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Odor. That and the worms will be clumping in the corners trying to escape to find something more to eat. If you look closely, and smell, the bedding has changed to a very fine textured worm poop. If you have adult beetles in your colony, they will smell very unpleasantly acrid as dead...

Mold is lethal to chickens. Toss your meal worm bedding that got moldy, but you can rinse your worms under tepid tap water then pat dry. They won't mind a brief shower. I've laundered both adult beetles and worms with no ill effect when I had to get rid of a heavy grain mite infestation. I use...

Grain mites are....I just have no words. The easiest thing to do, and there is no need to dump your colony, is to take the lid off the container and place it somewhere that it can dry out. I place my infested tray on a bench on the front porch and let the warm, dry breeze blow over it all day...

Well, it's more like a few months, but it is pretty much as easy as it sounds.

I average around 20 weeks from the time I place a fresh tray of substrate under my beetles to begin collecting eggs to the point I have larvae of the size to begin feeding to the chickens. It may be a little faster in winter since my meal worm farm is sitting next to the wood stove and it gets a...

Just another wild unfounded myth. Three-day old chicks eat meal worms and live to tell their grandchildren about it.

A lot has to do with your local climate. If you live where the relative humidity is extremely low, like mine, the meal worm larvae and beetles go through carrots like there's no tomorrow. In more humid climates, I've heard folks say their meal worms have consumed no more than one baby carrot...

Trust me, you'll grow quite fond of your worms. It may be happening already.:love One inch is about the size where they begin to pupate. As long as the larvae have plenty of substrate to eat, they will only pupate gradually. If you allow the frass to accumulate and once it becomes greater in...

Congrats on the good seed "crop"! Those 100 probably died of thirst. They do need a carrot to suck on. If you toss a whole carrot in their container, it could disappear in a week. No, my beetles get rolled oats only because the wheat mill run and the wheat bran would empty into the tray beneath...

You get it at most feed stores. Or have them order it for you. It's what's left over after making white flour. It's used to make other wheat products like semolina and cous cous. It's nutritious for the meal worms, probably why they grow so large on it.

Rolled oats in the tray that you put the screen bottom on, and wheat bran in all the rest. Wheat bran will sift through the screen. The beetles like the rolled oats and they don't sift through, emptying the tray, leaving the beetles with no substrate. Look into wheat mill run. It's an...

If patio screen is the same as window screen, then yes, many of us do that. Works great! I use ordinary household glue. Make sure you use metal screen. The beasts eat through the nylon screen.

Oh, you poor man! Meal worm farming is supposed to be fun! It's not supposed to entail so much agonizing effort! Your farm shouldn't require much more effort and thought than keeping your water heater supplying hot water! A system of stacked covered shallow trays should keep your farm producing...

You may feed all stages of meal worms to chickens and reptiles. My chickens even relish the dead ones, dried out and riddled with holes. They're all treats. As for the three-drawer system, that's what I started out with, and found out after my larvae went on walk-about all over the water heater...

My beetles seem to live for around six months. Maybe longer. Of course, I'm constantly adding new beetles to the beetle tray as the worms cycle into adulthood, but I seem to have very little die-off. One time I had a significant beetle die-off. I figured out it was due to not keeping carrots...

Yes. Microwaving produces very uneven results. Freezing isn't so hot either. (See what I did there?:lau) You need a heating method that will heat all of the substrate evenly for an extended period. Those grain mites are survivors. Good thing we're smarter than they are. :fl

A visage no mother could love....

That's what I thought the first time, years ago, when I noticed the "dust". I'm very curious by nature, so I examined the dust through a strong hand lens. This necessitates getting my eye inches from the "dust". That's when I accidentally inhaled and snorted mites up my nose. Not recommended...

Mites will bloom minimally in a large, untreated sack of mill run, but when the temperature is over 75F and a moisture source is added, katy-bar-the-door! And that's in the treated mill run. If I stored my 50lb sack of mill run in a warm, humid space, I would fear for my safety. I no longer...

I just re-did all my previously treated substrate (not the stuff with meal worms in it), at 300F and stirring halfway through. If that doesn't do the trick, they need something much stronger, like a nuclear explosion.