How To Raise Alabama Jumpers

Alabama Jumpers make one of the most rugged fishing worms since they have a tougher outer skin layer enabling them to remain on the hook better than many other varieties of worms. Being these worms can litterally jump out of your hands should give you the picture of just how active they will wiggle on your fishing hook.

Alabama Jumpers do well in a warm environment as they originate in the tropical and subtropical regions however are known to live in the soil as far north as Chattanooga Tennessee. Being these worms are tropical by nature, they become sluggish if the internal temperature of your compost pile or worm bin falls to about fifty five degrees.

Starting with raising Alabama Jumpers outside for yard and garden composting as well as for fishing, you will need a compost pile basically consisting of carbon based products such as shredded newspaper and cardboard or hay. As this decomposes it will generate some warmth for your worms to assist in keeping them warm.

Contrary to beliefs, Alabama Jumpers thrive well when fed vegetable scraps too, heeding caution to heating up the entire pile at once. In order to prevent over heating, place your food scraps in one corner of the pile and proceed to the next corner after a while. Repeat so as to allow enough time for the origial corner to cool down and be devoured.

To raise Alabama Jumpers for fishing inside in a worm bin is a bit different. I have personally been successful raising them in two types of bedding materials. Either way demands a good airflow on both the top and bottom of the worm bin.

One of the bedding materials can be comprised of hardwood sawdust and wood shavings which have been decomposed for the most part. Keep away from softer woods, pines which can contain turpentine, oak which can be acidic or woods that put off an odor such as cedar. Mix about 5% sphagnum peat moss with the material. The bedding should be approximately one foot deep with about half a cup of sand being mixed in. Again you may add vegetable scraps the same way you would raise red wigglers, by placing in one corner at a time and covering it up with some damp shredded newspaper or cardboard to avoid odors coming from the worm bin.

The second method requires another type of peat moss, Michigan Black Peat Moss. Do not attempt this with sphagnum peat moss as it does not work due to the decomposition stage and the way each retains moisture…

You want your worm bin to be about one foot deep with this worm bedding material. You will not want to prep any vegetable scraps for this type of bedding which I will get into in a moment. Usually the black peat comes at the right moisture level and is presoaked so there is no need to work it any further. You will find the bedding material becomes compacted within a week or two, something that you would be concerned about with most worms but nothing to be concerned about when raising Alabama Jumpers. These worms are able to burrow through hard packed clay in the real world, hence do not become stressed when you notice in a week or two how packed the black peat has become.

Adding vegetable scraps to this type of bedding material will sour your worm bin very easily and quickly, hence the reason to avoid when raising Alabama Jumpers in this fashion. The best food to use is Purina Worm Chow fed daily to your worms. The Worm Chow also makes an excellent supplement to feeding your worms whether in an outside compost pile or raising them in a worm bin.

Alabama Jumpers can lay cocoons that hatch rather quickly in either compost piles or worm bins as long as you maintain an eco friendly environment for them.