raising your own beemoths

[rangerbull]

I am currently trying to raise my own beemoths for ice fishing. also good for bluegills thru the rest of the year. I currently have two farms going and finished with one that produced well over a 1000 critters. it is now full of moths and hopefully they will lay their eggs and start the process over. My second farm has hatched out and has over 2000 little one crawling around feeding up. they are about 1/4 long at this time. I would like to discuss this with other people who has tried to raise them. My biggest problem is if not used quickly they start to web up and go back into a cocoon. I am still trying to figure out how the ones at the bait shop can be held for long periods with out this happening. I would appreciate any ideals on this. I would also be happy to share my info on raising them and can furnish pics of the farm which is just a wooden type box.

[princecraft]

Rangerbull, I raised  beemoths for 25 years.  I could give you some help hopefully.  For the worms to stop spinning you have to set them dormant.  The way you do that is after you have picked them, you put them into a temperature of 33 degrees for 5 hours.  That will set them dormant and also sterilize them.  When you keep your cycle going you don't want to use those worms as they won't turn into moths very well.  So you are raising yours in a wooden box..  Never heard of that!! I always raised mine in a gal. or 1/2 gal pickle jar with a very fine mesh screen soldered into the lid.  You got to be very careful that none get loose because they will cause havoc throughout the house.  They will eat your carpet, couch, shoes and just about anything else they can get at.  I would start my batch with 15 worms and they would produce anywhere between 5000 and 10000 worms.  Hope this helps.
Jack

[rangerbull]

Thanks princecraft, I will give that a try. I feed mine honey comb, what did you feed yours? we put a slab of comb straight out of a hive with honey and they love it. we are trying to find a place to buy artificial comb and put our own hony in it.

[stonecold16]

I think it is easier to just buy them for 4.00 a hundred.

[princecraft]

Rangerbull,  PM me a message and I will give you some more tips.

[rangerbull]

Princecraft, I tried pm'ing you but came up error each time. Would like to hear about some of your tips. The putting the beemoths in the freezer for 5 hours worked great. They no longer spin. Thanks for the tip.  [email protected]