MAGGOTS

[Armarnold]

now thats a good idea too!, do you put something over the box, something like mesh to stop the maggies legin it!?

[MikeT]

Gad, you lot are practical fellows! So here’s a question.

 

My tackle shop likes to sell really crap half-dead maggots which stink of ammonia, and which come in oily rancid sawdust muck to a ratio of about 50:50. So, I riddle them twice and only keep the least unhealthy ones. Trouble is, when I riddle them, almost all the nasty sawdust crud goes through the riddle too, and it’s a jolly painstaking business getting rid of it.

 

How do you get rid of the old manky sawdust in order to replace it?

[DavyR]

now thats a good idea too!, do you put something over the box, something like mesh to stop the maggies legin it!?

 

No, as long as the maggots stay dry, they stay put. It's only when they sweat or otherwise get wet that they can go walkabout! I never more than half-fill a big bait tub, mind.

[DavyR]

How do you get rid of the old manky sawdust in order to replace it?

 

Most shops give you the choice of sawdust or maize flour (yours might not!). I always choose the flour, which you can riddle off easily. If you're stuck with sawdust, you might have to use a riddle with slighter bigger mesh and put up with replacing maggots that go through with the sawdust...

[DavyR]

Did I really just type that? It doesn't make sense. Time to go home, I reckon....

[Tony U]

Re the above

Another alternative, (if you have an understanding wife or mother), is to put the Maggots into a sealed plastic bag and freeze them.

Frozen dead maggots make an excellent hook bait and ground bait and also take a flavour well.

The late and much missed Meatballs (an AN contributer), used dead maggots as hookbait and in PVA bags to take some really big Tench from Wingham

 

 

Tony

[MikeT]

Thanks, Tony. I look forward to watching you land a 3lb roach next Sunday, using a dead maggot for bait.

 

I just had a thought. Since I do happen to have such an understanding wife, I'm going to try removing the cruddy sawdust by blowing it away from the riddling maggots with her hairdrier (which can be set to blow cold air).

 

Genius.

[Armarnold]

Thanks, Tony. I look forward to watching you land a 3lb roach next Sunday, using a dead maggot for bait.

 

I just had a thought. Since I do happen to have such an understanding wife, I'm going to try removing the cruddy sawdust by blowing it away from the riddling maggots with her hairdrier (which can be set to blow cold air).

 

Genius.

 

i think that water might be your answer......maggots sink, sawdust floats.

 

allough, blowing maggots around the place with a hairdryer sounds fun, game like almost

Edited November 13, 2008 by Armarnold

[lutra]

I bought these on 14/10/08, a month old.

Ive put some extra saw dust on them which i will riddle off before i use them and picked any casters or deed ones off (not many), but their still fine.

[Angly]

I had my first maggot keeping experience a month or so back. I bought three pints in a 3.3 pint Drennan Maggibox on the Saturday to use during the following 7-days, and left them in the nice cool garage. By Tuesday I was left with about 2-pints of maggots on top of about 1 pint of maggot soup, all of it smelling very strongly of ammonia (maggot sweat)!

 

Following advice form various threads on here, I threw the soup maggots away, riddled out the surviving maggots, and changed their sawdust (luckily my son’s friend’s father is a keen amateur carpenter and had an ample supply of sawdust for free). Following a session Wednesday, I decanted the maggots into a large Tupperware box, and left the lid off, again in the cool garage. Despite my fears to the contrary, none escaped, the maggots stayed dry and fairly inactive, and with a couple more complete sawdust changes before my next outing on the Friday they even smelled fresh again.

 

So, to echo what all those who knew already knew, keep ‘em cool, keep ‘em dry, and remember that maggots stacked deeply wriggly a lot, generate heat, and sweat a lot…thin layers are the order of the day. Trust me, you don’t ever want to have to deal with maggot soup!

 

I eventually ended up with more maggots than I needed, and the maggots turned to casters, which are now in a bag frozen in the fridge.