How to Pick Nightcrawlers

Fill your container halfway with moss, wet leaves, grass clippings or worm bedding. This will keep the nightcrawlers in good shape after you pick them. If you have a headlamp, adjust it to a setting that provides you with enough light to see well but not so bright as to scare off the light-sensitive crawlers. The Black Lake New York website suggests putting red cellophane over your headlamp or flashlight to tone down the intensity.

Walk outside gingerly on a warm, damp evening. Nightcrawlers will not come up out of the ground in large numbers in dry or cold conditions. However, in most places in the United States, these worms will come out if the weather is damp from early spring to the middle of autumn. A rainy night is the best time to pick nightcrawlers.

Turn on your headlamp or flashlight. The headlamp gives you the advantage over a flashlight because with a flashlight, you have to hold it and the container in the same hand as you pick worms. Walk softly so as not to create vibrations that will alert the worms to your presence.

Scan the ground ahead of you with your light as you proceed in a hunched over posture. If you stand erect, you lose precious time having to bend over once you spot a nightcrawler, and the worm can sense the light and go quickly down its hole. Look for any reflection of the light on the moist bodies of the nightcrawler. Stay where the grass is low on your lawn or field in which you are hunting for worms. This allows you to see the nightcrawler more easily.

Shine your light away from the night crawler once you spot it. Right before you try to grasp it, put the light back on it. Use your thumb and first two fingers to grab the worm as close to its hole as possible. Often you cannot determine where the hole is, so your best option is to grab the night crawler by its thickest end. Squeeze hard enough so the worm cannot escape and pull up on it. If the nightcrawler is all the way free of its hole, you will have no problem catching it. If it still is partly in its hole, you must apply steady pressure until it relents and comes out all the way. Refrain from pulling hard, as this will break the nightcrawler in half. Put the nightcrawler in your container, and continue.