I have springtails in the culture I got from Becca and mites in the culture from Matt - my fish enjoy both equally well, so I'm not too worried about it. Does anyone know how to actually catch springtails to feed them on their own? Those things are fast!
Be aware that you can get fungus gnats coming from potting soils and peat moss. So if you start new cultures and keep getting gnats, you may be re-introducing the gnats each time. Since relatively small amounts or material are needed for culture media, you may want to try baking or possibly heating it by pouring boiling water into the media before you start a new culture. Of course let it cool before adding your starter worms...
Only if they don't come in with the grindals when you add them.
I've even tried restarting from a few grindals after letting the mites float and pouring them off.
I guess what I really should be doing is a combination of things. Sterile media. Finer mesh for breathing. And float the mites off any naked worms I put in. And the whole culture sitting on mite paper. Also sterilize the dog food bc I read that grain mites are found in all hard dog foods.
Hopefully heating it in vacuum will prevent any new ones from getting in.
And I have to be careful about any tools I use to take the worms out with.
Which really starts to sound like a lot of work... Like most things in this hobby. They always start out sounding so easy.
I wish my red wigglers would be more consistent about climbing the walls like the used to. I used to be able to swipe off tiny baby worms for feeding out.
Can't figure out how to reliability get them to climb... My Crypto myrnae are super lucky and refuse to eat any worms that aren't the tiny white babies. Or grindals or whatever they are.
I was never able to get enough grindals going for steadily feeding out for conditioning.