped worm loose feed.
I had a look online for mail order worms. The prices were no less than the shops once delivery was added. Then I came across a guy who runs a Carpodrome, basically a commercial fishery, who rears worms as a sideline. The premises are situated less than two minutes from my Monday working route so last time I was passing I called in. Monday wasn't the best day as he dispatches all the mail order packages on Monday morning, but he got me a mixed tub of dendras, redworms and brandlings for €10. I worked out that this was 50X the amount I would get at the tackle shop.
I put some compost and leaf mold in the bottom of a 5 litre bait sealed bucket, drilled some holes in the top, tipped the worms in and put a thick layer of moss over them. So far I have fed them tea leaves, dried breadcrumbs and powdered milk every three or four days and it is looking good. The redworms inhabit the attic moss, the dendras are in the middle layer and the brandlings are burrowing away in the basement compost layer. I have ordered a tenner's worth of large dendras to collect next week and I'm thinking about splitting the brandlings off and having two buckets, one mossy bucket for the reds and dendras and a compost filled bucket for the brandlings.
Hopefully I can be self-sufficient in future and plan to start taking some worms out, cleaning them and freezing them in small batches to be used to make chopped worm loose feed.
Last edited: