Keeping waxies for later

Hi all,
Just wondering what all of you do with your waxies at the end of the ice fishing season. I usually have a couple of tubs left and would like to keep them for spring (and possibly summer) panfishing.
Does anybody know the proper way to keep them alive? What’s the correct temp? Any food requirements? Any websites? (everything I found relates to mealworms).

Thanks!

Waxworms need to be kept in a cool dry place like a basement. Remove the dead and do not feed them anything.

Maggots on the other hand need to be kept at 35-38 degrees.

I know that if waxies are in a fridge or left outside, they will be in a coma or something. Just warm them up and they will be fine.

I keep my waxies down in the basement in the laundry room where I have a bear concrete way to set the container up against. It keeps them cool that way.
Thanks, Bill

bill, i got a question about keeping waxies. i have kept them a few times during the warmer months. keeping the dead thinned out. i put them in a large container. also i have replaced with fresh saw chips, not sure what brand they like. i’m sure not walnut. it seems to work. not sure if this is good or bad. while on the subject of live bait, do you have any hot tips on how to keep those left over leeches fat till you need them again?

I have never kept leeches that long. Let me make Mike at HOF aware of your question and see if he can give us a good answer as he owns a Bait and Tackle store plus recently bought a Bait business. Thanks, Bill

Waxies prefer temps around 55 degrees. Keeping them cooler or warmer than that will cause them to go forward in their life cycle – to either die or turn into bee moths. I have never kept waxies much longer than a month.
Leeches will tolerate cold water very well – almost to freezing, so keeping them in a refridgerator is a good idea. They also need to have fresh water, changing it with well water (not city water) is recommended. You can feed leeches beef liver or something similar. They will actually grow if conditions are right and then you’ll have big happy leeches to get those big walleyes!

Good Fishing,
Mike

I’ve been told to keep my waxies at 50-60 degrees and give them corn meal. Last season at the end of the year I opened a box of waxies and they had turned into moths. I’m not kidding they flew when I opened the box and that was in a copenhagen box. Really they did! By the way the fishing had picked up but now the water is dirty. Time to get the boat ready for dam fishing or too early, lots of winter to come yet.

thanks for the info on the leeches, i haven’t tried the beef liver yet, they should love it, i hate it. sometimes when the season is coming to a end and you like to buy as many as you can and use them as long as you can. are these leeches pond raised or do you guys wade out in the lakes and they latch on to yooooooooooooou?

I’m going to bring this back up from the past. Anyone else have a favorite way to keep waxies for future ice fishing outtings?
Thanks, Bill

This is a great thread. The worst part about fishing is buying the bait, and if you do not have a system in place to store that bait when you are done fishing, you will be buying new bait the next time you go out. In my case, I was wasting at least 75% of that scoop of crappies I paid for.

I bought a 110Air pump (name?) last year from Cabela’s. It is a small pump that while plugged in, provides oxygen for the minnows. It seems to work good. Has anyone ever had problems with keeping different minnows in the same bucket. I can’t be 100% sure, but it seems that if you keep sucker minnows and crappie minnows in the same bucket, neither will last as long as if they were separate. Can this be supported by any of you bait shop guys?

To keep them alive I put them on the basement floor. Not too cold and not too warm. They last for a suprisingly long time.

i put my minnows (bucket and all)in the fridge and they can sometimes last up to 2 weeks. Just give them new water every few days or so so they dont have to eat there own waste..

An air pump will pump air but not supply oxygen. An air pump is good for keeping your minnow water from freezing. The best way to keep minnows is the colder the better. The colder the water the more oxygen the water will hold and the less oxygen the minnows will use. Like bigfish said, change the water to keep the ammonia levels down and use two kool-aid type pictures and pour the water back and fourth into each picture 5-10 times, this will create oxygen in the water.

As for maggots and waxies, the proper temps are stated above. Once they turn into moths(waxies) and blue bottle blow flys (maggots) theres nothing you can do. You can stop the life cycle but you can slow it.

Has anybody checked into storing waxies in one of those portable 4 bottle wine coolers? (120v or 12vdc, Temperature range: 39°F – 82°F about $80 dollars at most discount stores)
I understand the best temp is some where between 50 and 65 degrees.