phoenix worms

[chris]

Hi All,

has anyone ever come across these before? they are the larvae of the black soldier fly, i just happened to stumble across them by pure luck, it would seem they are very very new to the uk, with pollywog being the sole UK supplier at present. they are interesting in that they are both soft bodied and rediculously high in calcium! :shock: as those of you who keep amphibian and reptiles will know the calcium : phosphorous ratio in commercailly reared livefoods is terrible which is why they need a calcium supplement dusted on top. with these the calcium seriously outweighs the phosphorous! they dont need supplementing at all!

http://www.wormman.com/pd_phoenix.cfm

i think these worms could prove invaluable in forming a large part of the insect diet of many softbills and weavers, waxbills etc during breeding. i'm looking into how to culture them and as soon as i work out a way i'll reveal all.

also of interest is that they have a very high tolerance for heat, far higher than that of mealworms and other livefoods

here's a link to our only supplier in the uk! :

http://www.pollywog.co.uk/shop-foods.html

i'll see about getting some ordered for both feeding and culture purposes

needless to say i'm quite excited about the potential of this particular livefood!

Chris;-)

[chris]

http://ipm.ncsu.edu/AG369/notes/black_soldier_fly.html

seems easy enough from that and well worth it. 500 eggs per egg mass, the larvae feed on organic matter (could speed up the compost :razz: ), and takes only 38 days to complete the lifecycle at 84'F. although i reckon that's in the wild, we can probably do better than that!

http://nespal.cpes.peachnet.edu/sustain/images/larvae.jpg

Chris

[Rogerb]

nice one criss the calcium levels are of real interest to me sounds like a excellent food sources to me please keep me posted on this :-D

[Waxbillman]

same here, let us know if your birds take them well.

Matthew