By Scott Calvert
A shortage of big, fat worms called nightcrawlers--a popular
bait with freshwater anglers in the U.S.--has pushed up prices
nationwide and temporarily wiped out some merchants' stock at the
height of summer fishing season.
The culprit is bad weather in Ontario, Canada, where
nightcrawlers are handpicked in the wild and shipped south by the
millions. First, the long winter delayed picking from March to May.
Then a dry May kept the moisture-loving creatures burrowed deep
underground.
This spring's dearth of Canadian nightcrawlers, the worst in 26
years according to suppliers, has caused havoc with supply chains,
affecting mom-and-pop bait shops and nationwide sellers. Some
stores have raised prices, while others have held the line. At the
same time, some bait shops say they have noticed little change in
supply or price.
DMF Bait Co., a major wholesaler in Waterford, Mich., had to pay
its Canadian suppliers double the usual price, said chief executive
Dan Beaudoin. Even so, the company couldn't fill all its orders for
the first time in its 37-year history. Though the crimp in supply
has eased, he said his firm is still paying 80% more than
usual.
DMF has raised prices on its customers, which include Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. and other national chains, by about 20%. "We're taking
a massive, massive hit this year financially," said Mr. Beaudoin.
DMF's net income for the year is 65% below forecast.
Wholesalers appear to be bearing the brunt of the higher prices
to avoid potentially driving away customers.
A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the chain has worked with DMF to
help ensure nightcrawlers are available in high-demand areas. She
declined to comment on whether Wal-Mart has raised retail
prices.
Stewart's Shops, a convenience-store chain in New York state and
Vermont, has run out of nightcrawlers at some of its 290 stores
that sell the worms, frustrating anglers, a spokeswoman said.
"Yes, we have no worms," Stewart's President Gary Dake said on
Twitter before the Fourth of July weekend, peak fishing time. "Who
knew nightcrawler harvesting was affected by weather?"
Mr. Dake said his shops would be restocked soon with
nightcrawlers.
The U.S. annually imports more than $20 million in live worms
from Canada, the U.S. Commerce Department says.
Nightcrawlers, so named because they surface at night, exist
across the northern U.S., but commercial picking operations are
concentrated in Ontario. The plump creatures can reach 6 inches
long.
For months, Ontario's bad worm-plucking weather has had a domino
effect, starting with Canadian companies that buy from pickers.
Andreas Benechoutsos, president of Olympic Wholesale Bait in
Scarborough, Ontario, said pickers demanded twice as much pay amid
the shortage. He says he now pays worm hunters about $40 per
thousand worms. He said he has also paid to water fields in hope of
enticing worms to ditch the dirt.
In response, Mr. Benechoutsos said, he had to raise his prices
nearly 80% from around $45 per thousand worms last year, to about
$80. "I've never seen a year like this year," he said.
Neither has Jack Strawbrich, not since a severe dry spell in
1988. Mr. Strawbrich, the majority owner of Weekley's Wholesale
Bait, outside Buffalo, N.Y., buys nightcrawlers from Olympic but
hasn't been able to satisfy all his clients, which includes
Stewart's.
"We've told customers they're not going to get everything they
need or want, but they're not going to ever be without worms," he
said.
Another Weekley's customer, Mike's Bait in Gambrills, Md., which
distributes to 1,200 stores, is paying 20% more for Weekley's
worms, owner Mike Baldea says, and charging his own customers
more.
Randy Fearl, owner of Fearl's Bait & Tackle outside
Baltimore, said he is just grateful that Mr. Baldea has kept the
nightcrawlers coming. The shop's customers pay about $4 per dozen,
up from $3.75 weeks ago.
While customer James Iman said he doesn't want to pay more for
nightcrawlers when he takes his children fishing, a 25-cent
increase won't stop him. "I do it for the kids," he said.
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