Mealworm farming

[RenaG]

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.

Yes, I didn't know these existed either! I will be making a trip to get some tomorrow. I then think I am going to try moving them into the laundry room to see if I can get more activity going. I put new bran in the about a week ago.

 

[yyz0yyz0]

How do you clean the worm bin/farm without throwing out eggs?

I use a kitchen sieve to clean out the frass from my worm bin, but I'm sure I"m throwing out eggs as well. I clean the bin when I notice the smell starting to get bad. I have all generations in the same bin so I assume that anytime I throw out the frass I'm throwing out eggs as well.

What do you do to keep the bins clean but not lose eggs?

I was thinking of getting a couple extra bins and when I sift out the frass I could put it in an empty bin with a small veg piece and some bran. After 1/2/3(?)weeks sift it again and move any young worms to the active bin and then throw out the frass.

I'm also going to try and go through the active bin pulling out the beetles and put them and the pupae into a different bin, that way when I clean the worm bin I suspect I wont' lose as many eggs as before.

Any other ideas?

 

[evemfoster]

How do you clean the worm bin/farm without throwing out eggs?

I use a kitchen sieve to clean out the frass from my worm bin, but I'm sure I"m throwing out eggs as well. I clean the bin when I notice the smell starting to get bad. I have all generations in the same bin so I assume that anytime I throw out the frass I'm throwing out eggs as well.

What do you do to keep the bins clean but not lose eggs?

I was thinking of getting a couple extra bins and when I sift out the frass I could put it in an empty bin with a small veg piece and some bran. After 1/2/3(?)weeks sift it again and move any young worms to the active bin and then throw out the frass.

I'm also going to try and go through the active bin pulling out the beetles and put them and the pupae into a different bin, that way when I clean the worm bin I suspect I wont' lose as many eggs as before.

Any other ideas?

That is how i do it. But i have to keep it quite a bit longer than 3 weeks. I have to let the worms start getting about 1/2 inch long when i do the first sift or they will just fall through the sieve. I wait a couple more weeks and sift it again. Then i wait a couple days and look at the frass if there is little groves in the top of the frass there is still worms if not you have gotten nearly all of them.

You can toss out the frass or use it as fertilizer. I store the frass in a lidded trash can and use it in my garden next spring.

 

[zarafa121]

Aha! That's what the smell is in the worm bin! This is my first round of farming these buggers, and a little friend I showed my farm to made a comment about the smell. I denied it until I couldn't deny it anymore. It's getting stronger every day. Tomorrow I will sift out the frass. Good, interesting, and helpful thread! Thanks to all

.

 

[Dipstick]

OK, fast thoughts.

According to my personal research... DE works through two processes... first simple wicking of moisture away from the body, and secondly by scratching, cutting, and puncturing the exoskelleton to allow seepage of fluids... I could see it having an effect upon the wormies. And it MUST be true because I saw it on the internet!

GOOGLE

Seriously though... save EVERYTHING which you would otherwise dispose of including the frass once beetles have been in contact with it. Keep it in a separate bin for several weeks with a fresh moisture source. Just remember that they lay their eggs in the frass, along the bottom of the bins. That is what the little bumps on the bottom of the bins are.

Sift beetle bins weekly, place what passed through the screens into its own bin, bran and all. It will take a 12 week cycle max.

If you have bran 1 1/2" deep and can see the surface of the bran, you have room for more beetles. Give them cardboard to climb on. This prevents wasted bran and time. Less than 50 beetles could live in space the size of a softball in diameter... comfortably... in fact they prefer to be in close quarters. The male selects his female and then remains by her side guarding her from other males. He will not leave her side easily.

If you have veggies left tomorrow, you put too much in today. If they are drying out within hours due to heat and wind, then swap with fresh and reconstitute the dried out pieces in fresh water just like rehydrating dehydrated foods for yourself.

As some of you have learned, there are serious reasons I keep beating the drum of wheat bran only as feed and bedding.

If you have parasites, feed everything to your chicks and start over. It is not worth the hassle of trying to recover the colony... what are you going to do... spray the colony for bugs?

OK, that's all from me for a while.

Have fun!

 

[dstinett]

I'm having excellent results from cornmeal and chicken crumble. No bran. No smell. No parasites. Just lots o worms

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

OK, fast thoughts.

According to my personal research... DE works through two processes... first simple wicking of moisture away from the body, and secondly by scratching, cutting, and puncturing the exoskelleton to allow seepage of fluids... I could see it having an effect upon the wormies. And it MUST be true because I saw it on the internet!

There's a lot of confusion out there online about how DE works. It seems intuitive that DE cuts the exoskeletons given the apparent sharpness of the particles in EM micrographs, but it doesn't. DE works by adsorption. Think of it as a sponge that wicks away the waxy cuticle that covers the exoskeleton. It's the waxy cuticle that allows the insect to maintain water balance and keeps them from desiccating. The specific chemical composition of the exoskeleton will determine how susceptible a given species or given stage is to desiccation. E.g. the waxy coating of the mealworm larvae exoskeleton is not very susceptible to adsorption by DE but the cuticle of the adult beetle is very much susceptible. The other important variable affecting how DE works is the ambient humidity. For most insects studied, DE is only effective at humidity levels lower than 70%, with increasing effectiveness at lower humidity levels. This makes sense given that the less moisture there is in the air, the harder it will be for the arthropod to maintain water balance and the quicker it will succumb to desiccation. Here's the abstract to the paper that definitively demonstrated that DE works by adsorption and not by cutting or abrasion.

 

[RenaG]

I think I know where my moths came from. When I added bran a couple of weeks ago is when I started seeing moths. Thought it was just a coincidence, but I bought extra and found them in the sealed container. Could there have been eggs in it? If so that is nasty!

 

[zarafa121]

I think I know where my moths came from. When I added bran a couple of weeks ago is when I started seeing moths. Thought it was just a coincidence, but I bought extra and found them in the sealed container. Could there have been eggs in it? If so that is nasty!

It is nasty, but it's a fact of life, in a way. Insect eggs are in grains, even those finely ground. The best defense is to freeze your grains, whether for kitchen use or for the mealworms, for at least 24 hours - a deep freeze. I had a really bad outbreak decades ago, so when I buy flour for baking, I stick the bag in the freezer. It's an easy, preventive, fix.

 

[aart]

Quote: Better yet, if you don't have a seriously deep freeze...is to 'cook' the bran for 30 minutes at 325 degrees stirring a few times to ensure even heating.