![\"Selling](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.boatingmag.com\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BTG525-OMD-Bait-1024x768.jpg?resize=800%2C600&ssl=1\")
<\/div>\n Tim Bower<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/section>\n
Loyal readers will recall that a few years ago, my good friend Chuck -Larson started a specialized bait concession, Chuck\u2019s Organic Canadian Night Crawlers\u2014Better Tasting Worms Catch More Fish, sold exclusively from a cooler in a back room at the Lake View Inn. Like Chuck\u2019s Organic Firewood Bundles, these wiggly worms are appealing to your visiting urban-angler types, who don\u2019t flinch at paying $8 for a cup of vigorous bait, because if it\u2019s organic, it must be better.<\/p>\n
Chuck is hoping to expand his business to a few more locations in its third -season but has discovered that even a lowly worm monger is not immune to the influence of current events.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t take the uncertainty,\u201d Chuck said. \u201cHow can any businessperson plan ahead when the price of raw materials keeps fluctuating?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs the worm market in a state of volatility?\u201d I asked as we shared a pizza at the Lake View bar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey call them Canadian crawlers for a reason,\u201d Chuck replied. \u201cThey come from Canada. Which means they have been subject to these on-and-off tariffs. A worm tax!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, Lumbricus terrestris<\/em> is not native to Canada,\u201d offered always wise Wally from behind the bar. \u201cThey are invasive, brought to North America from Europe in the late 19th century. They thrive in southwestern Ontario, which offers the perfect combination of cool weather and soil conditions. Today, the region between -Toronto and Windsor is known as worm alley.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean you can\u2019t raise Lumbricus terrestris<\/em> in a box in the basement?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, no. They grow too slowly,\u201d Chuck replied. \u201cIt takes up to eight years for a Canadian crawler to reach market size. The industry relies on an army of worm pickers who go out at night with coffee cans strapped to their shins and pluck the worms by hand from the surface of leased pastures in Ontario. Brokers then meet in Toronto at a worm exchange and set the wholesale price. I swear I am not making this up. My worm source, Chris at Best Bait in Ohio, says that he sells 10 to 15 million Canadian crawlers a year, each one plucked off the ground at midnight in Ontario. And he\u2019s not even the biggest wholesaler in the country.<\/p>\n Read Next:<\/strong> Solving Boating Mysteries<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSo, slap a 25 percent tariff on worms crossing the border, and I\u2019ll have to raise my price to $10 a cup,\u201d Chuck continued. \u201cEven sucker tourists won\u2019t pay that price. The alternatives are limited. I can eat some of that cost or resort to the black market. I know a guy in Buffalo who\u2019s working with a First Nation crew to smuggle worms by boat across the St. Lawrence River.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, Chuck disappeared for a few days\u2014we fear on a road trip to New York. Let\u2019s hope that border patrol hasn\u2019t deployed worm-sniffing dogs. Chuck wouldn\u2019t last long in prison.<\/p>\n The post Paying the Worm Tax<\/a> appeared first on Boating Mag<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n