Worm microscope slide preparation for confocal

Model Organism: Worms Methods & Reagents
1

I was wondering if it makes any difference using water or buffer for the agarose on which the worms are mounted on. Would using buffer stop the worms on slides from drying out faster?

Thanks!

2

I would suggest using M9 (Brenner 1974) or egg salts (Munro et al. 2004).

3

I usually use 2% agarose in standard-PBS, mount the worms in PBS containing levamisole and then seal the slides with vaseline to protect from drying.
There were also two cool protocols in the wormbreedersgazette by Kathryn Hedges.
http://www.wormbook.org/wbg/archives/volume-18-number-1/
however I never tried them.

Good luck.
Marlon