Mealworm farming

[onafixedincome]

I know CA is weird about ag stuff, but why can't you ship what is essentially flour? I believe there are labeling/testing issues, as I recall, with manure....?

 

[Tikkajazz94]

Up to somthing like 17-20 beetles :O and in a month my second generation of mealworms comes alive

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Hi all
I have read all the posts here and just finished reading today. Thank you all for the great information I really learned a lot in a short amount of time. I first started with about 500 from Petco. Thought I would get a jump on it and bought the giant size. Then after reading a few posts here figured out they would not lay eggs so dumped the lot and started over with 1000 regular worms from Amazon. They all arrived in great condition but was unhappy that the PO put the box in my mailbox. Had it been a hot day they would have cooked in there. I am using the three bin method but I prefer to sort them out myself. I have a large bin with all the mealworms in bran. I have the pupa in a small drawer and have the beetles in another drawer. All the bins have bran in them, on under tank heaters and I have a small bowel of water in the pupa drawer. I have about 40 pupa and only about 10 beetles so far.


I have noticed that some of the pupa did not turn to beetles but turned very dark and then dried up and died. I was thinking it was a lack of humidity and added the cup of water. Do you guys think this was the problem?

I do not have chickens but do wildlife rehab and our group always needs lots of mealworms. I was thinking of raising them for our animals and then selling any extra to make money for our group. We spend a lot of money for food, meds, vet care for the animals every year. I am doing this in my wildlife rehab shed that was converted into a room complete with electric, water, air and heat.

Thanks again for all the great information and photos.

Your pupae probably didn't die from dehydration. I live in one of the driest places on the planet and don't have that happening. The pupae are the most vulnerable stage to a host of issues. Sometimes poor or incomplete diet can prevent them from completing metamorphosis. Pesticides on vegetables can also be a problem. More often, they succumb to fungal or bacterial infections. The risk of these types of infections increase with increasing moisture. I would very much advise against adding any water to the colony. Try adding moist vegetables instead. Good luck and stick with it. You will soon work through these problems and be able to provide all the mealworms you need for your wildlife rehab group.

 

[Grace11]

I had to give up the 3 drawer system- the beetles could get OUT of the drawer they were in because the top of the drawers do not touch the frame, sometimes they fly and they would land outside and I hate having bugs loose in my house. The screening on the bottom did not work very well either because the screening would catch when trying to monitor/tend to the beetles and it would end up dumping wheat bran everywhere thru the screening when the drawer was opened. I went to having the beetles in covered bins with holes in the lid that have screening over them, and am very pleased with that.

I now have several drawer sets with various stages, some are just pupa drawers and some are just babys hatching from paper/frass that was in with the beetles and then theres the big fat mealies that supply the pupa drawer and the freezer for chicken bugfests for winter. I have to spend about 2 hours every 3 days to put everyone where they belong and wet the sponges and add a dry piece of bread and stick in new carrot sticks. (Potato slices mold for me so I dont use them) I have found that the closed bins that hold the beetles do need the moisture but if you stack the bins, the sponges stay moister longer in the ones under the top one even with separating boards between them. I am careful to switch them around every so often because with the sponges not drying faster in the under bins I think theres more likelihood of a mold starting that will kill that bin off. I label the beetle bin with the month I started it so I know about what stage it is in. I lay the sponges on a piece of hard plastic (plastic wrap or folded plastic bags make a mess) I cut from something or other to keep it off the wheat bran- it can cause mold if laid directly on the substrate. I save bread and dry it and lay a slice in the mealies and beetles-they can eat a whole slice in just a few days.

I do NOT put anything in the pupa drawer except wheat bran as a cushion and for food for the new beetles till they get put into a beetle bin. A small percentage of the pupa do seem to "die"-shrivel up-dehydrate whatever. I just toss them.

