Whiteworms: always available

[Otterwoman]

I always have a couple of whiteworm cultures going. If you are interested in a starter culture, pm me.

Update:
Springtails have gotten into all of my cultures, so there will be a few springtails in any culture I sell now. I haven't fought them because springtails are also good newt food, and because they seem to have gotten rid the mite problem I had for a while. I haven't seen any mites in a few months, since the springtails got established.

My prices are $15 for a culture, priority (two-day) mail, and it will include tracking. Too many are delivered late and sometimes die. Then I have to resend. However, if the weather is cool and you prefer, I will send them for $12 first class mail. Let me know when you order. Some people like to get two cultures. Two sent together priority will be $25 and first class will be $20.
Sometimes, due to unexpected temperature fluctuations, and to the vagaries of the post office, the culture will die in transit. If it does I will send one more to replace it, but if this one dies too, I am sorry; but at this point I have already used all the money you paid in postage. As most of us know, the unreliability of the post office and the fact that they don't guarantee their priority mailing is unfortunate for us, but it is beyond my control. Thank you. I can send with an ice pack for an additional $5.

[Otterwoman]

This is a standing offer. I'm up to my ankles in whiteworms! (slight exaggeration) The price is $15 including postage, two-day mail, and tracking. If the weather is cool, and you request, I'll mail for $12 via first class mail. I'll take checks, paypal, or money order.

[taherman]

I will vouch for Dawn here and say that she has awesome whiteworms. They are vigorous and quite fecund!

-Tim

[Sean n Dad]

Dawn,
Worms came the other day, but I didn't find them till last night at about mid-night when I took my huskey out.
I had taken them out of the box and ....UUGGGG frozen solid .....
So I left them on kitchen table over night to thaw out & gross out my wife.
Well they thawd out and are fine. But my wife wasen't grossed out, darn it.
Let me know how you care for these guys, I not always sure about new cultures. I have lost new cultures when I only made slight changes. I was going to feed with bread, baby cereal & cyclopeez(fish food).
Thanks again,
Ed

[Newtilizer]

Hi Dawn,

I would be interested in a culture. Please tell me how to send you a payment and how to raise the worms.

Craig Henry

[Otterwoman]

This is how I raise them: in a plastic container (I've tried tanks for cultures, and they don't seem to work for me) with a few drill holes for air. I stuff a bit of sponge or foam through the holes, so that other bugs can't contaminate the cultures. I put in soil that I've sterilized in the microwave (garden soil I buy from a Home Depot type store, with no additives). For whiteworms, I just feed them bread. I bury a piece under the soil (to keep it from getting moldy) once a week, or whenever there is no bread left, it's pretty usually once a week. But when I get a request to buy a culture, I put another piece in. The bread feeds them and also attracts them, so in a couple days, where the bread is will have a bunch of worms around it, making it easier to get them out to send. Otherwise they are throughout the soil, because I also sometimes add baby oatmeal and stir it throughout. I use the baby oatmeal because I also raise springtails, and that's what I feed them, and since I have it around, I add some of that as well. I keep three going at once, in case one crashes, (which hasn't happened though, since I finally got the knack of raising them, it didn't happen right away). When I have extra bread-type food, I'll use that too (ex. extra Xmas cookies, Xmas fruitcake, Xtra donuts, graham crackers, etc). But otherwise usually I buy whole-wheat pita bread or whole-wheat tortillas.

After a few times of trying, when my cultures died or got bugs, this worked. I did get some mites at one point, which totally grossed me out and I threw out my cultures. However, I've learned to tolerate them occasionally, I think they come when I've fed them too much. It's just a feel. They are pretty much mite-free, though I occasionally see a couple, I think they're unavoidable. If anyone disagrees, please say so, I'm still learning.

And that's all I know in a nutshell, and it's been working.

update: I don't bother sterilizing dirt anymore. I just use herp bedding (jungle carpet, eco earth, or something similar. It's lighter and fluffier than regular dirt).

[taherman]

Just to add to Dawn's info...I got my cultures from her, and I've had success in 32 oz deli cups with the insect lids. I split the culture I got from her into three deli cups, and filled them up the rest of the way with moist coconut pith. I feed them exclusively babyfood oatmeal, and they have been doing great for me for several months.

I inadvertently found a great way to harvest them. Split the culture into a new deli cup, and wet the substrate down quite a bit more than usual. This will drive all the worms to the surface and up the sides of the cup where they can easily be scraped off. After you have harvested them, top off the cup with damp coconut pith, and this will absorb the excess moisture so that they burrow back down into the soil.

Hope this helps
Tim

[SUZY]

Just wanted to say THANK YOU Dawn !!!
Yes she does have awesome worms.
OOOH!! That sounded weird !!

[Otterwoman]

From now on, most of the proceeds will go to skunkhaven.net --they're not ferrets, but they're awful cute! and ALSO the Hudson Valley Ferret Rescue ( http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/NY725.html ).

April 25 2013: I am updating this to say that I am no longer giving money to the Hudson Valley Ferret Rescue, but instead to a variety of ferret rescues.

[AJ]

I would highly recommend Dawn's whiteworm starter cultures. She sends a very generous portion of healthy whiteworms. I got my culture from her about a year a go and it has been producing more than I can use for a long time now.

[monkeyfrogman28]

Thank you for the starter culture. I would also recomend her cultures. She does send a very generous amount. Thanks again

[Coastal Groovin]

I love skunks but the Commy-pinko's here in PA made it illegal to have them, I still have my white worm culture going well from Dawns stock. I feed mine goldfish flakes that I bury in the soil. I'm going to try dry dog this week. Just to see if they eat it. They multiply fast but my morphs appetite keep it from growing but it holds steady

[Otterwoman]

So far, since I started donating in March, your purchases have raised $77 for Skunk Haven and $72 for the Hudson Valley Ferret Rescue. (I'm a small-time operation) but the skunks and ferrets thank you!

[Otterwoman]

I have made a few videos of how I care for and feed my whiteworms to my caudates:

The closeups are a little blurry, but that's minor. I didn't rehearse or anything, it's all off-the-cuff.

YouTube - Whiteworms 1

YouTube - Whiteworms 2

YouTube - whiteworms 3

[Deadpool66]

Do you have any cultures availible now?

[Otterwoman]

Yes, I've been meaning to update this thread and say that springtails have gotten into all of my cultures, so there will be a few springtails in any culture I sell now. I haven't fought them because springtails are also good newt food, and because they seem to have gotten rid of all the mites. I haven't seen any mites in a few months, since the springtails got established.
If that is OK with you, PM me.

[jameswei]

i just want to say that Otterwoman's white worms are amazing. a few of my herps werent eating until they were exposed to these worms. the most fickled eaters easily became greedy in the face of white worms over the course of a week.

[axolotlfriend]

just thought i'd bump this and say i just received my white worms from Otterwoman and that she has been a pleasure to deal with and delivers a great product.

[Molch]

The two small cultures I got from Dawn last fall have quadrupled; they just keep going and going.

Today I'm splitting them into larger containers. My adult newts and larvae just love em.

How do you all harvest the worms? I'm looking for a more efficient way than what I've been doing. I just take out some worm-rich clumps of earth and put them in water; the worms will wriggle together into worm balls which I then fish out, and I then strain the earth out again to put back in the culture. It works, but isn't as efficient as I would like...

[Tommy]

I sometimes feed my dart frogs springtails, would these work just the same?

I am also curious if these would make a good axolotl larva food, I am about to have a batch that I will feed daphnia (already have a culture for my fish), and I am just looking into some additional foods.