Mealworm farming

[JSLKelly]

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Someone else on here researched that and was told no insect inhibitor as well. I also checked with the store and was told the same but I'm with you...everything was GREAT until I made that one change, now everything is stuck between stages. We'll see. I salvaged what I could out of my old mix and transferred everything to new mix minus chick start. Lets see what happens next.

 

[aggie9296]

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Both. It suffocates them. Plus it makes a barrier so they don't get in or out.

 

[JSLKelly]

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Green mold on what? The bin...the veggies....the cardboard? I'd remove everything that has mold on it pronto!


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Geesh....first mites and now moths! I know the kind you're talking about. Let us know if they're wormie treats or not

Yep...been vermicomposting for decades.....good stuff... black gold to the garden!

I solved the moth problem by switching out the bedding and freezing it. BUT, it was before the colony was well established and I didn't really lose any eggs or little bitty wormies.....or at least that is what I tell myself.... Maybe you can screen out all you can. The plus side is my dragons LOVE the moth larva!

 

[JSLKelly]

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Both. It suffocates them. Plus it makes a barrier so they don't get in or out.

LOVE the oil idea. I use olive oil daily (couple times a day) on my skin. I have extremely low D3 and then to sun tan a lot....it just seems to work better than the pills. So I try to counteract as much as I can with olive oil. Anyway, that sounds like a winning idea. I've draped cheesecloth over my bins since I found a moth flying around and a larva in my 'trash bin'. I tend to pick up shed skin and day old food once a day (read hourly - I'm obsessed since I'm off from school right now) and drop in an empty oatmeal container. The moth larva was there so I broke out the cheesecloth. I'll let you all know if it keeps the moths out.

 

[JSLKelly]

Question about screening. What kind/size screening are you all using? I think I'm going to try out the drawer method. I like my tray/bin method, but there isn't an easy way to separate beetles/eggs/mini-mini mealies except by hand and now that I've had this colony running for 6+ months, getting those mini-mini mealies is almost impossible to do by hand!

I assume you just cut the bottom out of the first drawer and taped/hot glued the screen in place?

~Jenn

 

[LibertyChick]

I found a beetle in my mealie bin today. I don't know if it is a mealie beetle or a beetle that got into the bin. The beetle was not black.

I didn't pull it out thinking it might be one of the mealie beetles. I also saw some white mealies today...not sure if it came out of the new shipment I received today or if it was from the original batch of mealies I got from the petstore a week and half ago. Could someone please post the pictures of the stages again or tell me what page it's on? My computer is too slow to go thru 80 pages to look for pictures.

 

[aggie9296]

when the pupae first turn into beetles, they are white, then brown, then black over a few days.

i can't remember where the pics are on this thread, but sialis.org has good info on the mealworms.

 

[LibertyChick]

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Hahaha this statement reminded me of the time I gave my 3 month olds a pretty large tomato worm. I laughed till my stomach hurt at watching them play tug of war with the thing! I had no idea the skin of a tomato worm was so sturdy!

Yeah!!! Tomato worms do drive them insane don't they! It's even funnier when the chickens are small.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/56638_hornworms.jpg

Do you plant marigolds around your tomato plants? If so, do you still get the tomato worms? I don't remember if I planted the marigolds the year I got tomato worms. I will sure be on the lookout to give them to my chickies.

 

[LibertyChick]

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I'm not sure if this beetle was a mealie beetle. Do you think it might have been in the container from the petstore or from the delivery today? I haven't had them long enough to go thru any of the stages.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

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Yeah!!! Tomato worms do drive them insane don't they! It's even funnier when the chickens are small.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/56638_hornworms.jpg

Do you plant marigolds around your tomato plants? If so, do you still get the tomato worms? I don't remember if I planted the marigolds the year I got tomato worms. I will sure be on the lookout to give them to my chickies.

Most of those tomato worms were removed from a local native plant called a "devil's claw" : http://www.nativeseeds.org/catalog/index.php?cPath=1_20&osCsid=5r20i2t1b608k10t0cc14f9575. They work as an excellent trap plant for the first few years, but then I think you remove a lot of the preference for the plant from the population. Our new cat found the moths great fun to catch and we've had very few worms this year.