Mealworm farming

[Cynth]

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I understand. Well he is beautiful.

 

[gale65]

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Maybe it would be better to get some flat brads or something and poke holes in the plastic and use the brads to hold the screen on.

 

[dlee]

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Sorry to hear it gave you trouble.

The hole you cut shouldn't be the entire bottom of the drawer...leave 1" or so all the way around. Cut the screen bigger than the hole, lay it in the drawer and hot glue it.

Glad mealie math is working though! gooooo wormies!

I tried the hot glue gun but it didn't get hot enough so I used an electric soldering gun. It melted the hot glue stick & plastic drawer together nicely. Like welded it all together with the screen.

 

[LibertyChick]

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Did you talk with Amy? Gallo del Cielo has also dealt with mites and other mealie farm problems in the past. The colony can live with the mites, but can you? It won't hurt them. Both Amy and Gallo ended up dumping the infested bin. If you decide to do that, just start feeding the worms and beetles to the chickens...don't let them go to waste. But make sure to keep it completely separate from any other mealie colony.

Good luck and please let us know how you decide to handle it. There was mention from one poster a while back about putting a strip of oil around the inside of the bin. That way the mites couldn't crawl out and would get stuck in the oil. I think it was vegetable oil (someone correct me cause I'm not sure of this) and she would go in there and wipe it out from time to time and then redo the oil. Wish I had marked that page...might have to go back and find it.... anyone remember??

I did get an answer from WestKnollAmy. Here is what I plan on doing.

I have organic oatmeal in the freezer so I should be able to start a new bin by Sunday night or Monday. I'm probably going to buy organic wheat bran from here on out because the price is much cheaper. All the oatmeal I had started with was organic except about 5 cups or so and what the petstore substrate.

I will take the beetles out of my infested bin and put them in the new oatmeal. I still have tons of beetles so I should still get lots of eggs from them.

I will start using at least 2 or3 bins because it's just too hard to scoop out the worms without getting a bunch of beetles. One bin will be for beetles, another bin for pupa and another for worms. Maybe a couple bins for worms which would be different ages.

And my current infested bin I guess I'll just feed to my chickens. I'm not sure I can easily pick out worms to put in a new bin without getting mites with them.

What do you use to scoop out worms? Someone mentioned a clean cat litter scooper? I got one but I can't seem to separate the worms from the oatmeal substrate and the worms just fall thru the holes.

LibertyChick

 

[hannakat]

You can't really sift worms from rolled oats. That's one of the benefits of either using wheat bran or grinding the oats prior to use.

btw....finally uploaded worm/pupae/beetle stage photos. Since I just finished setting up my next batch in the re-designed bin and took photos, thought I'd upload all of them to my mealworm page. BUT I forgot to take photos of my frozen wormies....next time!

 

[oneofseven]

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Nice pictures.

 

[binders]

Great pictures hannakat! I also like your new bins (bin within a bin). It will help with the problem I have that whenever I want to look at the beettles I have to remember to open the drawer below it at the same time so I don't get eggs and small meal falling through onto the counter. I like it! Once again you are teaching us new and interesting things about this form of farming. What fun!

 

[hannakat]

Thanks oneofseven and binders!

Always thought I'd need those empty thread spools.....just didn't know when or where

Yea, can't open the top drawer without opening the second....gotta protect them eggs and wee wormies! I'll know in a few months if the redesigned bin works the way I THINK it will. Winter is coming quickly and I want a generous supply of worms so that bin might end up being quite empty by spring!

Between that and my frozen collection, these chickadees are set! woohoo!

 

[ZoeZoo]

I would really like to do this (I love animal management-!) But my family would absolutely KILL me and squish the mealworms!
They'll probably freak when I bring home some mealies for the hens and the hamster soon... my excuse will be "it's nearly winter and there are no bugs out!"

Oh, for the love of a hen...

 

[galanie]

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If they do, tell them with a sigh that you'll just go with the backup plan then... maggots!