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Re: Best way to culture microworms!



> From: Vincent Chye <mtchye at perthmail_com>
> I know this has been covered before, but has anyone done some
> experimenting and found the best/least smelly/most productive way of
> culturing microworms? I would appreciate any tips RE mediums,
> containers, light/no light, temperatures, and collection methods (i
> know use your finger:P) that has worked best for YOU...

Actually nope, *not* my finger!  I use a piece of plastic, a vertical
strip that I cut out of a plastic bottle (soda bottle is good), to
slide along the sides of the container and scrape them up.  The
thinness of the plastic and the curve helps.

I use a pretty large sized (8x10) plastic container, cornmeal plus
water (enough water so that if you tip the container the mixture
starts to slide, but not so that it is liquid), yeast sprinkled over
the top, add microworms over the surface.  I never had much success
with small containers, although others do.

For some reason adding bits of wood (sterilized) seemed to help keep
down the mold, but I never really verified that.  Anyone else ever 
had this experience??

If the plastic container is a number 5 recyclable plastic the worms
will crawl up the sides once the population gets going.  Probably the
texture makes it easier for them.  Makes it *much* easier to collect them
without getting the medium to.

Cover the container, but cut out a hole and plug it with foam.

My containers were the milky semiclear plastic, so I don't know about
light.  I just had ambient light I guess.

Keeping several rotating containers works well, so there is always
once really producing.  And you have a backup if one mysteriously
dies off or never really "takes".

Mine still got smelly after a while.

I was starting to experiment with those cheap plastic containers that
ziplock, etc make now, since it is *much* nicer to toss the whole
smelly mess than to have to wash out containers...  Worth the 25 cents
per container.

... but I don't actually have any going right now- I killed them all
off in a period of laziness which outlasted all the cultures. :}

Good luck!

-Jennifer


---
Jennifer L. Greene  .  jgreene at jimmy_dfci.harvard.edu  .  jgreene at killi_net