Traveling worms...again!

The worms have gone with us to Florida again! We left home on April 5th and I brought one set of six drawers with us. I have two sets of drawers in use, but decided that the "younger" ones would be fine without any maintenance for two weeks. I gave the biggest worms to my neighbor to feed to her wild birds, combined my next two drawers into one, and brought my original six drawers with us in the motorhome. I have beetles in one drawer and pupae in another, with worms in the other four.

I brought what I thought was enough wheat bran to last me, but I've had to clean the worms every couple of days, and won't have enough. There's a Tractor Supply here, but I really don't want to have to find space for a 25-pound bag of wheat bran, so I decided to buy a large box of oatmeal to feed the largest worms with. When there were mostly out of food, they were munching on the larvae (mealworms will eat almost anything!), so I had to give them something to eat. I think it will be OK. It's just a little harder to find the larvae to pick out, since they're pretty much the same color as the oatmeal.

Beetle maintenance

I haven't posted in a long time, since there's not been much new in the mealworm world.

I did teach a session on mealworm cultivation at the WRNC (Wildlife Rehabilitators of NC) symposium at the end of January. Unfortunately, the weather was so bad that not many folks came, so I taught the class to five people! I've got a nice PowerPoint presentation, so maybe I'll teach the same one next year.

I had noticed that there was some smell coming from the room with the worm farm. The worms don't seem to smell at all (unless they're dead....and THAT'S a different story!) There is some odor to the beetle drawer. It had been a while since I picked out the dead beetles, and when I started picking, I found a lot. Now that they are cleaned out, the smell is gone.

I've been trying to grow more beetles so that I can gear up the worm production for the summer. I'm letting my two drawers of the biggest worms grow into pupae. My friend Martha gave me another cabinet, and I'll need it soon since I just started the latest worms in my last available drawer.

Catching up

I've been really busy with the holidays so haven't posted in a long time.

I've kept up with cleaning and harvesting mealworms, but did a lot of catching up today while I sifted my beetles, picked out dead ones, and cleaned two drawers of worms. I have been taking care of some injured birds, so I have made use of some of my worms. I've had a flicker (who has already been released), and I still have a Carolina wren who was caught in one of those awful glue traps, and a brown thrasher who was caught by a cat. They both love my worms!

I will be helping at the symposium sponsored by the Wildlife Rehabilitators of NC, and I will present a session on raising mealworms. I've got start working on my presentation soon!

Uninvited guest

Well, things have been going pretty smoothly lately with the worms.....sifting, cleaning, and harvesting. I've been giving some of the bigger worms to my friend Mimi, who is raising opossum babies, and they love the worms.

Then, tonight, I pulled out a drawer of worms who aren't big enough to need very frequent cleaning yet, and....YIKES!... a BIG spider had taken up residence in the back corner! His legs were skinny, but he had a really fat body and I could guess why! I guess he thought he had died and gone to heaven with all those worms to eat! I should have taken his picture, but I was in too big of a hurry to get him out the door. I found a collection of worm casings in his web. He'll have to do some work for his meals in the future....or maybe he'll even BE s meal!

It's been a long time since I posted. There's not much new on the mealworm front.

I've gotten into a pretty steady routine. I sift my beetles about every two weeks. If I go much longer than that, the worm sizes vary too much. I looked at my notes on the drawer labels, and it takes about two months from sifting until my first cleaning.

I've now had ten batches. I had combined the first four batches since there weren't too many of those left. I've just cleaned them, and they will be fed to a robin during the next week. He was the victim of a cat attack and has a nasty wound and lost all of his tail feathers, so he'll be with me for a while.

Batch five, my next big batch, is needing cleaning every four or five days! There are lots of worms in that drawer!

I have divided my beetles into two drawers. It looked like they were just too crowded in that one drawer. A friend of mine (thanks, Martha!) gave me another set of drawers, and I've moved the beetles to that cabinet. The beetle drawers are a little bit smelly. I don't know if it's because there are some dead beetles in there or whether it's because there are just so many of them. I know that dead worms can really stink, so I'm trying to pick out the dead beetles regularly. It's easiest to do when I put their apple slices in the drawer. The live ones cover the apple and devour it, so I can find the dead ones more easily.

Cabinet picture

I never got around to taking a picture of my newer cabinet, so I'm posting it now.

I just combined my first three batches of worms since there aren't too many of them left. They are in the plastic shoebox on top. I've either harvested the worms or they have turned into pupae. I sifted my beetles again today, and I'm now on batch 8. Only the combined batches and the next one (batch 4) are big enough for harvesting. The pupae are in the plastic box under the shoebox.

Surprise worms!

I was picking out the beetles from the pupae box today, and saw a half-grown worm.  At first, I thought I must have had him stuck to my hand for him to get in the wrong place, but then I found several more.   I started stirring the bedding and found a couple dozen small worms.  I try and take the beetles out every day or two, but sometimes some get lost in the bedding.  I guess some were there long enough to mate and lay eggs, and now, I'm finding their offspring!  These worms haven't had any moisture.  I don't put fruit in this box, since the pupae are just dormant while they're in there.  I expect I'll find more there in the future.