We had a serious problem with a mole last autumn. The mole was dealt
with but after several months we are still suffering from an almost
total lack of earthworms in the garden -very few are seen when
digging.

Where to buy worms ? I believe those sold locally by fishing-tackle
shops are unsuitable ?

ß

In article , Britannica
writes
We had a serious problem with a mole last autumn. The mole was dealt
with but after several months we are still suffering from an almost
total lack of earthworms in the garden -very few are seen when
digging.

Where to buy worms ? I believe those sold locally by fishing-tackle
shops are unsuitable ?

I wouldn't have thought the mole was totally to blame - more that the
conditions aren't right for a high population of worms, so buy buying
some and adding them might simply be a waste of money. Url below might
tell more

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

In article , Kay Easton
writes
In article , Britannica
writes
We had a serious problem with a mole last autumn. The mole was dealt
with but after several months we are still suffering from an almost
total lack of earthworms in the garden -very few are seen when
digging.

Where to buy worms ? I believe those sold locally by fishing-tackle
shops are unsuitable ?

I wouldn't have thought the mole was totally to blame - more that the
conditions aren't right for a high population of worms,

Or New Zealand flat worm???
Aren't they supposed to kill our native worms??

--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com

Kay Easton wrote in message ...
In article , Britannica
writes
We had a serious problem with a mole last autumn. The mole was dealt
with but after several months we are still suffering from an almost
total lack of earthworms in the garden -very few are seen when
digging.

Where to buy worms ? I believe those sold locally by fishing-tackle
shops are unsuitable ?

I wouldn't have thought the mole was totally to blame - more that the
conditions aren't right for a high population of worms, so buy buying
some and adding them might simply be a waste of money. Url below might
tell more

Kay - thanks for the URL, but I didn't find a list of retail worm
stockists.

I think you under-estimate the digestive capacity of a mole. It will
eat its own bodyweight of worms in a day. In a small garden over five
months I'm pretty sure it cleaned us out.

The mole-catcher got it in November and reckoned it would likely have
starved to death pretty soon amyway.

The soil conditions won't have changed much since last May when we had
a shedfull of worms and in the last couple of weeks we've been digging
in plenty of good home-made compost and rotted-down leaves. No worms
to be seen though so I think we'll have to introduce a starter
population to get the numbers back up to normal.

Anyway the mole-catcher cost us 40 quid and we can't really afford the
50 your Edward is asking for a consultancy fee so we'll just have to
resort to digging in the fields by torchlight.

Keep you're fingers crossed we don't get caught - the magistrates
round here all seem to be farmers !

ß

The message
from (Britannica) contains these words:

We had a serious problem with a mole last autumn. The mole was dealt
with but after several months we are still suffering from an almost
total lack of earthworms in the garden -very few are seen when
digging.

Where to buy worms ? I believe those sold locally by fishing-tackle
shops are unsuitable ?

http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/

--
AnneJ
ICQ #:- 119531282

In article , Britannica
writes
Kay Easton wrote in message news:nlGoJ0HvuYh+EwOv@sc
arboro.demon.co.uk...
In article , Britannica
writes
We had a serious problem with a mole last autumn. The mole was dealt
with but after several months we are still suffering from an almost
total lack of earthworms in the garden -very few are seen when
digging.

Where to buy worms ? I believe those sold locally by fishing-tackle
shops are unsuitable ?

The earthworm variety fishing bait are tiger worms, which like the high
humus conditions of compost heaps.

I wouldn't have thought the mole was totally to blame - more that the
conditions aren't right for a high population of worms, so buy buying
some and adding them might simply be a waste of money. Url below might
tell more

Kay - thanks for the URL, but I didn't find a list of retail worm
stockists.

No, you wouldn't! He's basically saying get the conditions right and
you'll get the worms, so don't waste your money ;-)
I was hoping he'd got something in there about the conditions that worms
like.

The soil conditions won't have changed much since last May when we had
a shedfull of worms and in the last couple of weeks we've been digging
in plenty of good home-made compost and rotted-down leaves. No worms
to be seen though so I think we'll have to introduce a starter
population to get the numbers back up to normal.

What?? No worms in the compost??? - though they'd be tiger worms rather
than Lumbricus terrestris.

Anyway the mole-catcher cost us 40 quid and we can't really afford the
50 your Edward is asking for a consultancy fee

That's not a consultancy fee, that's a deterrent! He's a curmudgeon ;-)

so we'll just have to
resort to digging in the fields by torchlight.

OK - three things to look up on Google:

"Can-o-worms" - a widely available wormery. Suppliers of this should
also supply tiger worms, but they do need high humus levels.

"red spider" plus "natural predator" - that'll get you suppliers of
biological controls, at least one of whom will also sell you tiger worms

CJ Birdfoods - ISTR that along all the mealworms and so on they sell,
they also sell common earthworms, which is what you're really after.

Oh - and wait a month - the soil hasn't really warmed up yet, so things
might improve

Finally - once you've re-stocked, how are you going to protect them from
the next mole invader? - I'm not trying to be negative, just curious.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

The message
from Jane Ransom contains these words:

In article , Kay Easton
writes
In article , Britannica
writes
We had a serious problem with a mole last autumn. The mole was dealt
with but after several months we are still suffering from an almost
total lack of earthworms in the garden -very few are seen when
digging.

Where to buy worms ? I believe those sold locally by fishing-tackle
shops are unsuitable ?

I wouldn't have thought the mole was totally to blame - more that the
conditions aren't right for a high population of worms,

Or New Zealand flat worm???
Aren't they supposed to kill our native worms??

If it _is_ NZ flatworms, there'll be signs of them somewhere.
They like much the same conditions as slugs and snails, so
they'll be hiding in damp places.

If they _are_ the problem, don't be tempted to kill any beetles
you find around the garden, 'cos one beetle in particular (and
I don't know which one it is!) predates on the NZ flatworm.

Best of luck!

--
AnneJ
ICQ #:- 119531282

Kay Easton wrote in message ...

Big snip 8-----------

Oh - and wait a month - the soil hasn't really warmed up yet, so things
might improve

Finally - once you've re-stocked, how are you going to protect them from
the next mole invader? - I'm not trying to be negative, just curious.

Kay - sorry about the tardiness. Thanks for the advice.

SWDTG (She who does the gardening) says there were some worms in
the compost,- something I'd overlooked. But I think the lack of rain
for the past three weeks or so is probably the real culprit - the
worms that surived the mole have probably gone really deep.

As for another mole - we get the catcher in on sighting the first
mound. With the last one we wasted too much time with old wive's tale
solutions that didn't work !!

It is a walled garden and I know the wall foundations are at least two
feet below soil level. I think the mole got in last time while I had
the garden gate off for repair - I've now added a piece on the bottom
of the gate so there' a bare half-inch clearance.

ß

In article , Britannica
writes

It is a walled garden and I know the wall foundations are at least two
feet below soil level. I think the mole got in last time while I had
the garden gate off for repair - I've now added a piece on the bottom
of the gate so there' a bare half-inch clearance.


But don't moles burrow? can't it just come in *under* the gate?
(I don't know anything about moles - our garden is far too wet for them)

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

In article , Kay Easton
writes

But don't moles burrow? can't it just come in *under* the gate?
(I don't know anything about moles - our garden is far too wet for them)

They can tunnel under motorways!!
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com