Pete Dixon

I had an interesting experience today. I set up 3 practice jars 8 days ago.

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The first of the large jars was ok, maybe a little light in larvae. The second large jar was BARREN! I think I saw one larva in my sample. The third, small jar was a surprise though, it was booming! Squirming larvae hanging from the chandeliers, partying like it was 1999. Huge numbers. We're talking 12 larvae in a 40X field of view! Previously I think the record was maybe 4, and that was searching around to get those 4. This time it was like there were crowds of larvae. First time in perhaps 12–13 jars I've had such an incredible result.

All three jars were prepared at the same time in the same way from the same stool sample. Looking at the jars now, I can't see any reason why one of the jars would have failed and one would have been so spectacularly successful. An admin in the HT group said this sort of thing is why most people do several jars at a time, and possibly it was due to an uneven distribution of eggs in the stool sample.