Caring for worms at camp

[Hodgey1]

Last year we had a flat of worms for six of us, it was a challenge to keep them alive and corralled. They came in the styrofoam flat from Kipawa bait with a half azz lid. We kept the flat in our cooler and in the morning found half the worms in the cooler, swimming with the beer. Then we put the flat in a garbage bag in the cooler and in the morning they would be in the bag out of the flat.

We are 4 guys this year so I will be getting less worms, but I would like to improve our pathetic system, any suggestions?

[RHYBAK]

Here is my suggestion

https://www.fishusa.com/product/Frabill-Crawler-Cabin

buy two if you have to.

[Greg]

RHYBAK's response is a good one, but all it is is a fancy Tupperware container... if you don't want to spend that much $$ --  I have seen people go to the dollar store and buy cheap plastic Tupperware containers - like you would put a flat cake in or 3 dozen cookies (...mmmmm cake and cookies, now I'm hungry).

Snap the rubber maid on tight after each withdraw and before you go to bed, to ensure they don't try to drink your beer!

[RHYBAK]

Or go to your local fish store and ask if they have a styrofoam cooler with lid that the lobsters come in .
I think they throw them out after one use.

I have a small version that I use for my winter Speck trip to keep our worms

[Jay Thomas]

For the last few years we've been using two Frabill Habitat II worm boxes with Frabill Super Gro Bedding to keep our flat of crawlers (500 crawlers) for 4 guys for a one week trip - see https://www.sail.ca/en/frabill-boite-a-vers-de-terre-habitat-ii-237133. I realize that the description states that these boxes are good for 8 dozen crawlers each but we've been adding approximately 250 crawlers to each box without issue.

We keep the crawlers cool by putting something similar to a Cryopak Ice-Pak (4" X 7" X 1.5") in each Habitat II worm box. Each day we exchange the these Ice-Paks with two cold ones from the freezer.

This has worked very well for us. Just in passing, four of us typically take in a flat of crawlers and 2 pounds of large leeches for a week long trip. We keep our leeches in leech tamer bags in a cooler with ice in the cabin. Each boat has a leech tamer bag for the leeches they take out for each outing.

Jay

[T-Bone]

How big is it? No specs on the product link...

[Jighead]

We use the styro foam containers that Kipawa bait provides, and tape the tops down. Also freeze bottles of water and place into the cooler where the containers are. Seems to work well. On a different bait topic, does anyone have issues finding leeches 3rd week of July? I am told they may not be available then? Any tips, places, etc. would be helpful.

17 days to go...

[Jay Thomas]

How big is it? No specs on the product link...

From https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/frabill-habitat-ii-worm-storage-system, the size is 13" L x 10-1/2" W x 7" H

Jay

[Hodgey1]

Thanks everyone for the ideas, I will not stand for another year of wiping worm slime from my beer!

[Hodgey1]

buy cheap plastic Tupperware containers, Snap the rubber maid on tight after each withdraw and before you go to bed, to ensure they don't try to drink your beer!

If using the plastic container idea, would we then need to make some ventilation holes in it or is there enough air getting by lid?

[Greg]

Sure you can drill some small holes - but opening and closing it always added enough fresh air.   Add an ice cube in a couple corners each day (adds moisture) - and obviously don't set it in the sun.

...9 days...

Greg

[NortonJoe]

We use an old, large, crawler box that is probably the predecessor of the one @RHYBAK shared the link for.  It's not so much the container itself as keeping the worm bedding moist (not wet) and cool.  We use a blue ice pack on top of some newspaper to keep the worms cool.  Also, we keep them in the cabin so they don't get too warm outside or in the sun (try to keep them covered in the boat as well).

[T-Bone]

On a different bait topic, does anyone have issues finding leeches 3rd week of July? I am told they may not be available then?

Hey @Jighead, who said this? WTF?

[RHYBAK]

buy cheap plastic Tupperware containers, Snap the rubber maid on tight after each withdraw and before you go to bed, to ensure they don't try to drink your beer!

If using the plastic container idea, would we then need to make some ventilation holes in it or is there enough air getting by lid?

And dampen a newspaper with some beer so that they don't escape looking for your beer.
Nice to give them their own.

[Hodgey1]

And dampen a newspaper with some beer so that they don't escape looking for your beer.
Nice to give them their own.

Any ideas as to what brand they prefer?     Blue?