Alabama Jumpers For Sale. Alabama Jumpers are excellent fishing worms & composting worm for yard or garden areas.
Posts tagged composting worms
Raising Alabama Jumpers In Michigan Black Peat Moss Part 2
Jan 30th
After thirty days, my experiment with raising Alabama Jumpers in Michigan peat moss has proven fruitful. The Alabama Jumpers are doing well and keep producing little jumpers.
I checked on the worms this afternoon and noticed I had newly hatched Alabama Jumpers and some up to two inches long in the breeder bin already. It appears they lay cocoons that hatch and grow rapidly to this point thus far.
The bedding material is packed tight again as I already loosened it up with a garden claw two weeks ago. My concern is the amount of oxygen able to penetrate towards the bottom since the deeper I go the more packed the bedding material is. I did not loosen the bedding this time as I plan to screen the worm bin one evening this week.
The Alabama Jumpers are thoroughly enjoying the Purina Worm Chow I have been feeding them daily.
Not only are there little ones in the breeder worm bin, however the adolescent Alabama Jumpers are in great shape, thick and healthy.
Going back to the original experiment with bedding consisting of hardwood sawdust and shavings, the material is over 50% composted now into worm castings. This bedding material does not pack hard as the Michigan black peat moss does hence the oxygen levels appear to be doing well since the Alabama Jumpers congregate throughout the bedding material. In this bin I still continue to feed them the Purina Worm Chow as well as some food scraps every few weeks. I noticed the other evening that this bin was covered with literally a hundred or more new juvenile Alabama Jumpers as I was adding some more feed.
This brings me to another point. I am still noticing that the areas with food scraps contain the larger mature worms and newly hatched juveniles. I am not seeing any of the two inch or so juveniles in the food scrap area as I am only finding them in the surrounding areas.
Contrary to what most web sites state, that one cannot breed Alabama Jumpers in captivity, when it comes to raising them in an environment favorable for reproduction to occur, these two experiments prove otherwise. In fact both experiments have proven to be an effective means by which anyone can raise prolific Alabama Jumpers in a worm bin. The only concern is the Michigan black peat compacting so hard over a two week period which can be eliminated by stirring up the worm bin bedding thoroughly every two weeks.
This is good sign since not only can Alabama Jumpers be raised for composting but they make an awesome live fishing worm. I have fished with them as bait myself in the past and was quite impressed. They remain on the hook apparently due to the tougher skin they have which enables them to borrow through hard packed clay and survive in course sandy soils. The Alabama Jumper lives up to its name as super live bait worm by wiggling more in the water than its relatives.
Bruce Galle
Don’t Be Fooled – Know What Type of Composting or Fishing Worms You Are Buying
Dec 11th
Alabama Jumpers – Amynthas gracilus also known as the grey wiggler like the one in the picture below are not red worms. They are of a grey color and can be highlighted in fluorescent colors when held up to the light.
There are some websites online offering Alabama Jumpers under the name of Super Red Worms which are actually European nightcrawlers – Eisenia Hortensis.
So what’s the big deal?
First off the Alabama Jumper is a great garden bed or yard composting worm which survives and converts hard packed clay and sandy soils into a fertile loose organic soil matter due to the nature of the outer layer of tough skin. They survive outside and are not prolific in a worm bin.
The European nightcrawler will have a low to zero survival rate when placed in hard packed clay and or sandy soils outside since their skin cannot take the hard abrasions. They are very prolific in a worm bin.
Basically these two worms are opposites and used for different purposes with the exception of fishing. Both the Alabama Jumper and European nightcrawler make excellent fishing worms!
There is another site I recently came across offering a mix of so called red wigglers and Alabama Jumpers. Again, these two worms are incompatible.
The red wiggler is a composting worm which will do well in a controlled environment with a bedding of peat moss, shredded newspaper, cardboard… however will not in soil. The red wiggler also will do well on nitrogen based food scraps or what are referred to as green organic products such as lettuce, bell peppers, banana peels, string beans… mixed in with the bedding.
The Alabama Jumpers prefers a soil base such as clay and or sand and does not do well with the green organic products. It prefers the carbon based or brown organic products such as shredded newspaper, cardboard, leaves, hay, peanut shells…
So before you waste your money, always use a reputable worm dealer or worm farm to purchase your worms to insure you get the right worms for your needs.
A recommended site is Organic Worm Farm which is a reputable worm website offering the lowest prices on Alabama Jumpers. They also offer a toll free telephone number to answer any questions you might have on Alabama Jumpers or any other composting and fishing worms.
Alabama Jumpers Compost & Fishing Worm Update
Dec 10th
I checked on the hay pile containing Alabama Jumpers, excellent composting & fishing worms today. The weather here is South Carolina has turned colder for this part of the country along with a good amount of cold rain.
Currently it is 51.1 degrees Fahrenheit at noon time.
When I removed a couple inches of hay to get a temperature reading of the top area of the Alabama Jumpers pile it read 42 degrees. As I dug down to the ground level as the Alabama Jumper pile is about one and a half feet high I was getting readings of 53 to 54 degrees Fahrenheit. So it appears currently the internal temperature is now holding steady for the past month.
I am happy to report I found the Alabama Jumpers there however they were a little sluggish compared to how they react during the warmer months. They are moving around but not jumping like they will do when they are warmer.
One thing I noticed right away was the size and thickness of these worms. I have been adding Purina Worm Chow weekly to the pile and the girth of the worms shows this. The Alabama Jumpers are now about as thick as a number 2 pencil which for these worms is very thick.
I will post another update on the Alabama Jumpers after the holidays!
Bruce
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