Maggots I have never tried, caterpillars don't go down well with my koi, worms need to be chopped up but leather jackets (larvae of the crane fly or "daddy longlegs") are a delicacy if you can find them in the lawn.
I have six large composters and when the compost in them is 3-6 months old, rose beetle larvae start appearing in them. When sieving through the compost for use on the garden I save about 50% of the larvae in a special small composter and feed them gradually to my koi. They go into an absolute feeding frenzy!
Rose beetles are harmless, largish metallic green and the larvae do wonders in converting raw compost into a fine earthlike mix, so I try not to reduce the numbers too much. They remain in the larval stage for up to 3 years, growing larger all the time until they pupate and then turn into beautiful insects.
As a special treat, my koi get freshly-boiled potatoes, roughly mashed with a couple of crushed cloves of garlic - Sundays only and then only if they've behaved themselves through the week
Posted on May 16, 2006, 3:14 PM from IP address 84.151.68.39
