Mealworm farming

[subhanalah]

Thanks @Gallo del Cielo@brahmabreeder@aart

 

[chrissyr]

None of the feed stores near me carry wheat bran, just rice bran and I hate that stuff, it's utterly useless!
Where else can I look for wheat bran?

hi subhanalah,
I get mine at the grocery store. Most of them will have it in the dry food bin sections you scoop yourself.
I reallly don't need all that much, so a big bag (for me) felt like to much that could waste. Although it would be cheaper from the feed stores.
Just remember to heat it up in the oven first to kill any mites that may be hiding in the bran.
That wouldn't be good.

 

[RichnSteph]

hi subhanalah,
I get mine at the grocery store. Most of them will have it in the dry food bin sections you scoop yourself.
I reallly don't need all that much, so a big bag (for me) felt like to much that could waste. Although it would be cheaper from the feed stores.
Just remember to heat it up in the oven first to kill any mites that may be hiding in the bran.
That wouldn't be good.

You have to heat the bran first since it might have mites? Store bought bran can have mites??

How hot does it need to be heated?

 

[subhanalah]

You have to heat the bran first since it might have mites? Store bought bran can have mites??

How hot does it need to be heated?

I do 175 for 20 minutes, not sure if that's good enough or not?

 

[aart]

I would think it's not likely that food grade bran would have mites in it......feed grade would be another story.

 

[chrissyr]

I would think it's not likely that food grade bran would have mites in it......feed grade would be another story.

I do 275 for 20 minutes. Food grade probably "shouldn't" but there are no guarantees.
I'd rather take the time to make sure. I'd rather not have regrets when it takes such little effort

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

You're probably more likely to bring mites in from bran from the feed store, but they can come from just about anywhere. I've dealt with two outbreaks and in both cases I was feeding bran from the grocery store (I was not heating it up to kill mites at the time). Grain mites are practically everywhere, waiting for the right conditions to respond with explosive reproduction. It's possible that many of the grain mite infestations reported in this thread originated from places other than the bran-- mite infestation of chicken feed is pretty common and it wouldn't take much to transfer a couple into your mealworm colony. All we can do is reduce the risk of mite explosions by heating the bran we add and keeping the humidity in the colony lower than 60%, which keeps them from reproducing.

 

[brahmabreeder]

How do you prevent the mites in the bran? I got 15 lbs. today and I just threw it in the freezer.

 

[1stACT]

I'm just using wheat bran too...health food store sells it in bulk bins.

~~ditto... I put small bags of it into the back of the freezer to kill any mites. So far so good so long as there is low humidity.

 

[1stACT]

I would think it's not likely that food grade bran would have mites in it......feed grade would be another story.

Sorry to say...think again.
YUCK I know, but I put a small cello bag of food grade bran directly into my worm bin. A few days later I had tiny white mites crawling up the sides of my bins. FREAK OUT!!! Scratch, scratch, itch, itch_ I Put all of the infected bins outside to freeze for the winter. Then, I placed all of my beetles into a colander and rinsed then under running water. Into new substrate for their breading/egg laying pleasure. I learned the hard way, food grade bran MAY have mights...YUCK!!!