Springtails everywhere!

[fish4all]

Gotta love those tiny native springtails! Here is what I do to control them. Your lucky, my native species is 1/4 that size.

First, you guessed it, bury the food. BUT, I can not tell what you are feeding the worms so be careful what you bury and how much. Grains and grain based feeds can and will sour quickly if not eaten quickly. If it is fruit and veggie scraps then go ahead without worry. Don't let clump of grain get buried, a light sprinkle after moving back some of the bedding and then bury it could work fine.
Second, fly trap paper works great to catch them by the thousands. Stand one up in the bin and start them to the jump on it and you will control the population with 2-3 of those sticky insect/rodent boards. I had one that looked alive with so many on it.
3rd, don't over feed! the worms will not starve but the springtails will look for another place to find food.
4th, I find that feeding grains and bread breeds springtails faster than anything else. If you can feed some fruit and veggie scraps for a while and the population of springtails should decline over time.

I never have gotten rid of them all. Unlike the tropical species of springtails these things are TINY. I have had the entire surface covered with them in a 5 gallon bucket rinsing my red wigglers to get rid of most of them, I had to rinse a dozen times just to make a real noticeable dent.

As for selling the springtails, separating the mites should be easy. Mites don't jump so what you collect should be clean. Get a container and spook the little bugger so they jump everywhere and bag them up. I bet I could have sold 100,000-200,000 last year from cleaning my bins. But I doubt mien would be very useful because they are so tiny. Not sure if I want to try and collect them to sell them either.

[TheHornedToad]

Gotta love those tiny native springtails! Here is what I do to control them. Your lucky, my native species is 1/4 that size.

First, you guessed it, bury the food. BUT, I can not tell what you are feeding the worms so be careful what you bury and how much. Grains and grain based feeds can and will sour quickly if not eaten quickly. If it is fruit and veggie scraps then go ahead without worry. Don't let clump of grain get buried, a light sprinkle after moving back some of the bedding and then bury it could work fine.
Second, fly trap paper works great to catch them by the thousands. Stand one up in the bin and start them to the jump on it and you will control the population with 2-3 of those sticky insect/rodent boards. I had one that looked alive with so many on it.
3rd, don't over feed! the worms will not starve but the springtails will look for another place to find food.
4th, I find that feeding grains and bread breeds springtails faster than anything else. If you can feed some fruit and veggie scraps for a while and the population of springtails should decline over time.

I never have gotten rid of them all. Unlike the tropical species of springtails these things are TINY. I have had the entire surface covered with them in a 5 gallon bucket rinsing my red wigglers to get rid of most of them, I had to rinse a dozen times just to make a real noticeable dent.

As for selling the springtails, separating the mites should be easy. Mites don't jump so what you collect should be clean. Get a container and spook the little bugger so they jump everywhere and bag them up. I bet I could have sold 100,000-200,000 last year from cleaning my bins. But I doubt mien would be very useful because they are so tiny. Not sure if I want to try and collect them to sell them either.

You seem very experienced with this and have many great ideas. Since i don't want to kill the springtails I won't stop providing food for them I want to sell them. You say to just herd them into a bag? How many springtails do you usually sell i wouldn't know how to count them. I was thinking of just buying some 12 oz deli cups putting some soil in and herding a a few hundred springtails in with a sprinkle of food on top.

[fish4all]

I don't have a cue how I would package them to sell them. Counting them would be a nightmare for me, a little easier with your larger ones but I wouldn't try to get a specific number. As for shipping, my best guess would be to use a medium sized container with larger pieces of charcoal and some water in there with a small amount of food. The larger pieces won't kill as many in shipping from what I have read. For selling without shipping, some charcoal in a medium container and some water with a good lid on it. I would cut the lid and hot glue some fine mesh on top for air.

I would really have to research it before I tried selling them really but that is my best guess with the limited information I have found online about shipping them and packaging them.

[TheHornedToad]

I don't have a cue how I would package them to sell them. Counting them would be a nightmare for me, a little easier with your larger ones but I wouldn't try to get a specific number. As for shipping, my best guess would be to use a medium sized container with larger pieces of charcoal and some water in there with a small amount of food. The larger pieces won't kill as many in shipping from what I have read. For selling without shipping, some charcoal in a medium container and some water with a good lid on it. I would cut the lid and hot glue some fine mesh on top for air.

I would really have to research it before I tried selling them really but that is my best guess with the limited information I have found online about shipping them and packaging them.

I did research a little, what some people say is that the charcoal is smooshing a lot of them in transport. Some people have switched to using soil as it kills less. I don't know if this a better idea because what if the delivery dude holds the box upside down; the soil will crush them.

[fish4all]

A light soil like coconut coir wouldn't even injure then even if the tube was flipped. Maybe if it was shaken really hard some might die. I have seen that those who ship with charcoal use large chunks so that less shifting occurs and fewer are killed. Maybe a couple big pieces with tons of big holes in them or drill a bunch of holes will protect them better with charcoal. If Coconut coir would work I would ship in that. So much easier IMO.

[TheHornedToad]

A light soil like coconut coir wouldn't even injure then even if the tube was flipped. Maybe if it was shaken really hard some might die. I have seen that those who ship with charcoal use large chunks so that less shifting occurs and fewer are killed. Maybe a couple big pieces with tons of big holes in them or drill a bunch of holes will protect them better with charcoal. If Coconut coir would work I would ship in that. So much easier IMO.

I think ill just use coco coir but all the springtails will have to be on the surface so ill use a wide deli cup. Maybe i can put something like fruit fly culture bedding material so if it does flip over the earth won't compact them, I know you said the earth won't compact but Im still worried about that.

[1Dumpy]

This is probably a bad idea, but you could use hot glue and glue the charcoal to the container so it couldn't move. Just a thought.