Culturing/feeding meal moths???

cstmgp · #1 (**permalink**) 11-10-2006, 01:10 AM

What are the best ways you've found? They seem to be a pain because of the web everywhere. Do you just pick them out by hand?
Some of my frogs loved them, but some of them spit them back out. I'd bet that if I supplement regularly the ones that eat them well would grow noticably quicker. I assume they are very fatty.
Shaun

a Vertigo Guy · #2 (**permalink**) 11-10-2006, 04:19 AM

I cant imagine why anyone would want to grow these!! I have them all over my house and theyre a major pain in the ass! Theyre everywhere! The pantry, the bathrooms, the bedrooms. I swear the cretins are appearing out of thin air!

Raymond · #3 (**permalink**) 11-10-2006, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tinctoritus

I cant imagine why anyone would want to grow these!! I have them all over my house and theyre a major pain in the ass! Theyre everywhere! The pantry, the bathrooms, the bedrooms. I swear the cretins are appearing out of thin air!

They are an excellent food for some PDFs, are fairly easy to culture, they provide nutrition and fatten the frogs up, add variation to diet. It's good to have several insects to feed your frogs, while they will survive on melanos and springs, it's nice to add diversity (like they would get in the wild), RFBs, worms, roaches, etc.

a Vertigo Guy · #4 (**permalink**) 11-10-2006, 04:38 AM

Someone needs to make a flightless version 8)

KeroKero · #5 (**permalink**) 11-10-2006, 04:41 AM

I haven't worked with these for a long while... I usually just smacked some media out of the jar and picked out the worms, dropped them into a bowl.

Better people to ask would probably be Matt Mirabello and Ed's Fly Meat, both of which actively culture them on a regular basis, and could recommend ways to feed them out as well.

stchupa · #6 (**permalink**) 11-11-2006, 02:29 AM

Since they typically hang on the edges of the jar instead of in the media like waxworms there's no real trick other than just simply scooping the sides of the culture/lid.

If your feeding small thumbnails and need the younger larvae you can make a seperate culture for this. I add about half the media to these cultures as compared to a normal culture. When the young ones run out of media they will climb the sides in search rather than sifting through their poop. Or you can make normal cultures and just add more adults/eggs to make the media become utilized faster and the young start to get hungry. It'll take some tinkering but it's not difficult unless you make it so. They are really attracted to algae and you can divise a way to luer them from the media by smearing some honey near the rim of the jar and dusting it w/ the algae.

cstmgp · #7 (**permalink**) 11-11-2006, 12:50 PM

Thanks for the tips Stchupa. I'll definitely give it a try. What mediums did you have the best luck with? Would they do beter with some ground corn?
Shaun

stchupa · #8 (**permalink**) 11-14-2006, 03:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cstmgp

Thanks for the tips Stchupa. I'll definitely give it a try. What mediums did you have the best luck with? Would they do beter with some ground corn?
Shaun

They seem to do well w/ the corn. I used to use corn for everything but have stopped (no reason) since the last time I tried I couldn't get dried white/sweet corn anymore. When I go back I'm sure they'll have it, my timing just sucks.

I've gotten into a little trouble (well not so much trouble, but people bitch at me for doing so) for giving out recipes for culturing.

I think it's about time for everyone to have the right to know. No more secrets.

I have no list that I keep for proportions. More or less I do all ingredients in equals. I have slacked on my experimenting w/ medias lately to work out what works best.

Give me tonight and I'll write a list for you and hopefully can give it tomorrow. If I gave it to you know Iknow I would leave some things out. Till then you may wan't to search as I have given the basic ingredients I use previously. Try a search on wax worms. The media you can probably guess of what it consists of, it's by no means a secret formula/potion. Common sense devised it. What do bee/mealmoths crave/require what would I prefer if I were a wax worm? What do they seem to relish more than others? What would they require for 'best' "loading" results?

The most important thing is that you use 'whole' foods/graim unground until needed. Meals are worthless when compared.

stchupa · #9 (**permalink**) 11-15-2006, 03:51 AM

Now I'm pissed, I just spent probably about an hour writing a recipe/ directions for this, hit submitt (long long post), and then it tells me I have to sign in again (it has happened before), so I do, hit the back space to get back to my post and for the first time ever it's now gone. Gone, can't get it back. Like it was never there. I'm way more than just distraught now. What a waste. No way I can/ am willing to rewrite this tonight. Now I'm thinking if I ever rewrite this again the same thing will happen. Very hesitant. If someone could lend a hand that'd be GREAT!

steelcube · #10 (**permalink**) 12-18-2006, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tinctoritus

Someone needs to make a flightless version 8)

Every now and then, some of them morphed out with curly wings... so it is possible....

Hopefully ED or some other food companies would be interested in collecting and start a colony...