Here we go. Comocray has PM'd me for more details so everyone gets them now. Warning, picture heavy, those with dialup don't go any further.
The first thing I do is cook some old fashioned oatmeal just like I was making my self breakfast. A single serving size will start 2 or 3 cultures.
Cooked oats
Cooled in the pot to room temperature. As you can see, it has congealed and stiffened up somewhat.
I stir it up so that it is not one solid mass while I work with it in the culture container.
Stirred cool oatmeal
Then I spoon it into the culture containers. Today I decided to make a new microworm and banana worm culture so I used 2 containers. One for each. This is one of them.
I smooth the top surface of my culture with the back of a spoon to make the next steps easier.
I had a nasty old culture of micro worms so I was going to discard it as soon as I was done. You can see it was becoming discolored and was almost not producing much any more. That culture is 5 weeks old and would soon stink badly if I didn't discard it and wash out the container.
Next up I sprinkle with a bit of yeast. It only takes a pinch for a container this size, about 8 cm across, and then use a small spoon to move some of my old nasty culture to the new culture. The tiny tan colored dots are the yeast and you can see wet spots where I have spread some of my old culture.
A closeup of that new culture. Note to self: pay attention to the old culture and keep the lens cap out of it while taking the pictures.
Lid in place and this culture is ready to be put away for a week.
I intended to renew my banana worm culture but when I looked at the old one it was still in good shape and going strong. Since I was already set up and had my container in place I decided to make a new culture while keeping the old one. That meant a new lid to cover my culture. Since all of my containers are the same, I simply used a new lid to make a new culture cover. A culture must breathe, but it will attract fruit flies. If you don't think you have any fruit flies to worry about, go ahead and leave it virtually uncovered. Note: adult fish love fruit fly maggots, I know from experience. I cut a breathing hole then cover it with a bit of cloth to act like a window screen and keep out those flies.
Hole cut in lid
Hole covered with a scrap of cotton/polyester cloth and taped in place with cellophane tape to seal all edges.
As you can see, the banana worm culture was still good, it was also a bit drier than the microworm culture. Add a spoonful of that to the other container of raw culture medium.
Closeup of the banana worm culture ready to be covered and put away for a week to grow.
I hope this will act as a guide for those of you nervous about starting microworms. I start a new culture from each viable one about every 2 weeks so that I always have at least one culture of each kind of worms at peak production.
The first thing I do is cook some old fashioned oatmeal just like I was making my self breakfast. A single serving size will start 2 or 3 cultures.
Cooked oats
Cooled in the pot to room temperature. As you can see, it has congealed and stiffened up somewhat.
I stir it up so that it is not one solid mass while I work with it in the culture container.
Stirred cool oatmeal
Then I spoon it into the culture containers. Today I decided to make a new microworm and banana worm culture so I used 2 containers. One for each. This is one of them.
I smooth the top surface of my culture with the back of a spoon to make the next steps easier.
I had a nasty old culture of micro worms so I was going to discard it as soon as I was done. You can see it was becoming discolored and was almost not producing much any more. That culture is 5 weeks old and would soon stink badly if I didn't discard it and wash out the container.
Next up I sprinkle with a bit of yeast. It only takes a pinch for a container this size, about 8 cm across, and then use a small spoon to move some of my old nasty culture to the new culture. The tiny tan colored dots are the yeast and you can see wet spots where I have spread some of my old culture.
A closeup of that new culture. Note to self: pay attention to the old culture and keep the lens cap out of it while taking the pictures.
Lid in place and this culture is ready to be put away for a week.
I intended to renew my banana worm culture but when I looked at the old one it was still in good shape and going strong. Since I was already set up and had my container in place I decided to make a new culture while keeping the old one. That meant a new lid to cover my culture. Since all of my containers are the same, I simply used a new lid to make a new culture cover. A culture must breathe, but it will attract fruit flies. If you don't think you have any fruit flies to worry about, go ahead and leave it virtually uncovered. Note: adult fish love fruit fly maggots, I know from experience. I cut a breathing hole then cover it with a bit of cloth to act like a window screen and keep out those flies.
Hole cut in lid
Hole covered with a scrap of cotton/polyester cloth and taped in place with cellophane tape to seal all edges.
As you can see, the banana worm culture was still good, it was also a bit drier than the microworm culture. Add a spoonful of that to the other container of raw culture medium.
Closeup of the banana worm culture ready to be covered and put away for a week to grow.
I hope this will act as a guide for those of you nervous about starting microworms. I start a new culture from each viable one about every 2 weeks so that I always have at least one culture of each kind of worms at peak production.
