Welcome to the fascinating world of nightcrawler worms! The African night crawler, also known as Eudrilus eugeniae, is a kind of earthworm that comes from West Africa.
These wriggly creatures are the unsung heroes of both composting and fishing. They are preferred by vermicomposters, gardeners and fishing enthusiasts. The first two love them due to the much larger castings they produce, which are basically worm poop and quite valuable for composting and enriching gardens. Their greater size is part of the reason the African night crawler has gotten so popular.
Nightcrawlers have a rich history that spans continents, with African Nightcrawlers hailing from Africa.
In this article, we will delve into the specifics of African Nightcrawler cocoons and how to raise these worms effectively.
Earthworm Anatomy
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Understanding African Nightcrawler Cocoons
African Nightcrawler Worm Cocoons are very small (~1/8″ in diameter, or about the height of two stacked quarters) and shaped like a lemon. Since 2010, Rocky Mountain Worm Co. has successfully hand-harvested fresh African Nightcrawler cocoons from a selected stock of breeding worms.
Cocoons result from earthworms reproduction, and serve as a miniature incubation pod for the development and protection of embryonic worms. From each cocoon typically 2 hatchlings will emerge. Known to have a rapid life-cycle (cocoon to maturity), African Nightcrawlers (E. eugeniae) reach sexual maturity quickly compared to many other species, and will eagerly continue the ‘cycle of life’ by laying “eggs” of their own.
Worms that hatch from cocoons in their future soil environments experience less “shock” than worms removed and transferred from their “home turf”, and then introduced in to new environments. We recommend starting with cocoons if you’re able to plan ahead early, and built-in enough time for the worms to hatch, grow and start reproducing.
Your cocoons will arrive in their natural state surrounded by soil. Receive your cocoons in a convenient, “ready-to-use” form that will simplify application. We only sell what we use ourselves.
Life Cycle and Reproduction
Throughout its life cycle, E. eugeniae grows much more rapidly than Eisenia fetida, in similar environmental conditions. These African night crawler worms grow fast and will reach their full size by around eight to ten weeks old. They also reproduce fast and can be bred at about five weeks old. They have about three cocoons a week which hatch after around 12 days. That translates into about six babies per worm since two normally hatch from each cocoon. African Night Crawler can produce nearly 175 offspring. Scientific research revealed that ANCs grow more quickly than red worms.
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How to Set Up A Worm Breeding Bin with 100 African Night Crawlers
Researchers report that ANCs can tolerate temperatures of 90 F. The greatest number of cocoons per week and the number of hatchlings per cocoon are obtained at 25 °C. Fecundity, growth, maturation and biomass production were all significantly greater at 25 °C than 15°, 20°or 30°. 3.5 cocoons in a week.
Ideal Conditions for Raising African Nightcrawlers
The African nightcrawler grows well at a temperature of 24-30 °C (75-86 °F). able to withstand high temperatures. (21C - 29C). But this does not mean worm farmers living in cooler climates can't raise ANCs. We found another thing was that the temperature should not be allowed to fluctuate too often, too hot, and the worms will either die off, or will escape, too cold and the same thing will happen.
Optimal worm bin temperature chart
They will spend most of their time in the top 6-8 inches but are very comfortable in systems as deep as 12 inches, they will dive down a little further if needed for food, bedding, or protection from adverse weather/temperature conditions.
When ANCs start to escape their bin first make sure your bedding conditions are good.
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Feeding and Maintenance
Since they are larger, they also require more food. However, be sure not to feed any citrus fruits, meat, grease, cooking oil, dairy product waste, or either human or pet poop.
They will breakdown bedding and vegetative matter into a mushy matter.
Differences Between ANCs and Other Worms
ANC's get easily more than twice the size of Red Wigglers and get as large as European Nightcrawlers. The African Nightcrawler gets up to 8-10 inches long, on average about 2 inches longer than Euros at the same weight. The difference between Euros and ANC's is that ANC's get longer, but are usually thinner than the Euros.
The African nightcrawler has a uniform purple-grey sheen and the posterior segments are evenly tapered to a point. The differences we have observed between ANCs and your typical earthworm are earthworms tend to ''jump'' and squirm more then ANCs, and that, like someone else has said, they live much longer underwater then EWs, hence why they are an excellent fishing bait!
One disadvantage of this worm is that it requires warmer temperatures than native worms and can’t survive in lower temperatures where red worms as well as the European night crawler can be raised. Another thing to note is these worms are more active then some breeds and therefore have a tendency to escape their enclosures. Be sure to have a strong lid on your worm bins.
ANCs as Bait Worms
ANC as a bait worm is the fact they need no refrigeration. And plump up they will; ANCs make excellent bait worms. Some say they make good fishing worms, we have not had that experience. In fact, we tested 4 different bait worms and wrote an article about which worm was best for fishing.
Personal Anecdotes
Just thought I'd put my 2 cents worth in! My mum breeds and sells ANCs as fishing worms. She started after my nan stopped and gave her the leftover stock. Mum's setup is a big corogated iron ''box'' outside, which she tops up with horse manure. She used to use cow's manure, and says this is the best stuff to have them on, as they seem to be slower growing on horse manure, but we have since changed from having 1 cow to 2 horses, so this is all we have, and not many people sell cow manure anymore around here!
She had to put a mesh sort of cover on the bottom, as the worms will actually go through the bottom to escape, but we have yet to have escapees from out the top, which just gets covered with newspaper(which seems to get eaten, too!).
Conclusion
All in all, the African night crawler is an excellent choice to raise for bait, composting, or use of their castings to use in gardens.
