Wild night crawlers / dew worms ok

[Pheathers]

I think if you don't use any chemicals on your lawn, it should be ok. The nightcrawlers you buy in the stores are collected from "the wild" anyway (and there's no way to tell if where they came from used chemicals). I heard many of them are collected off golf courses, which use a ton of chemicals.

[jelkins]

I agree with Pheathers completely...if you don't use pesticides or fertilizers on your lawn collecting your own food can be a very economical and rewarding way of supplementing your frog’s diet. I've used wild-caught foods for my amphibians for years; not exclusively, but probably close to 50% of the time. I collect these food items from various sources that are just as safe if not safer than commercially bought foods. I've worked for the state of KY as an environmental scientist for years doing reclamation on abandoned coal mines which entails macroinvertebrate sampling, water sampling, etc. and know many local sources where I have no worries when it comes to wild-caught food. When you're buying live foods no commercial vendor is claiming their products are parasite and pesticide free...

Claiming that all wild-caught foods are bad for your animals is a knee-jerk reaction that is overused to a large degree. What needs to be considered is the sources for these food items. If you're a home owner you know what you're putting on your lawn and what you're not. Folks with various degrees in natural sciences and related occupations might also have a good working knowledge of where safe sources can be obtained from the wild. These things should be considered before dismissing all wild-caught food items and repeating one of the most overused responses there is when it comes to wild-caught food items.

[Gnag the nameless]

I agree with Justin and Pheathers. I've fed my bullfrog and both my Long Toed salamanders literally hundreds of Canadian/European Nightcrawlers ever since I've kept the latter, all the worms coming from my pesticide/additive/fertilizer free garden and compost, and I've had no issues at all. It's actually boosted my bullfrogs size and the salamanders size greatly, too. Earthworms are one of the most nutritious frog foods out there, so much more so than crickets.

So, if you know that the earthworms come from a pesticide/additive/fertilizer free place, then by all means, feed them to your frog!

[Lija]

dew worms that are sold in stores are not collected from wild, they all farm raised. why would they collect them from a wild, it is very time consuming and absolutely not cost effective, when you operate numbers that they do it would be absurd to collect this way.

now to the topic. everyone entitled to their opinion of course. the only way to ensure wild nightcrawlers/earthworms are everything bad free is to collect them from a middle of nowhere. doesn't matter if you don't use pesticides, whoever lives next door might or someone further away, add to this heavy metals that go to the ground if you live anywhere near roads. pollution in the air in general that goes back to the ground with rain and the list goes on and on.
you want to risk it - your choice.