Mealworm farming

[cluck-cluck]

cut........

Grain mites -- drop that humidity quick! Bake a new batch of substrate and place it in a clean new box; sort out your live mealies and beetles, transfer to a colander/screen thingie and gently rinse with barely tepid water. Dump onto thick paper towels, blot gently, and slide them into their new digs. Keep the new digs as dry as possible--feed small amounts of veggies less frequently, and make sure there's plenty of ventilation.

Good luck!

There is my answer, great idea! Thank you million times over!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

There is my answer, great idea! Thank you million times over!

My mealies got infected with mites (those awful microscopic buggers that look like dust all over the place?) I put my buckets outside on the patio, and just couldn't throw them away. The mites have reduced quite a bit, but they're not gone. I really wanted to see if I could save my mealies, so I took some of the darkling beetles and put them into a small container with pre-heated (to kill anything in there) chick mash 'cause i had nothing on hand for them. Anyway, is it possible that there might not have been any eggs or mites on my mealies? Or is this futile? I'm so frustrated and depressed about them, 6 months dealing with mealworms and still nothing to feed my birds! Ugh!

I have my fingers crossed for you

How frustrating! Keep in mind, what you don't try to salvage, feed to your chickens! the grain mites wont bother them, and at least they will get to enjoy a few mealies after all your hard work. I usually bake any substrate I use, then freeze until I plan to add it to the bins. Another thing to try, Put a layer of DE under the mealie bins. The mites will travel thru it and kill themselves off pretty fast. Just be sure not to get it in the bins, it will wipe out the mealies too.

 

[cluck-cluck]

Oh Tay! Thank you very much!

 

[showbarnmom]

Still waiting to get mine together :-/ I need to order my wormies. Anyone have a good source for that?

 

[JulieNKC]

I got mine off ebay, and was really happy with them. Arrived in great shape.
My bins are starting to fill up with baby mealies. yay! Hoping I'll have a lot by spring to feed mandarin ducklings, and enough to feed everyone some soon after. I need to pick up another bin or 2.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Ok, I picked up a couple styrofoam cups of mealworms at Walmart tonight so I should have 60 mealworms. Forgot to get some bran for them but they're in bran so hopefully that will be alright for a couple days. I also cut a baby carrot in half lengthwise for moisture. They're in my bathroom, coldest room in the house! Makes it difficult in the middle of the night. Brrrrrrr

Anyway... so I guess I need to get some bran ASAP and get them moved to a little drawer system I have. Very small drawers, maybe 6" x 8" by 1.5 inches deep. I also have some bigger drawer systems that I'm not using for anything else right now so once these expand enough, I'll move them to the bigger drawers.

Hope my husband doesn't flip to badly! Hee hee

 

[showbarnmom]

I got mine off ebay, and was really happy with them. Arrived in great shape.
My bins are starting to fill up with baby mealies. yay! Hoping I'll have a lot by spring to feed mandarin ducklings, and enough to feed everyone some soon after. I need to pick up another bin or 2. 

Do you remember the sellers name?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Ok, I picked up a couple styrofoam cups of mealworms at Walmart tonight so I should have 60 mealworms. Forgot to get some bran for them but they're in bran so hopefully that will be alright for a couple days. I also cut a baby carrot in half lengthwise for moisture. They're in my bathroom, coldest room in the house! Makes it difficult in the middle of the night. Brrrrrrr

Anyway... so I guess I need to get some bran ASAP and get them moved to a little drawer system I have. Very small drawers, maybe 6" x 8" by 1.5 inches deep. I also have some bigger drawer systems that I'm not using for anything else right now so once these expand enough, I'll move them to the bigger drawers.

Hope my husband doesn't flip to badly! Hee hee

Haha! If he likes to fish tell him, hey free bait for you in the summer

I got my bran at tractor supply. They really munch on the rolled oats too, seems to last a little longer than the bran.
I will switch to rolled oats alltogether once all this brans gone...20 years from now maybe?

.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Do you remember the sellers name?

theres a few on ebay, just search live mealworms.
Westknollamy sells them, she is on this forum also. theres a few others too that sell too.

 

[showbarnmom]

theres a few on ebay, just search live mealworms.
Westknollamy sells them, she is on this forum also. theres a few others too that sell too.

OK thanks