What equipment is needed to collect nightcrawlers with electric?

Answer 1

a regular car battery, a couple of strands of insulated wire, and two metal, small diameter stakes or large nails. use one wire and nail to each battery post, stick the nails in the ground a few feet apart and touch the wires to the posts. p.s. if the dirt is dry on the surface the worms will be too deep. wet the ground a couple days in advance, but do not saturate the dirt. night crawlers like damp soil, not mud. (alternate plan; safer, less tools required.- take a very large wood rasp (or file) the bigger the better, stick one end in the ground about two or three inches and hold the other end firmly in one hand. with your other hand, take a metal rod or (i prefer) a lug wrench (a single, not a 4-way) and rub it up and down the rasp very quickly with moderate pressure. i swear this works. maybe its the vibration. not sure. old timers back home taught me this when i was a kid. the old timers said the worms thought it was thunder before a big rain and wanted to get on the surface before they drowned!!! but it works, that's a promise. but, same as before..... if the ground is very dry, it won't work. the dryer the ground is, the deeper down the crawlers go. then nothing but a shovel will get them out. good luck.