Glo Worms and PV panels

[sleepybubble]

Having read about the dangers of Electric Eels and Enthanol, is it not feasible to farm glo worms and spread them over PV panels at night time. Thinking on the basis that some light is better than no light.

http://www.norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk/education/WildFileGlowWorm.html

It seems the larvae live on snails and slugs so they could also prove to be a useful predator in the organic garden.

Theres proberbly a grant somewhere for breeding them for release back to the wild to boost the native population. After all if you can get £10,000 towards using worms for waste paper recycling, (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hereford/worcs/4076598.stm) natural heritage or somebody is bound to fund glow worm re-introductions.

Just a thought.....

Mark

[Ivan]

Now the glow worm thing is really quite interesting. Glow-worms can achieve an energy efficiency of 88% (energy to light). That's really quite amazing, and if you see the chemical process by which it occurs, it is even more so. Because of the complexity, it's impossible to recreate in a test tube, and the manmade chemical reactions producing light (oxylate esters are the common ones, used in light sticks) achieve around 23%.

[mespilus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciferase

[jude]

My husband is out doing a glow worm survey tonight (at least that's what he told me!)

http://www.galaxypix.com/glowworms/

Sadly they don't appear to thrive in captivity - a glow worm colony would be far nicer than a light bulb!

[Ivan]

Did he find any?

I looked for glowworms a few years ago without success. They like open grass, no fertiliser/weedkiller, and gravelly areas. mostly due to the requirements of their pray - small snails.

[jude]

Did he find any?

I looked for glowworms a few years ago without success. They like open grass, no fertiliser/weedkiller, and gravelly areas. mostly due to the requirements of their pray - small snails.

Yes, he said they found quite a few -  our  local Natural History Society organises a hunt of the known habitats every year just to make sure they are still there.