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Breeding maggots without meat


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a good method to breed maggots to eliminate the smell is after the blow wrap the blown fish or meat in 5 or six layers of news paper place in the bottom of a bucket then fill the bucket with clean dry

Hi Doobie, sorry I'm a bit late for the party. I buy the long life gents too, and have found them to be fantastic. I keep them in the fridge set at 4 degrees, and they have lasted for several months.

I have now returned to breeding my own gents for 1 pure reason - twice now, I have purchased a container of long life gents and both within a 2 weeks were 3/4 dead. Each was purchased from a diff

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  • 2 weeks later...

Our next door neighbor used to breed gents to sell. He would hang a snapper frame in the shed about 5 feet high. Under the frame he would have a large tray of pollard/bran. After a while when the maggots were at the stage when they want to bury themselves they would drop off the frame and fall into the bran. As the frame wasn't sitting in a bucket it and had air circulating around it the flesh tended to dry out and not stink (as much). Not much fish flesh fell into the bran either and was easily picked off the top. 

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Well you wouldnt bloody read about it - (unless there was a thread about maggots😉)

The can, I'd given up hope on, has produced - you bewdy.

Not exactly sure of the wisest next move - I reckon I'll leave it as is - then transfer to a bran filed bucket when they start trying to crawl out of the can.

One positive of this method is the odour has stayed trapped in the can so far - but I imagine transferring them out will be a different story - I reckon I'll sieve and rinse with the hose before they touch bran
 

 

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1 hour ago, yellow door 1 said:

Yeah I'm giving the Cat food another try in a more blow fly rich environment - saw a few hanging round today but no eggs yet

 

Good on you for persisting with the cat food, but after this lot I'd be trying some 'normal' fly food ;) 

If you saw some hanging and no eggs laid .... then the cat food is not working imo.

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The maggots have been transferred to another bucket with paper underneath and on top - I've been told to leave them in for 2 days before getting them into the fridge.

The smell is non existent until you put you head over the bucket - so this method is going well.

I'll have to deal with the smell eventually but so far so good

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Thats great news - thanks for the update Doobie

Yeah the method I saw had a much bigger bit of plywood on a slant and bright sunlight hitting the maggots to spook them out - I'll try and find the vid

Found it - who says only weirdos breed maggots😉 ( Fast Forward to the 1 minute mark to see his set up)
 

 

 

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On 16/04/2019 at 7:11 PM, doobie said:

Good on you for persisting with the cat food, but after this lot I'd be trying some 'normal' fly food ;) 

If you saw some hanging and no eggs laid .... then the cat food is not working imo.

I was just thinking about the process and why it took so long for the maggots to take hold and what you said rings true.

The reason cat food in the can wasnt ideal - is it took way too long to let off decent smell.

The foul stench of death is what brings them in and my cat food in the can was too well preserved.  It was basically odourless for the first couple of weeks.

But when I was sorting the maggots out from the paper - flies showed up from everywhere.

If I need to do it again, I'll empty the cat food into a bowl, so its fully exposed and rots quicker.

Or carp fillets stink up pretty quick - yeah I'll probably use those

Seeing the flies show up when it had reached its true "Stink Potential" was an eye opener,



 

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Yes definitely comes down to the smell and best way to attract them.

Yet in Winter when I'm cleaning fresh Salmon they appear quite quickly too as I have to watch they don't get onto the fillets.

Good video - I'm going to have to try that next time - seems a better way to separate them (thanks for finding it and putting it up).

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  • 2 weeks later...
38 minutes ago, doobie said:

Just an update.

Took them out the fridge for their weekly walk today and they are still wriggling.  A few more dead from a few weeks ago, but don't they'll last another couple of weeks.

Maybe just enough for 1 session left - but not a long session lol.

So I reckon about 8 weeks now, so not so bad.

Yeah thats good going

I spose when you buy them from the shop, you never know just how long they have been sitting in the tackle shop fridge before you get your hands on them.

I remember going into a tackle shop of a mate, of a mate, to grab some pillies - while we were chatting, I mentioned his friend and he immediately goes to the bait freezer and digs right down to the bottom of the pilly blocks and pulls that one out. He said they restack the bait freezers every time a new shipment comes in so they dont have old stock going off at the bottom of the freezer.

So if I was ever going to buy maggots from a store - I'd be grabbing the least accessible punnet I could find😉

Heres an update of my maggots after 16 days
 

 

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1 hour ago, yellow door 1 said:

So if I was ever going to buy maggots from a store - I'd be grabbing the least accessible punnet I could find

That's what I normally do - but on the last 2 occasions they didn't last very long at all.

And that's why I reverted to breeding my own again, although when desperate I'll buy them.

Yours look pretty good - just remember to take them out every week for about an hour to 'liven' them up - seems to prolong them better.

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1 hour ago, doobie said:

That's what I normally do - but on the last 2 occasions they didn't last very long at all.

And that's why I reverted to breeding my own again, although when desperate I'll buy them.

Yours look pretty good - just remember to take them out every week for about an hour to 'liven' them up - seems to prolong them better.

Yeah I've been taking them out for a wriggle every few days

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The holes, in my improvised mesh sieve for separating maggots from bran, were too small. (2mm max)

So I googled Maggots sieves/riddle and they were a bit expensive. Cheapest I found on ebay was about $36 if you include postage charges. So I googled popular mesh sizes. Seems 3mm is about right.

The purpose built ones are made from wire, which I imagine is more efficient (first photo) - but this plastic garden sieve will be better than what I had.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Plastic-Garden-Sieve-Riddle-Green-For-Composy-Soil-Stone-Mesh-Tool-Gardening/401413014489?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D6b8745d0557f4abaaf1a597c4b748582%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D15%26sd%3D163594536186%26itm%3D401413014489&_trksid=p2481888.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Ade2f77f2-727a-11e9-b257-74dbd1802e2b|parentrq%3A9d82ef4116a0a9cc71d86d43ffe44104|iid%3A1

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Yeah part of me is worried that the holes are too big - but I'm hoping with a vigorous sifting style, the maggots will be too busy bouncing around to be able to find their way down the holes.

I had every intention of going to the 2 dollar shop to look for baskets - but I've had a severe case of the sniffles - so it was easier to let my fingers do the walking😉

I'll let you know how the 3mm holes go

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