He said he has tried others but has found the redworms to be hardy, tolerating both the heat of Alabama summers and the 10 to 15 degree cold snaps that they often get in winter. I asked Tom why he raised redworms instead of other types of worms. In some areas, Styrofoam cups are used for the same purpose. The small blue cups are available from a food supply company and are the same type of cup that convenience store delis use to put potato salad or coleslaw in. When packaging worms for the runners, Tom cups them up in small containers that look sort of like extra short cottage cheese containers. Selling to the runners is also good for Tom and Lorraine. They sell much of their stock to worm “bait runners.” These are the guys who buy cupped bait wholesale, then head out on a wide route to resell it to vendors all over their area. They do, however, ship thousands of worms to places as far away as Washington state.

Tom and Lorraine don’t normally sell the worms on a retail basis. They fed and raised them for a year before making the first sale. When they began, they started with little more than a handful of starter stock, purchased from a worm vendor in neighboring Georgia. That’s where Tom Bowe and his partner Lorraine Brashear live and raise redworms on their nine-acre homestead. To help prepare this article, I spoke with a veteran worm wrangler from down in Slocomb, Alabama.

You can fill their need for live bait by having good, healthy bait worms available. Most people who are heading out for an afternoon of fishing simply don’t have the time or place to dig up a can full of lively fishing worms. The primary market for your squirming livestock is the ever growing recreational fishing market. This is one occupation that will certainly keep you close to the soilsometimes up to your elbows in it. If you are looking for a way to earn extra income, a retirement job, or even a new livelihood, then raising earthworms might just be the thing.

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