Thread: Do Maggots Really Need Air And H2o

Of all the methods there are to catch a Bluegill, the one that outdistances all the others, hands down, is the maggot. They just love them. I keep them alive in a small insulated container in a garage refrig. I put them in white cornmeal with just a dash of sugar. To color them red I add a few drops of food coloring in their food. The mini fridge, helps to retard progress.

My question is...How many of you put a small air hole or two in your containers or give them a few drops of water a week? Just curious.

I do, when i buy them from the bait shop, they come in the styrofoam cup, with a plastic lid, and lid has air holes in it, and the sawdust is damp. Been told the damp bedding, retards their efforts to change into the pupa stage '' brown casing'' .
If you add water to the bedding, use Non-chloring water or you will kill them.
Best kept at 32 degrees in the frig.

Would like to hear more about what you feed them, and how long does it take them to turn red?

Ship, what are you talking about? Once they come off the meat, they don't need any food. They just want to find someplace warm where they can pupate and turn into flies. Here's the details:

"A female blue bottle fly lays her eggs where she feeds, usually in decaying meat, garbage, or feces. Pale whitish larvae, commonly called maggots, soon hatch from the eggs and immediately begin feeding on the decomposing matter where they were hatched. After a few days of feeding, they are fully grown. At that time they will crawl away to a dry place where they can burrow into soil or similar matter to pupate into tough brown coccoons. After two or three weeks, the adults emerge to mate, beginning the cycle again."

Blue Bottle Fly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

To get colored maggots, maggot breeders inject dye into the meat.

To answer your question, though, I do poke holes in the containers. I don't add water, though. The condensation that forms in the container is enough.

Originally Posted by Buckeye Mike

how long does it take them to turn red?

You can buy colored maggots, but I haven't for years. The dye shortens their lives, and the fish like the plain white just as well.

Originally Posted by Buckeye Mike

the pupa stage '' brown casing'' .

The pupa stage is called a caster and is a great bait, too. I think they would be an AWESOME shellcracker bait. In England, you can buy casters by the pint, just like maggots. Here, you'd have to turn your own.

I wanted to keep them longer than two or three weeks in the refrig in the garage. I thought I had to feed them and toughen them up a bit. I always take them out of the flimsy container from the bait store and put them into my own "Contraption" for the refrig.



It seemed as if whenever I would add a few drops of water it made the cornmeal or sawdust clump up and get crappy.


This is what "G3 Fisherman" responded to me....."To give wax worms, maggots, or mealworms a drink of water...the best way is to just put a slice of potatoe in the container with them about once a week. They will get their drink from the moisture in the potatoe and it will not mess up your meal or bedding materials by getting it wet and soggy etc. A piece of lettuce leaf will work also."


I think I may try this and see what happens. I still would love to read other's responses and what they do to keeo their Maggots and Waxworms alive until their next fishin trip. Also, will the Maggots reproduce or are they "sterile?'

Thanks everyone.

Ship, I have kept maggots for up to three months at a time. I do not add food or water. As long as you keep the lid tightly covered, condensation will form, and that is enough moisture for them. I do periodically change the bedding. If it has a strong ammonia smell, replace it. For storage, I use the little plastic Ziploc/Glad containers you get at Walmart for a few bucks. They're cheap and work well.

The maggots sold in this country are not sterile. If a maggot gets out of its container and finds a nice, warm spot, it WILL turn into a caster and then into a fly. I know. It's happened to me several times! It's not a big problem, though. Blue bottles are big, slow moving flies. You can practically catch them with chopsticks (like in "The Karate Kid".)

Now a question for you: you get your maggots from a local bait store? In Alabama?

Thanks DB4D. I appreciate your input. Yeah, I usually go to the bait shop and get some waxies and maggots the night before going out for 'Gills. Sometimes I tip a hair jig with a maggot for Crappies too.

Originally Posted by deathb4disco

Ship, I have kept maggots for up to three months at a time. I do not add food or water. As long as you keep the lid tightly covered, condensation will form, and that is enough moisture for them. I do periodically change the bedding. If it has a strong ammonia smell, replace it. For storage, I use the little plastic Ziploc/Glad containers you get at Walmart for a few bucks. They're cheap and work well.

The maggots sold in this country are not sterile. If a maggot gets out of its container and finds a nice, warm spot, it WILL turn into a caster and then into a fly. I know. It's happened to me several times! It's not a big problem, though. Blue bottles are big, slow moving flies. You can practically catch them with chopsticks (like in "The Karate Kid".)

Now a question for you: you get your maggots from a local bait store? In Alabama?

Originally Posted by shipahoy41

Yeah, I usually go to the bait shop and get some waxies and maggots the night before going out for 'Gills.

I’m just stunned that a bait shop in Alabama would carry maggots. I've never heard of any bait shop south of Chicago selling them.

I know a lot of people who just hang some meat from a branch and collect them that way. The Mrs. does not like the smell of that method...so I just buy mine.