Facts
Fusce suscLumbricus (earthworm) terrestris (belonging to the earth)
Common name: Dew Worms, Worms, Live Bait, Earthworm.
Requires refrigeration: 35-40 degrees.
Worms can constructs burrows up to 2.5 m (ca 8 feet) deep.
Earth worms have no eyes, but they do have cells which are sensitive to light.
Earth worms don't have lungs, they absorb oxygen directly through their moist skin, which is kept moist by mucous secreting cells.
Farm fields in Southern Ontario produce strong, healthy and cold climate tolerant.
Moist soils that are rich in organic matter are the preferred habitat of earthworms.
Earthworms, and most other worms, are hermaphrodites. That is, each individual worm contains both male and female reproductive organs.
When two worms mate, they lie alongside one another, and both transfer sperm to the other.
By night, worms can be found on or near the soil surface, but in daylight they retreat down well below the soil surface, except when it rains.
There are approximately 2,700 different kinds of earthworms.
A worm has no arms, legs or eyes.
How to tell which end is the head.
Earthworms have no visible head. You can tell which end is the front by running you finger down its underside, feeling for the bristles (they are so small you cannot see them easily). If it feels smooth all the way, you are running your finger from head to tail. If you can feel a roughness, you are moving towards the head.
Earthworms are invertebrates, that means they have no bones!
The body is made of strong muscles. The earthworm moves by first stretching its body, then contacting it to pull the tail after the head end. To help this it has a pair of bristles, on each segment. The bristles point backwards, so they dig into the soil and act as anchors as the earthworms body moves forward. Charles Darwin spent 39 years studying earthworms more than 100 years ago. Charles Darwin was the first scientist to take worms seriously. Quote: “It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organised creatures” Charles Darwin.
In one acre of land, there can be more than a million earthworms. Even though worms don’t have eyes, they can sense light, especially at their anterior (front end). They move away from light and will become paralyzed if exposed to light for too long (approximately one hour). The largest earthworm ever found was in South Africa and measured 22 feet from its nose to the tip of its tail. If a worm is cut in half, only the part of the body that has the head will live.
If you specifically want to target larger fish, there is no worm to match the mighty nightcrawler. Where nightcrawlers really shine is in cool and warm-water fishing for walleye, bass and catfish. There are probably almost as many techniques for fishing this bait for these species as there are fish and fishermen combined. For trout presentation is important. There are a number of tools that you can purchase that will make your presentation of nightcrawlers better. One is a "worm threader". This device is a long, thin metal rod with a handle. You thread the crawler onto the threader which you then put the end of at the tip of your hook and push the worm off the threader and onto the hook. In rivers and streams you can use the same techniques with nightcrawlers as you use for wigglers. Drift the bait downstream into spots that are likely to hold fish and wait for the strike!