lob worms

can anyone please tell me the best way to keep lob worms fresh over a period of time as i am getting fed up getting p**s wet through collecting them when its raining and when i come to use them a week or so later they are all dead. i have been keeping them in a large bucket with a fair amount of compost in thank you

Keep them cool in the fridge or on a cold concrete floor.
Don't keep them in potting compost, keep topped up with spagnum moss and or damp shredded newspaper and feed them mashed spud without salt every so often.

split them down ino small tubs 10 at most put them in a fridge, keep them in the soil from under the grass you get them from with a bit of damp grass on top.

check them regularly and take any dead or dying ones out.

trick is don't damage them when pulling from the grass

good luck

use as big a container as possible i would say a bucket is too small something more along the lines of one of those large boxes used for keeping your bedroom tidy or something similar, and store in damp newspaper and moss as fred says or if no moss available just damp newspaper and take any dead ones out.

I definitely wouldn't put any garden soil or any soil as strange as it may seem i find they die quite quickly if kept with soil.

Moss and Horse chestnut leaves are good.In wooden boxes from a fruit and veg shop with a damp towel over the top.
Kept cool and dark they will thrive.
dave

I keep them about 15 per take-away container with the lid pierced every inch or so, in damp sphagnum moss gleaned from the lawn, They are fridged in my bait fridge and checked for condition every week and the sphagnum moisture checked. It should be wet but there should be no loose water in the container bottom. Soil fouls the moss and should be avoided; even a small amount.
They go completely torpid like this without freezing or going soft and will liven up within a 1/2 hour when removed. If you only put whole worms in there they will not decay and I've kept them for up to 3-4 months and then buried them in a composty corner of my veg patch to recover completely.
I usually take new stock off the lawn at night but if stuck can always dig around Compost Corner. I can't remember when I last had no worms at all.
I also keep Dendrobaena (Tiger Worms) like this but they start to go a bit flaccid (soft and spongy) if they don't get a feed after about a month, so I put them back in the composter and rotate them with new stock. I keep about 30-40 Tigers to a container.

Most potting compost contains chemical fertilisers which will kill them stone dead in no time.
I used to keep mine in good old fashioned peat in a bucket in the garage.
Having said that though I cant remember the last time I used worm as a bait.

Cabbage leaves are another one guaranteed to kill them overnight.

garyp said:

can anyone please tell me the best way to keep lob worms fresh over a period of time as i am getting fed up getting p**s wet through collecting them when its raining and when i come to use them a week or so later they are all dead. i have been keeping them in a large bucket with a fair amount of compost in thank you

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If you are damaging them during collection (it's easily done) then that could be the reason you are losing them.....no "good keeping" will cure that.

I'm not trying to teach you to suck eggs but night collection skills need to be honed, grab them to hard or pull to hard at the wrong moment and the worm wont last long, it can then start to turn the others off.

Check them daily and any "stretched" or placid specimens feed to the birds.......store in spag moss and/or damp shredded paper......and yes mashed spud as a feed now and again.