Mealworm farming

[jomoncon]

When I buy any grain-based product for us to eat - oatmeal, flour, pasta, etc - I always put it in the freezer for a few days to kill any bug eggs. It might take me a few months to go through a 10 pound bag of flour & it sometimes ends up with bugs in it. Freezing it kills any eggs.

 

[Kassaundra]

I also do that, w/ just 2 people and not being big starchy carb eaters, and GF it takes a while to get through the flours or grain products, and they are pricey.

 

[mommom4]

I have my mealies in an aquarium and there are now tons of bugs running around... there is also an odor in the tank. Questions: How do you clean it? How often do you add wheat bran? When will the bugs becomes mealy worms? I started this process back in April after spending a fortune on worms. The chickens go crazy over them!

 

[earthfriendlyfarm]

We raise three different types of larvae. Red wigglers and earth worms in our big worm bin to eat the scrapes we don't feed our chiciens. Like moldy stuff or meat stuff. But within there, we also have Black Soldier Fly Larvae. And the chickens love them. And the larvae come out in huge amounts to eat any kind of meat or poop. They love the cow poop from across the street and our chicken poop from their nest/roost room. So these are actually kind of free. I scoop them up by the thousands, rinse them off a bit and put them in the freezer. For winter protein for the chickie chicks. And then we raise the meal worms in the drying room of the farm house. They are in two separate plastic bins. When the beetles hatch out we transfer them to the Beetles bin and then leave all the meal worms in the second bin. We use oatmeal as their bedding, and leave a little piece of damp sponge on a lid top to add humidity, and banana peels, or pretty much any kind of veggie that wont mold fast for their food.

I just separated out loads of mealworms and put them in the freezer. Then I can defrost them and give them to chicks in the winter as well. I am trying to be able to produce myself, the most of the natural feed that I can. I will experiment with dry roasting the frozen mealworms. I read we could freeze the mealworms then in a week or so, put them in a baking pan on the grill on a very low setting for 5 or 5 hours. I will try it just to see the frozen defrosted meal worms versus frozen defrosted mealworms. Letting the chickens make the decision. They love taste tests. haha

Last fall after Halloween, we had access to a truck load of heirloom pumpkins. so we grabbed them and put them in the canning shed and once or twice a week we would pull one out, and with an axe chop it into pieces and walk away. Man the chickens love every piece of it but the rind. Seeds are very healthy for them as it paralizes any parasites and allows the chickens to pass them. These pumpkins lasted us all winter and into the spring, where the last 5 went moldy before we could use them. So we simply put them on the hill side, smashed them just for fun and covered them with wood chips, and guess what.....we have a bunch of heirloom pumpkins coming out now. yahooo.

We also feed our chickens poo poo platters, which are simply 2 or 3 big trays (we have 46 hens one rooster) with soaked wheat berries/ cooked rice/barley, and then we have lots of fun adding tasty healthy toppings. Like unflavored yogurt, flax seeds, bananas, tomatoe and other veggie left overs, even sardines or egg yolks from cracked eggs we don't eat.

We are going to cut a bunch of grains that the hunters left on a couple acres and try letting them dry and beating the grains out and willowing them. For feed for the chickens. I hate to let healthy good, free food got to waste. haha

 

[Kassaundra]

I have been trying to raise black soldier fly larve this year and have been unsuccessful. We are in the middle of a horrendus heatwave / drought so I don't know if that is the issue this year or not w/ the soldier flies.

 

[hannakat]

Well, in 48 hours of having a pink piece of paper in the second drawer of the 3-drawer colony, I've had 10 eggs and 1 wormie. It could be that the wee worms are wiggling off the paper before I see them.

Believe it or not, I don't spend ALL day with my face in the colonies....

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
By "bug's" I hope you mean beetles.

If it's a bad odor, then you need to replace the substrate. If it's more of a natural, oaty, wheaty smell, then you're okay.

Some people only clean theirs 2-3 times a year. Others do it on a monthy basis. You need to keep the worm poo for a while to sift out the growing mealies though or you risk the chance of losing a lot of worms.

The "bugs" lay eggs that hatch into the worms. The process takes several weeks. At this point, you should have lots of baby wormies.

Again...here's a time table.....

Egg Incubation: 4-19 days (usually 4-7). Another source says 20-40 days
Larva: 10 weeks. Visible after about a week
Pupa: 6-18 (18-24?) days
Beetle and Egg Laying: 8-12 weeks (followed by death). Egg laying starts 4-19 days (average 12) after emergence

Keep farming!

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
Hopefully, someone who has experience with this will come along.

Honestly though....I'd think 60-90 seconds in a microwave would kill anything.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

hannakat, I think it would be interesting to sample over a period of time, perhaps over the next two to three weeks because the number of eggs and larvae available to drop down will change. You could also take a volume of substrate from the top bin and sort it for larvae and eggs. You're definitely the expert at spotting eggs! Maybe you could also put a smaller container underneath the bin so that neither worms nor eggs would be lost when they drop down? It would still let you know the proportions of eggs:worms.

Kassaundra, we haven't had nearly the number of BSF larvae in the compost bins this year as we have in years past. I don't know what's up with that.

earthfriendlyfarm, let us know how the mealworm preservation goes.

mommom4, you shouldn't really have an odor in the colony under normal conditions. Maybe there is too much moist food? Look in my sig. line to see a link on how and when I feed and clean my colonies.

 

[hannakat]

hahahaaa....yes Todd! I thought about that too. Guess I'll up the anty to get a true measurement of what drops through that screen!

Geesh