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Re: Microworm culture

> I recently got a thriving starter culture and as it soured I transferred it
> to soupy, mixed baby cereal with a few specs of brewer's yeast thrown in.
> The fresh cultures don't seem to be developing many worms at all.  The
> culture is maintained at about 68-72F.
> Thanks for any suggestions.
> mike

You ready for this? Here is what I am using currently.

A couple of months ago I did some experiments to see what different medias
would work and what wouldn't. These are the different cultures that I made
in duplicate (2 each)

1)Oatmeal
2)Oatmeal/1/4 tsp Nekton R-Beta (color enhancing bird vitamin)
3)Oatmeal/Cornmeal 1:1
4)Cornmeal
5)Gerber Instant Baby Cereal (oat)
6)Ground Alfalfa Pellets/Ground Pedigree Dog Food/Oatmeal 1:1:1

Each culture consisted of 2 TBS of media and 2 TBS of water. I made a
inoculation culture of yeast, worms, and water. Each culture was given an
exact amount of the starter solution.

I did not have any way to quantify the number of worms in the culture
container as they grew, so I measured worm production based on the rate in
which the worms migrated up the sides of the containers. Here are my results
from most productive to least productive. All cultures are maintained at
about 68 F.

6   Smell did not seem worse then others (I expected it would smell bad)
3   worms were up the sides very quickly (less surface area on the surface?)
2   Lumpy surface. More surface area?
1   Results were basically identical to #2
5   Took a long time to get started, once started it produced well
4   No worm production at all. Do they use BT corn for cornmeal? If they
did, #3 probably wouldn't have worked either. I think the cornmeal needed
more liquid. It was very dry.

The color enhancing vitamins that I use turn the culture orange. The worms
take on this orange color. Maybe it is easier for the worms to be seen?
#6 is actually a mix of home made cricket food and oatmeal. I make my own
cricket food by grinding up equal parts of dog food and alfalfa pellets. I
usually include a couple of cuttle bones (ground as well) in there as well
for extra calcium.

So the ones that I am using now are #6 & #2. I figure that these 2 have the
highest nutritional value. I might try adding the Nekton to #3 and see how
that does.

Jeremy

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