Mealworm farming

[evemfoster]

Help, I have moths in my tub. Need a quick and easy way to get rid of them.

The worms weave a silk home sticking a small clump of bran together with the moth worm in the center. Just pull the clump of bran out of the bedding and feed the clump and all to the chickens. If you try to pull the clump apart to save the bran the worm will get away. They move fast and can climb out of a small container in a couple minutes. But they stay inside the clumps fairly well.

I use long handled tweeters to sift through the bran about once a week. But anything long and thin will work. Just slide the tweezers at an angle as you run them along the bottom of the bin. The larger things in the bin will come to the top, like buried veggies, large worms and the bran clumps. The frass will stay at the bottom of the farm.

 

[evemfoster]

Thought i would post this just in case it would help anyone else.

I noticed a couple months back that I wasn't seeing the swarms of tiny worms I normally see moving the bran about in my worm farm. There were no worms under a half inch long.

I believe it is the feed the worms was getting. I ran out of bran quite a while back and just used household foods like rolled oats, crushed dry bread and cereals. I have done this off and on when i run short of bran. It works but the worm growth is slower. Well everything was ok until i added the spilled corn flakes. I suspect there was DE on the flakes. I started seeing lots of tiny black dead worms. Then larger worms and the beetles started dieing.

Well in a little over a week i had lost nearly all the beetles and there was loads of dead worms. So I broke down and bought a 50 pound bag of bran. I pulled out my old beginner drawer set. And placed all the live beetles that was left in it, there wasn't many just 23. Well only one beetle died overnight. So i knew it had to be the feed.

I spend most of the next day fishing out all the worms i could find. Separating the biggest worms into another drawer with the goal of letting them all pupate. I fed the old bedding to the chickens, they loved it. After a week I was still loosing worms but at a much slower rate. I had to change the bran again before the worms stopped dieing. I think there was DE on the worms bodies when i moved them the first time round.

Most of the big worms have now become beetles and are laying eggs. The first drawer of bran with eggs i got from the beetles went into the old worm bin with the surviving worms. Then I decided to start a second backup bin and started putting the egg filled bran into the new bin. After only 3 weeks the bran in the new bin is swarming with tiny baby worms but the old bin that got the first drawer of bran has hardly any baby worms in it. Despite having the bran changed twice there is still some contamination. The larger worms are doing fine its just the tiny ones that keep dieing.

I will let the worms in the old bin be fed out before feeding the bedding to the chickens and completely restarting that bin.

If i had known the DE would transfer so easily into the new bran i would have put the worms into a far smaller container of bran a time or two before putting them back into the bin. Not to old to learn new tricks.

 

[aart]

Well everything was ok until i added the spilled corn flakes. I suspect there was DE on the flakes. I started seeing lots of tiny black dead worms. Then larger worms and the beetles started dieing.

I can see why you thought it might well be the cornflakes....but why do you suspect DE and not some other contaminant?

 

[evemfoster]

I can see why you thought it might well be the cornflakes....but why do you suspect DE and not some other contaminant?

Well DE is used in dry food processed for people. Its why its called food grade. I searched the web and didn't find a lot of information. I'm not that good with searches. I did find that cereal in flake form has a very good chance of having a dusting of DE on it.

So that's why i suspected DE. Can't prove a thing. But the worms did start dieing the same week the cornflakes was added. I had dumped a brand new big box of cornflakes onto the floor and there wasn't anything else added to the bin for a month or more.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Help, I have moths in my tub. Need a quick and easy way to get rid of them.

Once they're in your colony, Indian meal moth traps are probably the easiest way to deal with them. Hang the traps just above and outside the colony.

 

[evemfoster]

Once they're in your colony, Indian meal moth traps are probably the easiest way to deal with them. Hang the traps just above and outside the colony.

Thank you Gallo i had no idea these existed. I will try them myself.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
I don't think DE caused the deaths. While adult beetles are highly susceptible to the smallest quantities of DE, the larvae are largely unaffected by it. I would suspect either a bacterial or fungal pathogen, perhaps brought in by the novel food items or pesticides on vegetables.

 

[evemfoster]

I don't think DE caused the deaths. While adult beetles are highly susceptible to the smallest quantities of DE, the larvae are largely unaffected by it. I would suspect either a bacterial or fungal pathogen, perhaps brought in by the novel food items or pesticides on vegetables.

Thanks Gallo, this helps a lot, it doesn't sound like its DE. Or pesticides on the vegetables, they are from my organic garden. So its a mystery pathogen then.

I will take care to use separate tools between the two bins and sterilize everything real well when the old bin is finally empty.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Oh crud. I was kinda hoping it was the vegetables; that's easier to deal with. I hope whatever it is doesn't contaminate the new bin.

 

[evemfoster]

Oh crud. I was kinda hoping it was the vegetables; that's easier to deal with. I hope whatever it is doesn't contaminate the new bin.

Yes, fingers crossed. So far nothing was used in the new bin except the bran and eggs. I'm hopping the beetles and worms i separated from the old colony in the beginning aren't still carrying anything. Those have stopped dieing at least.