February 2017
Mosquito Dunks For Gnats and Fruit Flies – Revisited
Back in August of 2009 I decided to test out “Mosquito Dunks” as a potential way to get rid of fruit flies and fungus gnats.
My (somewhat vague) memory of the experiment(s) was that there wasn’t an obvious reduction in abundance of gnats and/or fruit flies as a result. BUT, I have recently come across at least a couple of mentions of success with this method from others, so I’m eager to test it out again (and compare to my parasitic nematode experimentation).
Here’s what I really like about Mosquito Dunks (in comparison to nematodes):
- Dunks are quite a bit less expensive
- They have a shelf life of who-knows-how-long (MUCH longer than nematodes)
- It is more of a direct approach (with nematodes you rely on them staying alive, finding/invading the host, and infecting the host with the bacterium)
- A little goes a long way – pretty sure a single dunk can keep a rain barrel full of water free of mosquitoes for quite some time.
Dunks release the (more…)
**For Even More Worm Fun, Sign Up for the RWC E-mail List!**4-Worm Reproduction Reboot – 2-22-17
I had actually planned to post this update a couple of weeks ago (around the same time as my “Culturing Parasitic Nematodes” post), but I ended up getting side-tracked.
While I might not have managed to get my update posted, what I DID do 2 weeks ago was carefully sort through the habitat material in my 4-worm zipper bag system. I had spotted a tiny Red Worm – one much smaller than any of the 4 that had been added – and realized that I must have accidentally introduced one or more cocoons when I added the “living material” during the initial set up process.
{…SIGH…}
By that point the decomposition process in the bag had come along very nicely. There wasn’t much in the way of recognizable food waste, and I even had a little crop of (more…)
Culturing Parasitic Nematodes
In early January I received a batch of Steinernema feltiae I had ordered just before the Christmas holidays.
I had had a pretty serious outbreak of fruit flies and fungus gnats in my VermBin48 late in the fall (after bringing in a bunch of material from an outdoor bed), and didn’t want to take any chances with my Worm Inn Mega (which as you might recall, doesn’t have a zippered lid).
Given that these nematodes are not exactly cheap, and the fact that there is only so long you can keep them in the fridge, I thought it might be fun to get serious about trying to raise some myself this time around.
The first step in the process involved (more…)