Unexpected goodies

[Niels D]

I've got a compost heap and a compost bin. One day we had some left over cauliflower which was already boiled. We put it in the bin. One day later I wanted to throw in some coffee grindings and I saw that the cauliflower was covered with black springtails. I picked up the pieces of cauliflower and tapped on them while holding them above my terrestrial setup. It was raining springtails all over.

I've tried this with different kinds of boiled vegetables and it works especially good with cauliflower. I put some pieces in the rabbit pen on the mixture of hay and droppings. The pieces were this time totally covered with them. Springtail overkill. This way I don't have to thin out my springtails culture in the compost. Nice and easy way to harvest them from now on.

 

[Blackbun]

Niels did you have to add some springtails to the cauliflower to start with or did the little fellows come naturally from the environment?

 

[Niels D]

All the springtails came from the compost or from the rabbit pen. Especially the pen is springtail heaven. I don't know if the black ones are as nutricious as the white ones, but I know they're used as a food item for frogs a lot.