Sunday, October 02, 2005

Trap for maggots!


Seeded a trap for maggots today to supplement the Australian Bass food. The worm farm will, over time be capable of supplying enough worms for the Bass however in the interim we need other feed sources. We used a number of dead fish, from the freezer, collected over this year- creating an enclosure to prevent rodents/birds etc. from access while allowing flies to 'blow' the fish. The heat of the last few days and the forecast of more heat should accelerate the production of maggots.
Maggots are useful as decomposers because they help to break down rotting biomass such as plant and animal remains and return nutrients to the soil. Maggots also have useful applications in medicine, where they are used to clean open wounds by consuming dead tissue, and in forensic entomology, where the age of maggots feeding on corpses is used to determine the post-mortem interval (the time that has elapsed since death).
* A 90cm Red Bellied Black Snake was spotted near the gate to the farm- very healthy looking! Maybe that's why we haven't seen any mice???

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