CooperDragon":1drf9296 said:
I just had most of my silks die off. Their container got moldy and a lot of them shriveled away. Common problem I have with them. I need to work on building a bigger/better enclosure for them. Something well ventilated and easy to clean. I'm going to offer less food - in smaller batches as well. I'll try the leaves if I can get them, but they seem tough to come by in my area, especially in winter.
I find Décor TellFresh clear food containers work well.
I start my worms off (as eggs) in a 1.5L TellFresh , lined with scottowel, lid on (if the lid is one I've ventilated with holes using a soldering iron I seal by placing gladwrap under the lid) works well until they get about 2 weeks old and need more space and more food.
Key I find is to take the lid off for while each day to let the contents ventilate and dry, and I remove the poos each day and don't leave any leaf remnants that look the slightest bit white and fury in the tub (sure to kill the worms ,especially when they really little).
I upgrade to a 4.5L TellFresh tub with a ventilated lid (soldering iron used to make LOTS of holes in the lid) when they are about 2 weeks old. I feed the worms about lunchtime , remove them and remove old scottowel lining and poos and most the denuded leafs (I keep some to add some structure and keep the fresh leafs in layers apart). I still loose a few worms (mostly failed sheds).
If I was raising a 1000 or more worms I'd up to a 10L Tellfresh tub.
I had mass die offs too when I was using chow, I think this is because
- the chow has more moisture in it and lots of it is wasted (not eaten when it starts to go hard and dry)
- the worms are forced to come in closer contact with each other, if any are infected , they spread the virus/bacteria/fungal spores to the healthy worms.
I found chow was more successful if I made small batches of cooked chow up (maybe 40g of powder) at a time, made it into long sausages wrapped in gradwrap while still hot and plyable. Chilled til needed. Keeps for several weeks once cooked and chilled if kept wrapped.
Cut sections off the ends as needed and placed between two sheets of baking paper or thick plastic and rolled it as flat and thin as I can (1 - 2mm is good) and then fed the chow to the worms as sheets (kinda like leaves to the worms).