follow up on grass and crawlers Sarge & Pollman

[steve ypsi]

Sarge and Jpollman, I take that back about rotting grass. Art called and said his neighbor did not use any thing for 3 months, poison is out. I went to the basement where I had the rest of the grass stored in a 5 gallon bucket on the floor, it was packed fairly tight, I put my hand in it and it was cool to the touch not at all warm. now this had me befuddled no poison, grass not hot so I got my container that has a snap lid and is fairly large,1 1/2 feet wide, 2 1/2 long and about 12 inchs deep, now this is not like a tuper ware container, the lid fits loosely even snaped down, I am thinking methane Gas now even though the grass was cool, I lit a cigarette and put it in a ash tray and put it in the container with the lid snaped down, after about 3 or 4 minutes I didn't see any smoke coming out of the container and I opened the lid, it was full of smoke and when I raised the lid it came out, did the same experiment with the lid just setting on top of the container and after 3 or 4 minutes a small amount of smoke was coming out, I lifted the lid that was not snapped and it was full of smoke.
Conclusion--I sent my night crawlers to the gas chamber. There must have been some rotting taking place makeing gas even though the grass was not hot, I know most gas is heavier than air so it would stay in the container no matter how small the amount settleing to the bottom like the smoke did Killing the crawlers.

[Sarge]

Good detective work.

Another factor is space. If the worms don't have room to get away from each other they suffocate. Contrary to popular belief, worms breath air like you and me. But they do it by absorbtion through their skin. Thats why they live so long in water. They will eventually drown, but for a significant period of time the Oxy in the water absorbs through the skin and keeps them alive. They like to smush together, but need to be able to escape the pile periodically. It sounds like that shouldn't have been it either, just more info. ;)

[steve ypsi]

Sarge
We have a site conversation Officer now you are going to be the site Crawler authority, I not making fun of you either, learned more in two of your posts than I have all my life.
I always wondered why they could live under water, did not know about being smushed together could cut off thier air.
There is no doubt that there was some knid of gas given off by the grass and it stayed in the plastic container killing them.
Thanks Sarge

[WALLEYE MIKE]

When you buy 500 crawler from a wholesaler they are put in a styrofoam tray about 10" square and about 3" deep. Very little soil mostly just crawlers. They are packed in there pretty good, not stuffed but certainly tighter than you probably had them. They have no way to escape each other. I don't necessarily buy the suffocate theory. Not that much time had past. Don't think the grass would do it either. What did you use for soil? Where did you get it from? Also was your plastic container clean from whatever was in it first?

[MSUICEMAN]

where did you pick your crawlers from? is there a golf course nearby??? just testing a theory of my own....

steve

[multibeard]

I have always used only maple leaves to bed worms. I have never had any problems. Fact is I have a pile of leaves in the back of the property that holds leaf worms all the time. that is when we get rain, which hasn't been this year

[fatboy]

You ever get the feeling like you wanna live in a van down by the river?


NO ! But I did stay for quite awhile in my car at the harrisville harbor park parking lot when I was younger and laidoff !:D

[steve ypsi]

multibeard , I have used Maple leaves also but they had turned but not green so no gas given off, yes there are worms in leave piles but its open to the air, my container has solid walls

MSUICEMAN- Yes I picked them about 3 miles from home on a golf course

WALLEYE MIKE, I used a container I had for years, used it to store paper work, its set in the garage for 2 years, I didn't wash it before I put them in but there was nothing ever in it but paper.
As far as the grass, yes I believe that it puts off methane gas as it decays, it didn't need much in that container. Next door there is a methane gas generater, it was used in the 20's to late 40's to power gas light's in the house, they put manure,and straw and grass and it produced gas enough to light the house, the container was only about 3 ft tall and a foot or so wide. A car won't bother you until you have it in a garage and shut the door, I did the same thing with the worms, I had no dirt in the container, just grass that had been cut for 3 or 4 days.
A swamp gives off methane gas but it's open to the air and disperse's. I saw a show on t.v where wild animals went into a depression where there was a lot of methane from rotting materials, they showed them walking down into this depression and started feeding and they just slowly went to the ground and died, it had 20 foot or more high walls so it trapped the gas , I believe it was in Africa

[MSUICEMAN]

I think i got the answer then, many if not most golf courses spray chemicals to kill the crawlers and other pests(them grubs and beetles too). It is a surface chemical, so after they sprayed it, and it rained some to bring the crawlers to the surface, they were infected. I'm not positive on this, but i was told by an old timer that the spray is an arsenic or cyanide base. Gotta be wicked stuff when you think about the lack of pest activity on sheets of grass like that. This may very well be the answer.

steve

[Spanky]

One dead crawler in a batch of crawlers will kill the rest of them within days. When they decay, they give off a gas that will kill the whole batch. Make sure after you pick them to make sure there are no 1/2 crawlers or sick looking ones still on top of the soil.
I prefere the celulose type bedding, its the grey fluffy stuff, it keeps your crawlers very healthy for a long time, and they are much fatter and more bouyant, and there isn't a bunch of dirt in the boat and on your hands.;)

[steve ypsi]

Spanky

I dont' keep broken crawlers, you always have a few that don't make it but this was different, they were dead in between the time I put them in and 30 hours later, not one alive, never saw any thing like it.