Mealworm farming

[WestKnollAmy]

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It takes time Young Grasshopper. You must be patient. I guarantee the little beetles are having their fun.

X2

 

[BuffyGRL]

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Thanks for the info. I checked that out. When you dumped the bins did they go away? You have a good looking mealie farm.

Your birds are very nice too

 

[oneofseven]

AAAHHHHHH!!!!! My meally farm has mites. I have 4 bins and they all have mites. How do I get rid of them without killing the worms or beetles? Anyone researched washing the worms and betles? I have waited 2 months to get the original batch to multiply.

 

[oneofseven]

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I found a site that says you can take some beetles out of your infested bin and place them in a new DRY bin for a week without moisture. This will kill the mites. I will try it.
http://www.reptileexpert.org/breeding-mealworms.php

 

[Kassaundra]

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I found a site that says you can take some beetles out of your infested bin and place them in a new DRY bin for a week without moisture. This will kill the mites. I will try it.
http://www.reptileexpert.org/breeding-mealworms.php

Did you treat your substrate prior to using it (either freezing or nuking?)

 

[oneofseven]

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I found a site that says you can take some beetles out of your infested bin and place them in a new DRY bin for a week without moisture. This will kill the mites. I will try it.
http://www.reptileexpert.org/breeding-mealworms.php

Did you treat your substrate prior to using it (either freezing or nuking?)

Noooo. I should have. It was grocery store oats and bran. I thought it would be safe. Of course, it could have come with the worms. They came from Petsmart.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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Thanks for the info. I checked that out. When you dumped the bins did they go away? You have a good looking mealie farm.

Your birds are very nice too

Once I dumped the bins I cleaned the plastic up easily enough. I did not use bleach but just a tiny bit of soap with some water. I think Oxine would be safe to use, too. But without the bran the mites had no food so they would have died soon enough. However I rinsed them, let them set for a day, I believe and then started over. Months later, all is still good. It was heart wrenching at the time though.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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Oh, no! That is so terrible!

Are you going to dump or weed the the beetles, mealies and pupae out to another bin?

Ah, I should have read further. I would move them over and try it if it were me.

 

[oneofseven]

I am going to move all the beetles over. Some of the bins had tiny mealies. I will let them grow, even with the mites. I will sort them out as they get bigger. I will try to keep the mites at bay with windex on the outsides and top of the bins.

 

[kizanne]

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It takes time Young Grasshopper. You must be patient. I guarantee the little beetles are having their fun.

Depends on temp. Around 70 degrees you should be able to see worms about 5-7 weeks after beetles. But you have to look for them. I know I made the mistake of glancing at the food I put in there and never found any. Then next thing I knew I had worms everywhere, my substrate literally moves on its own. Lower temps take longer, higher less.