I have to say, that frass is sure something for plants. I am in a state that has approved Medical marijuana so I "could" sell mine for that purpose, I dont approve so I'll have to find a way to sell it for another purpose. (long story-divorced ex because he went crazy when state went ahead for Med. Marijuana, his plants never lived (amazing what a few drops of vinegar does to a seedling or cutting) then started buying it-800 to 1200$ a month. Trouble was, there wasnt anything wrong with him to warrant being high 24/7-he just liked being high. I said over my dead body, so here I am alone. again)

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Grace11, I think you are better off!

I can't seem to get enough frass to keep selling. I love SC! We can do so many things that help us sustain ourselves. Frass was used in our veggie garden this past summer and my bell peppers LOVED it. I had huge, lovely peppers for the first time in the 30+ years I have grown them.
Take said peppers to the market to sell and put a bag of frass near them and when people ask how they got so big and beautiful, show them the frass. Totally terrific!
Now to grow more worms to make more frass to sell and move out worms while I am at it. Somehow, tens of thousands of worms are not producing as much frass as I had hoped.

Next spring I hope to have a lot to sell though!

 

[Kassaundra]

I had to give up the 3 drawer system- the beetles could get OUT of the drawer they were in because the top of the drawers do not touch the frame, sometimes they fly and they would land outside and I hate having bugs loose in my house. The screening on the bottom did not work very well either because the screening would catch when trying to monitor/tend to the beetles and it would end up dumping wheat bran everywhere thru the screening when the drawer was opened. I went to having the beetles in covered bins with holes in the lid that have screening over them, and am very pleased with that.

I now have several drawer sets with various stages, some are just pupa drawers and some are just babys hatching from paper/frass that was in with the beetles and then theres the big fat mealies that supply the pupa drawer and the freezer for chicken bugfests for winter. I have to spend about 2 hours every 3 days to put everyone where they belong and wet the sponges and add a dry piece of bread and stick in new carrot sticks. (Potato slices mold for me so I dont use them) I have found that the closed bins that hold the beetles do need the moisture but if you stack the bins, the sponges stay moister longer in the ones under the top one even with separating boards between them. I am careful to switch them around every so often because with the sponges not drying faster in the under bins I think theres more likelihood of a mold starting that will kill that bin off. I label the beetle bin with the month I started it so I know about what stage it is in. I lay the sponges on a piece of hard plastic (plastic wrap or folded plastic bags make a mess) I cut from something or other to keep it off the wheat bran- it can cause mold if laid directly on the substrate. I save bread and dry it and lay a slice in the mealies and beetles-they can eat a whole slice in just a few days.

I do NOT put anything in the pupa drawer except wheat bran as a cushion and for food for the new beetles till they get put into a beetle bin. A small percentage of the pupa do seem to "die"-shrivel up-dehydrate whatever. I just toss them.

I have to say, that frass is sure something for plants. I am in a state that has approved Medical marijuana so I "could" sell mine for that purpose, I dont approve so I'll have to find a way to sell it for another purpose. (long story-divorced ex because he went crazy when state went ahead for Med. Marijuana, his plants never lived (amazing what a few drops of vinegar does to a seedling or cutting) then started buying it-800 to 1200$ a month. Trouble was, there wasnt anything wrong with him to warrant being high 24/7-he just liked being high. I said over my dead body, so here I am alone. again)

When I was a preteen my father tried to grow his own "herbal remedy" lol I also had issues w/ that so I "fed" his beautiful young plant one day while he was at work w/ stuff I found in the kitchen, not only did it kill it, but by the time he came home from work that day it was brown and semi crispy, he thought it was some weird tropical disease. I didn't tell him what I had done until I was an adult. lol

 

[griffinkid02]

I had to give up the 3 drawer system- the beetles could get OUT of the drawer they were in because the top of the drawers do not touch the frame, sometimes they fly and they would land outside and I hate having bugs loose in my house. The screening on the bottom did not work very well either because the screening would catch when trying to monitor/tend to the beetles and it would end up dumping wheat bran everywhere thru the screening when the drawer was opened. I went to having the beetles in covered bins with holes in the lid that have screening over them, and am very pleased with that.

