[Live-foods] White worms

[Darrell Fennell <dkfennell at yahoo_com>]

I used to have all sorts of infestations with white
worms until I converted to the artificial medium
method of culturing them.

To do this you stack in a plastic tub five or six
scrubbing pads (that are free of soap and perfume --
the brand name is Scotch Brite Pads although there are
many generic types that are identical, as far as I can
tell, and much cheaper.  They are essentially green,
very stiff and somewhat scratchy -- not spongy.)  You
can use as many rows as the container will take, and
you can cut the pads to size, if you are that finicky.

You then fill the bottom of the tub up to about the
level of the top of the first pad with dechlorinated
water. 

Feed with baby cereal on the top.  Put a top on the
container to keep in humidity.  Put the tub in a cool
place.  (I keep mine in a small refrigerator at the
highest temperature level.)

The point of this method is that 1) the worms find
their own level of humidity by travelling up and down
the stack.  2) The food does not get moldy because it
doesn't lay in wet soil.  3)  Because the medium is
not organic it's not conducive to infestations of
mites and other things that wet peat succumbs to.  4)
The pads really don't get dirty, so you don't have to
clean them.  And they provide a medium for the
nictrifying bacteria which converts the worms' waste
ammonia to nitrite/nitrate.

Once a week or so you dump the water and refresh it. 
To feed (and this is the only tricky part), you take a
pad and float it in water till the worms escape from
the pad.  Then scoop up the worms with an eye-dropper
or dump the water through a sieve and dump the worms
into whatever your feeding.

Good luck.



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