Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This may sound weird but I purchased some night crawlers a pet store the other day. I fed some to my 2 easterns and 1 Malayan box turtles and forgot to put the night crawlers in the refrigerator. Well the next day when I noticed them out I opened them and the worms had liquified. Has anyone else noticed this? What causes this? Thanks,

Nick

They have to live in colder temps. When it gets too warm for them, they just die - It's like keeping meat in a warm room - It just goes bad. When they die, the liquid in their bodies just comes out soon after death especially in warm temp.
You're lucky in a way. I remember when I dug up about 2 pounds of earthworms and had them in a large coffee can with soil. I put them in the car & got distracted. Got back to the car (several hours later) which was sitting in the hot sun. Talk about a stench of death when the car door opened up! Knocked the hair out of my nose! Never again!. Now I catch them or I buy them & go straight home - I make sure I will NOT get distracted again.

Ewwwwwww never having seen liquified worms before, I'm going to remember this conversation so that I never do have to see them, ever!!!
yuck!
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PHRatz

Good idea. They look real bad and smell 10 times worse. LOL

I've had it happen when they were in the refrigerator. Luckily since they were cold, they didn't stink up the fridge.

I found a tub of them dead in the 'fridge once but they hadn't liquified.
My mistake, I didn't look inside the tub before I bought, so I always open them in the store now but still...
I am going to remember this conversation for my own good LOL!
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PHRatz

Thanks to this conversation I took an insulated travel bag with an ice pack in it when I bought nightcrawlers over the weekend. LOL!!!
I had several stops to make, I thought about this & said to myself.. eh no way I'm not taking any chances!
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PHRatz

That's the best way of doing it. You can NOT imagine what a coffee can full of dead worms smell like when left in a hot car for several hours is like.... I wish someone would have told me. I learned the real hard way - Dug for about an hour and a half for all those worms just to stink up the car. That smell can do one of 2 things to people - grow hair on their chest or lose all the hair on their chest..... that includes women too! LOL!!!

>> That smell can do one of 2 things to people - grow hair on their chest or lose all the hair on their chest..... that includes women too! LOL!!!

Now that's serious business right there!
ROFL!!!!!
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PHRatz

lol! Crawlercicles??
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0.1.0 ornate box turtle
1.0.0 eastern box turtle
0.1.0 Australian shepard
1.3.0 chickens
3.2.0 children (do I still count the married ones?)
1.0.0 husband

>>lol! Crawlercicles??

mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm Nummy!!!

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PHRatz