I now have several drawer sets with various stages, some are just pupa drawers and some are just babys hatching from paper/frass that was in with the beetles and then theres the big fat mealies that supply the pupa drawer and the freezer for chicken bugfests for winter. I have to spend about 2 hours every 3 days to put everyone where they belong and wet the sponges and add a dry piece of bread and stick in new carrot sticks. (Potato slices mold for me so I dont use them) I have found that the closed bins that hold the beetles do need the moisture but if you stack the bins, the sponges stay moister longer in the ones under the top one even with separating boards between them. I am careful to switch them around every so often because with the sponges not drying faster in the under bins I think theres more likelihood of a mold starting that will kill that bin off. I label the beetle bin with the month I started it so I know about what stage it is in. I lay the sponges on a piece of hard plastic (plastic wrap or folded plastic bags make a mess) I cut from something or other to keep it off the wheat bran- it can cause mold if laid directly on the substrate. I save bread and dry it and lay a slice in the mealies and beetles-they can eat a whole slice in just a few days.

I do NOT put anything in the pupa drawer except wheat bran as a cushion and for food for the new beetles till they get put into a beetle bin. A small percentage of the pupa do seem to "die"-shrivel up-dehydrate whatever. I just toss them.

I have to say, that frass is sure something for plants. I am in a state that has approved Medical marijuana so I "could" sell mine for that purpose, I dont approve so I'll have to find a way to sell it for another purpose. (long story-divorced ex because he went crazy when state went ahead for Med. Marijuana, his plants never lived (amazing what a few drops of vinegar does to a seedling or cutting) then started buying it-800 to 1200$ a month. Trouble was, there wasnt anything wrong with him to warrant being high 24/7-he just liked being high. I said over my dead body, so here I am alone. again)

LMAO! That's hilarious. Sadly, in my neck of the woods, even though it is still illegal I have given up having friends who don't *ahem* "medicate" themselves on occasion. While I actually don't have any particular problem with the use of a naturally occurring herb to derive it's natural effects, especially when this "herb" has far fewer chemicals than in a legal cigarette, I have NEVER had ANY desire to try it myself. And I don't tolerate people who go over board. My general rule is is "Don't do it around me and we're good" Now. I'm not deliberately ranting, or trying to convince anyone of anything. I just wanted to say that I find your story, as well as Kassaundra's to be awesomely funny, while not coming off as a hater either.

Edited because my finger studdered and put too many s's in an as. lol

 

[RainbowMealworm]

Yes, exactly. Anytime you have a manure product there is the possibility that it has nitrogen in it and it could heat up and explode. I don't know how accurate it is, but in some books I've read people have used fertilizer when making bombs! I think if we had a lot of testing, labeling, and special packaging made we probably could ship it. It would be very expensive though I imagine.

You're right though, it is a lot like flour!

 

[onafixedincome]

Yes, exactly. Anytime you have a manure product there is the possibility that it has nitrogen in it and it could heat up and explode. I don't know how accurate it is, but in some books I've read people have used fertilizer when making bombs! I think if we had a lot of testing, labeling, and special packaging made we probably could ship it. It would be very expensive though I imagine.

You're right though, it is a lot like flour!

I think frass would be more likely to explode simply because it is so fine--look up 'grain elevator explosion' sometime. The fertlilizer used in bombs is called ammonium nitrate--a synthetic nitrogen source which, when mixed with fuel oil, forms an extremely powerful explosive (it was used in the Oklahoma City bombing).

I'd suggest you look into the testing and labeling--it might just be worth it, depending on what your revenue potential might be. All you need (if I recall correctly) is an analysis of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous--which shouldn't be all that spendy.

 

[Slinglings]

Tiny tiny white bugs crawling all over my worm farm, inside and out. Are these mites and is my whole colony garbage now? Is there any way to save it? Can I feed these worms to my chickens,frogs, finches?