Mealworm farming

What is considered a high temp with high humidity? I have my meal worms in a bedroom that I have set up for growing orchids in. In the winter, the day temps are in the low 70's, night temps go down to 60, but the summer is my concern. I run window A/C unit to keep the room cool during the summer do to the heat put off by my T5 grow lights. I try to keep the day temps in the low to mid 80's and nights are around 65 to low 70's. Will temps in the 80's be to hot to use with high humidity such as 70% humidity? I keep the humidity up for the orchids, I could move the meal worms to a different location during the summer if needed. I have seen several dead meal worms (black) but it isn't much of a bother, but if my growing conditions are causing it and I can change it then I will!

You've gotten good advice. I'll just note that the mealworms will do better as humidities approach 70% but that as you get higher than that, you set up conditions that are good for catastrophes. Grain mites and fungi and bacteria that attack insects become more active, sporulate or otherwise reproduce better at higher humidities. It's not that your colony will be attacked by such threats, but that the risk is much higher. It's a bummer to loose most or all of your colony so I always recommend growing under conditions that reduce such risks. The benefits to increased mealworm growth with increased humidity are not great enough to counterbalance the increased risk, at least to me. My humidity measures less than 20% for most of the year and my colonies do just fine. Temperature is different, while risks also increase somewhat as temperatures increase (not as much as humidity), the benefits to growth rate are great enough to easily outweigh those risks. I put my colonies on the back patio during the summer to take advantage of the heat. As hannakat recommended, why not try both environments? You do increase your risk as you increase both heat and humidity, but the conditions you're describing are at the lower end of the danger zone. Just go into it with a watchful eye to any changes in the colony and take care to change conditions if things start going south.
 
Keep some in each and find out what works for you. You can add moisture to the 20% in veggie form. At 70% they might not need much additional moisture. I think you can adjust their environment to each situation. More ventilation with 70%. More veggies at 20% It depends on temperature too.

Never forget that mites love warm/moist. I also have the humidity up on my grow out containers right now.

Experiment to see what works best for you!!! Try not to keep all of your 'eggs in 1 basket' though
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I think I may have a problem. Another BYC'er told me that he gives his chickens some little soft dog food that is shaped kind of like little worms. He said he uses this to help "cage train" his show birds, and that they learn to come to the front of the cage for treats.

I thought, "Okay.... I can do this until my worm colony has multiplied to the point where I can start giving them meal worms." I have some of my chickens free range, some in pens and some in cages.

So I did.

YEEE GADS! I swear everytime I go into the barn there is a heck of a commotion!. The birds are all pacing the front of their pens/cages, they are talkin' and squakin' and making one heck of a racket! To watch them you would think they hadn't had food for a week, but there is still food in their pens. I give them fresh food and water. They STILL don't settle down. You guessed it. They are not happy until they get their little worm shaped dog food!

Good grief! What's it going to be like once I start giving them the real thing? I expect the pandemonium will not get any better! I'm not sure a BAZILLION meal worms is going to be enough!

I can see the headlines now. "Woman eaten by her own chickens when she was late feeding them worms!"
 
Don't see why not, Last feed I bought to grind was 20% before that I never paid any attention to the protein content.



OK good. I think I'll try it in one container and the other stuff in another and see what the difference is. I''l that extra protien, maybe I'll have Super Chickens! LOL


Ivywoods I have the same problem. I can go out and feeders can be completely full, but they act like they're starving when they see my. I get lots of crowing from the boys too. Absolutely deafening at times.
 
Where I live the humidity at the moment in the house is 71% and the temp is 27'C. There is no aircon running- this is normal for this time of the year. My mealworm colonies are doing very well and I had them since Oct 2011. We tend to forget that these are bugs and they are very much able to adapt to whatever conditions they are exposed to in order to survive.
 
I think I may have a problem. Another BYC'er told me that he gives his chickens some little soft dog food that is shaped kind of like little worms. He said he uses this to help "cage train" his show birds, and that they learn to come to the front of the cage for treats.

I thought, "Okay.... I can do this until my worm colony has multiplied to the point where I can start giving them meal worms." I have some of my chickens free range, some in pens and some in cages.

So I did.

YEEE GADS! I swear everytime I go into the barn there is a heck of a commotion!. The birds are all pacing the front of their pens/cages, they are talkin' and squakin' and making one heck of a racket! To watch them you would think they hadn't had food for a week, but there is still food in their pens. I give them fresh food and water. They STILL don't settle down. You guessed it. They are not happy until they get their little worm shaped dog food!

Good grief! What's it going to be like once I start giving them the real thing? I expect the pandemonium will not get any better! I'm not sure a BAZILLION meal worms is going to be enough!

I can see the headlines now. "Woman eaten by her own chickens when she was late feeding them worms!"

yuckyuck.gif
 
I think I may have a problem. Another BYC'er told me that he gives his chickens some little soft dog food that is shaped kind of like little worms. He said he uses this to help "cage train" his show birds, and that they learn to come to the front of the cage for treats.

I thought, "Okay.... I can do this until my worm colony has multiplied to the point where I can start giving them meal worms." I have some of my chickens free range, some in pens and some in cages.

So I did.

YEEE GADS! I swear everytime I go into the barn there is a heck of a commotion!. The birds are all pacing the front of their pens/cages, they are talkin' and squakin' and making one heck of a racket! To watch them you would think they hadn't had food for a week, but there is still food in their pens. I give them fresh food and water. They STILL don't settle down. You guessed it. They are not happy until they get their little worm shaped dog food!

Good grief! What's it going to be like once I start giving them the real thing? I expect the pandemonium will not get any better! I'm not sure a BAZILLION meal worms is going to be enough!

I can see the headlines now. "Woman eaten by her own chickens when she was late feeding them worms!"

yuckyuck.gif

I second that.

Very funny post!
 

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