is it possible to cultivate these, so i can feed on demand? rather than having to pop down the lfs everytime i want some!
and if so, how!
and if so, how!
live blood worm
- Thread starter danielryan
- Start date
Theres a couple of links here that may help
http://www.ehow.com/about_5449377_bloodworm-farming.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5138734_raise-bloodworms.html
Theres something similar to bloodworms that is available in the uk called Joker
http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/Bloodworm-Joker-t40990.html
http://www.ehow.com/about_5449377_bloodworm-farming.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5138734_raise-bloodworms.html
Theres something similar to bloodworms that is available in the uk called Joker
quote from an angling forum
http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/Bloodworm-Joker-t40990.html
Hi all,
You can actually "culture" Bloodworms (and midge larvae) fairly easily, even in the winter. It is a very low tech process, all you need is a bucket or tray of rainwater, and a good big handfull of leaves. You put the leaves in the bucket, and pour the rainwater on, then wait about a month, give the water/leaves a good swirl, and run an aquarium net through the suspended organic "gunge". Then run the net under the cold tap, to flush out all the fine sediment, tip the net contents into a washing-up bowl, and then syphon or net out all the blood worms and midge larvae (smaller, thinner and banded). If you aren't in a hurry you can leave the contents over night and by the morning the blood worms will be in tight little knots with all the leaf fragments. In the summer you get mosquito larvae as well, and in the winter you can innoculate the bucket with Daphnia and harvest those as well.
I have 2 buckets, and a tarpaulin with rain-water puddle in it, and I'll harvest 20 or 30 bloodworms every weekend through the winter, simple as that, and no worries about polluted water or the blood-worms being dead before they were frozen, you can also "store" them live in damp peat in the fridge for weeks on end.
cheers Darrel
You can actually "culture" Bloodworms (and midge larvae) fairly easily, even in the winter. It is a very low tech process, all you need is a bucket or tray of rainwater, and a good big handfull of leaves. You put the leaves in the bucket, and pour the rainwater on, then wait about a month, give the water/leaves a good swirl, and run an aquarium net through the suspended organic "gunge". Then run the net under the cold tap, to flush out all the fine sediment, tip the net contents into a washing-up bowl, and then syphon or net out all the blood worms and midge larvae (smaller, thinner and banded). If you aren't in a hurry you can leave the contents over night and by the morning the blood worms will be in tight little knots with all the leaf fragments. In the summer you get mosquito larvae as well, and in the winter you can innoculate the bucket with Daphnia and harvest those as well.
I have 2 buckets, and a tarpaulin with rain-water puddle in it, and I'll harvest 20 or 30 bloodworms every weekend through the winter, simple as that, and no worries about polluted water or the blood-worms being dead before they were frozen, you can also "store" them live in damp peat in the fridge for weeks on end.
cheers Darrel
I may have to give that a go, dw1305 how do you get it past the missus? as this is probably the most important peace of information. lol
Hi all,
I'm not sure what "midges" Australia has, I would suspect that you have some pretty similar ones.
I had a look here <http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/~ethanbr/chiro/Directory/direct_d.html> and you definitely have some. <http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/chiropage/index.html>.
I originally used the buckets to culture mosquito larvae, in the UK you only get these in the summer, but when I was pouring the water and sludge away in the autumn I noticed the bloodworms, and then I found the same when I was cleaning the water butts out in the spring, put 2 and 2 together and found that you could harvest bloodworms all through the winter.
I'm not sure whether the adult midges are active in the winter or whether the very small bloodworms grow slowly through the winter. I always tip the left-over small bloodworms, stray Daphnia and leaf fragments back into the buckets, so that is a possibilility.
cheers Darrel
I'm not sure what "midges" Australia has, I would suspect that you have some pretty similar ones.
I had a look here <http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/~ethanbr/chiro/Directory/direct_d.html> and you definitely have some. <http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/chiropage/index.html>.
I originally used the buckets to culture mosquito larvae, in the UK you only get these in the summer, but when I was pouring the water and sludge away in the autumn I noticed the bloodworms, and then I found the same when I was cleaning the water butts out in the spring, put 2 and 2 together and found that you could harvest bloodworms all through the winter.
I'm not sure whether the adult midges are active in the winter or whether the very small bloodworms grow slowly through the winter. I always tip the left-over small bloodworms, stray Daphnia and leaf fragments back into the buckets, so that is a possibilility.
cheers Darrel
Hi all,
Should have said I just leave the buckets in a shady spot in the garden, and we don't have any nasty mosquito carried diseases like West Nile Disease, Malaria, Dengue etc. in the UK.
cheers Darrel
Should have said I just leave the buckets in a shady spot in the garden, and we don't have any nasty mosquito carried diseases like West Nile Disease, Malaria, Dengue etc. in the UK.
cheers Darrel
try a garden pond- no good for blood worm but good for harvesting midge lava and daphnia etc (until it freezes in the winter)
Hi all,
If I can find a digital camera that doesn't have flat batteries in it, I'll get some photos of the bloodworm bucket and "catch".
cheers Darrel
If I can find a digital camera that doesn't have flat batteries in it, I'll get some photos of the bloodworm bucket and "catch".
cheers Darrel
Don't let your bloodworm bucket freeze
Hi all,
What I should have said before the weather turned so cold is that you mustn't let your "bloodworm" bucket freeze solid, or all your bloodworms (and everything else) will be killed.
cheers Darrel
Hi all,
What I should have said before the weather turned so cold is that you mustn't let your "bloodworm" bucket freeze solid, or all your bloodworms (and everything else) will be killed.
cheers Darrel
Grow your own Bloodworms in a bucket
Hi all,
Bloodworms (hopefully) and leaves, from the bucket that I 1/4 filled with leaves in the autumn and allowed to fill with rainwater.
.
I didn't take a picture but is a 99p black plastic builders bucket.
Leaves emptied into a white tray with enough water to cover the leaves.
Any bloodworms and other "wee beasties" - in this case Ostracods "seed shrimps", pipetted out (TA Aquaculture sell the pipettes, under "miscellaneous").
It's a result, wriggling, rinsed and ready to feed.
cheers Darrel
Hi all,
Bloodworms (hopefully) and leaves, from the bucket that I 1/4 filled with leaves in the autumn and allowed to fill with rainwater.
I didn't take a picture but is a 99p black plastic builders bucket.
Leaves emptied into a white tray with enough water to cover the leaves.
Any bloodworms and other "wee beasties" - in this case Ostracods "seed shrimps", pipetted out (TA Aquaculture sell the pipettes, under "miscellaneous").
It's a result, wriggling, rinsed and ready to feed.
cheers Darrel