Grindal Worm Culture Collapse Sign

Bad odor is the one sure sign to watch for as a warning sign of Grindal worm culture collapse, crushed or dies out. 

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The day you notice your Grindal worm culture stinks - you have a day or two before the colony will collapse.

 Whatever the culture size, soil, or anything else you culture Grindal worms on - waste no time! 

The whole culture, not just some part of it, will be dead in a matter of a day or two if you do nothing. 

Save what you can now!

 Collect as many worms as you can from this culture.

 In this example, I wash Grindal worms off the cover and the plastic piece. 

You may notice leftovers of food from yesterday’s feeding. 

In a healthy culture, Grindal worms tend to stay on the cereal flakes I feed them. 

Here worms are spread everywhere - no crowding on the flakes of food. 

Let me show you the same culture as of yesterday’s feeding. 

Normally Grindal worms stay closer to the food. 

And today the culture stinks and Grindal worms are spread all around. 

Here I use a soft brush to collect worms from the walls of the container. 

Put Grindal worms in a cup with water to keep them hydrated. 

Grindal worms stay alive underwater for hours. 

This well established on polyester and land moss culture is about 3-4 months old.

 I can reuse the moss - it is alive still.

 And now I can show you where the stinky smell is coming from. 

The polyester foam I used for this Grindal worm culture is soaked in water saturated with waste. 

The poop and whatever other waste accumulated over the past months serves as food for bacteria to grow. 

In Nature, bacteria handles waste very well - that is known as composting.

 In the limited space of a container, too much waste becomes toxic before bacteria can process it.

 High levels of toxins kill the whole culture. 

Here you can see many Springtails are already dead.

 If you use soil, then it has to be replaced.

 Polyester as in this example, can be washed in tap water and reused for setting up a new culture of Grindal worms. 

So, I wash the foam clean and put it back into the same container.

 Put the same moss back on top.

 Moss is optional - I have Grindal worm cultures on polyester without anything else.

Put a flake or two of cereal. 

Now let's add Grindal worms and Springtails. 

You can see Springtails walking on the water’s surface.

 Springtails feed on waste, including the waste produced by Grindal worms. 

I add Springtails in all my Grindal worm cultures and terrariums. 

Congratulations! We have resuscitated a stinky Grindal worm culture. 

And I have enough Grindal worms to set up a couple more cultures and to feed my fish.

 Have fun and happy culturing :)