This is how I keep my white worms: There are many writeups etc on the net - most of the easiest ones recommend white bread and milk. I have modified it a bit for me. My dog died and I still had half a bag of dog pellets. I had them so I use them, and they are a more balanced food for the worms than just white bread. I boil some pellets in water or milk/water mix. Takes me 6 mins in the microwave oven. The idea is to get a stiff porridge like paste. This I spread about .5cm - 1 cm thick in these small Styrofoam trays. The trays you get cheese rolls in at big chain stores - or cookies at the home bakery. in fact any tray like thing would work. I stack them in the freezer and wait until they are nearly frozen. Then I cut the porridge into strips. Leaving them in the trays. Put them back in the freezer and keep them like that till I need them. The culture I got from England was about two desert spoons full of medium and half dead worms. It took two weeks to get here two days from the supplier to Jan smuts airport. and 12 days from there to my local post office - 18km from the airport. Our postal service is amma zing. I now have 4 x 2l ice cream tubs full. The worms are in a coconut fiber bedding. I have peat as well its just a mission to get it wet. Initially I added some compost as well. As recommended by several sites I add a form of lime to prevent the bedding from going acidic. What I use is crushed egg shells - they are also available so I use them. Nearly every morning I add a strip of frozen pap. I just put it on top of the medium more or less down the middle of the tub. Some days I skip. Initially I had to be careful not to overfeed. there were not many worms. Now its easier because I have a few strong cultures going. If I feed them in the morning then I harvest in the evening. It is just a matter of convenience. They collect around the food and it is easy to get a bunch. They don't like light, so the moment you lift the lid they start hiding away. Collect as many as you want immediately and then do the other things you want to do. Sometimes they are so clean I don't bother with cleaning, sometimes there is quite a bit of bedding with them, then I rinse them in water. Stir them up in some water and then pour it off again, it takes most of the unwanted with it. I have read that they will collect under a piece of glass that is put over the food area - I have not tried this myself. Now, here is some info I think is important. KEEP THEM COOL even cold (not freezing) I have mine in a Styrofoam cool box. Got it from a pet shop. I have some 2lt bottles of ice in the freezer - Every time I feed them I change the bottles. Must say a while back we had some cool weather then I didn't bother with the bottles. On a few occasions when I didn't change the bottles for a few days and the bedding warmed up to room temperature, they didn't eat and started climbing out of the containers.
See you soon with the micro worms. I’ll be working in the Sandton area for the next few weeks. Regards. Gary
Abraham, A few tips: If you cover the cultures with a piece of glass the worms collect on the glass where there is condensation and then they can be removed without any food or medium quite easily. In South Africa, we have magic food for microworms called Pronutro! No need to boil up any pap, just wet the pronutro and add a tablespoon, works like a bomb and contains all the nutrients needed. I also think that keeping the cultures cool is very important. I have found that keeping the ice cream bakkies on a cold cement floor actually works very well. Kind regards, Dirk
yes you will. I paid 20 pounds to get the final culture here.... After several attempts.. I am not going to let them die on me soon. (that's about R280 for , as I said , about 2 dessert spoons of medium with some worms!)
I have found that although the worms don't die at around 21C or 23C they do tend to climb out the containers more. Breeding is slower. Population density is less, than at 12 to 15C. So a while back when we had real cold weather I did not put bottles of ice with them. The weather then warmed up and I started putting the bottles of Ice in the container again. In Summer my garage is warm to hot. So I had the white worms in the coldest room in the house - However I can feel the garage is now getting real cold so i will be moving them to the garage and keep them on the floor, as Dirk has suggested.
I have a container wherein we put all our vege scraps. I let this get really full (much to the dismay/disgust of the LOML) and eventually after about a week, I had a bunch of white worms (or were they maggots??). Anyway, I carefully picked these out using a toothpick and got about a teasoon full. The fish loved this! Cost? ZERO.!
Hi Richard and Andre, I have now got a culture of these worms from Abraham. They are doing very well on my cool garage floor. If you would like some of them, I accept exchanges such as weekends at holiday houses, and other offers....... Kind regards, Dirk
Hi Dirk That would be great. Unfortunately the only beach house I can offer would be a sandcastle I have some Mesonauta festivum and some F1 kribs from a new wild caught pair if that would interest you?
Hi So far the most convenient medium for me was just "palm peat" or "coco peat" mixed with some crushed egg shells. (eggs shells are a good source of CaCO3 (calcium carbonate to keep the pH constant (slightly alkaline.) The medium that worked the best for me was a mix of palm peat and some compost made of leaves mixed with some crushed egg shells. It seems like little difference between the two, but the worms take to the second mix much better than the plain palm peat. I have tried several other mixes but its an effort to find material that is a good consistency. Using true peat or canadian peat is a schlep. Its is difficult to get it wet and then its stays too wet too easily. Just a hint on "expanding" the palm peat - if you use boiling water it swells up immediately. and you use less water. If you then just leave it to cool off, it is not too wet for the worms and other applications like growing seedlings etc. Using cold water it can take a day for a brick to expand to its "fluffed up" state. Back to keeping the worms cool. I have tried keeping them in a cold environment - like on a cold floor yes they do survive. I have had some cultures survive at around 25C but they definitely do better when kept cold. (South African Standards) around 10 - 12C This I manage by keeping a few 2l bottles with water in the freezer. The worms are kept in ice cream tubs in a Styrofoam box, with the water/ice bottles between them. The water bottles are then changed every day to keep the box cold.
The palm peat that you are referring to, is it palm peat fibre? I know there is a brand called Kompel. Is that the right one to use? The compost that you use, do you make it yourself or do you buy it somewhere? Thanks for all the help.
One of the companies that sell palm peat is Kompel - they also sell other agricultural products like fertilisers. Starke ayres is another one. It is made from the coconut husk fibre. Sometimes you can get it with no label on. It is usually shaped more or less like a brick. It is highly compressed. One brick will expand to about 8liters of loose fibre. I have bought it at Macro, Pick n Pay (mostly the Hyper) and Builders warehouse - you can also get it at most nurseries usually at a higher price. True peat (originating from decomposed moss) cannot be compressed and is always sold "loose" - meaning it does not expand when you work with it or add water. True peat is mostly from colder climates. this you usually can only get at nurseries. I have used Earth to Earth's compost , and potting soil in my tanks and for white worms. I also make my own compost. Earth to earth = Braaks.
Hello, I have been using this method with excellent results: http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/sh ... hp?t=58028 I have found the worms far more productive than using the various "peat" out there. I also feed pronutro. I had tried several methods of feeding and this is the best. Using the above method I don't wet the pronutro. I simply place a half a tea spoon in the center of the scrubbing mat and cover with a piece of glass or something. The worms consume it in about 12 hours. tt
Hey Tyrone... That link you supplied is fantastic. Maybe I'm a bit doff, but it's not really clear exactly how that little setup works? So the sponges sit on the bottom of the tray with a little water. Then you place a small plastic lid type thing on the sponge and you feed the worms in there? Or do you feed the worms on the sponge? I'm not entirely sure how this all works? If you could put a better explanation up, that would be very cool... If you have the time?
