Polyculture w/earthworms

[rich]

I just started culturing redworms (Latin?). I was told to culture them in a mix of peat and shredded paper and feed them fresh veggies (not oranges, onions or garlic). Anyway, I also grow springtails for my frogs in peat and was wondering if it would be practical to culture both in the same container.
While I'm at it, a friend has a polyculture of whiteworms and redworms. Could I do all 3 in one fish styro?
Thanks
Rich Terrell

 

[joseph]

That happens on accident for me...the springtails found the redworm culture and populate it readily if it is outside.

How to harvest them is a different matter though.

 

[jennifer]

Yes, I have the same accidental polyculture. The springtails fluctuate in abundance. Sometimes there are enough to harvest, sometimes not. The whiteworms are rarely present in high enough concentration to harvest, I just see a few occasionally. So... I agree with Joseph, it would be hard to harvest anything except the redworms (and keep in mind that the redworms may take several months to reproduce to the point of harvest). Good luck with your culture!

 

[jennifer]

I have just accidentally discovered a way to harvest the whiteworms from out of my earthworm culture. Usually, I bury all the food for the earthworms, so I don't get a lot of flying insects. Recently, a piece of dead bread ended up near the surface of the bedding. When I discovered it, this one spot was swarming with whiteworms, right at the surface. I think it would be fairly easy to harvest just whiteworms by leaving a piece of wet bread on top of the bedding overnight.

 

[joseph]

Wow. Do little morph newts like them? I have small numbers of whiteworms in my worm bin but again could never figure out how to harvest them.

 

[michael]

If you put the food under a piece of glass or plastic you should be able to harvest white worms off the underside of the glass. To have any kind of sustainable yield of earthworms you have to start out big. You can do mixed cultures but It's probably easiest to do springtails separate.

 

[joseph]

Does anyone know if earwigs are good food for newts or culturable? I've moved my wormbin to a new spot(further from the house so more buggies) and they have been invading it.

 

[alan]

They are hard to culture deliberately, quite a complex lifecycle (with parental care of offspring!), but I grow dahlias every year and harvest earwigs for my toads, who love them. I think they'd be a bit big/fast for most newts.

 

[joseph]

Thanks for the feedback! Do you find it necessary to remove the "forceps" before feeding? The newts do eat them, but I removed the pinchy part first.