How much time???????

[sddragons]

Well I finally saw my first baby super crawling on a potato slice last night. It was very small. Only about 1/4 inch long and about the thickness of a piece of hair. With 40 beetles that were in that drawer, I should have 100's of babies in there i hope. So when and how do I go about changing out the bedding for these little tiny things?

I never heard of Winco so we probably don't have one out here but we have a chain called Henry's that sells all this stuff by the pound so I will check there. I still had 3 containers of oatmeal so I thought I would try and throw one in a blender and it chopped it up very very fine so I can mix this in now too with the wheat bran I buy. I should of thought of this sooner but I thought everyone was just using straight oatmeal out of the carton.

Do you have a Winco in San Diego?
Or a grocery store that has a bulk food section?
If so the wheat germ, wheat bran, an other substrate stuff is really cheap, much cheaper than buying it pre-packaged. I think at Winco I pay .39 per pound for wheat germ. And less than a dollar a pound for any of the other items.

 

[fresnowitte]

Yay! See I told you that you had babies. :wink:
I waited the first time until the worms were about ___that big.
I used a large cooking utensil spoon with holes in it to sift and pull out the worms. But I still let the original/old substrate sit for a few more days after I originally removed the worms as I found many more worms that were either to small to see or that slipped thru the spoon holes. Now you will find out why the oats are a pain if you don't grind them up as they are not going to go thru the holes very easily.

Congratz on the baby supers!

 

[sddragons]

Yeah I think I will have to wait until they get a little bigger than what you show here and pick them out one by one. How long did it take to reach that size?
Another question, so I now have wheat bran, fine oats, and yellow corn meal to use. Do you mix them all together equally before time or just throw a cup of each into a new drawer and just mix together in there?

Yay! See I told you that you had babies. :wink:
I waited the first time until the worms were about ___that big.
I used a large cooking utensil spoon with holes in it to sift and pull out the worms. But I still let the original/old substrate sit for a few more days after I originally removed the worms as I found many more worms that were either to small to see or that slipped thru the spoon holes. Now you will find out why the oats are a pain if you don't grind them up as they are not going to go thru the holes very easily.

Congratz on the baby supers!

 

[fresnowitte]

It took months for them to get to that size,(about 3) but once they reach that size they grow rather quickly.
If your going to try to pick them out one at a time your going to be at it for an entire day. :lol:
You poor thing.
I usually Microwave each substrate item separately as my microwave isn't all that big and my new worm bins are larger than the ones I had previously. (Don't microwave baby cereal if you decide to use it it will clump up terribly.) Then I mix them all together I notice that the corn goes fastest so I do usually add a couple of cups of corn product every week or so to the baby worms.
In case you missed why it's best to microwave the substrate is due to grain mites and grain moths.....believe it or not they are in our food we buy. My first batch of worms got infested with the grain moths an I had to throw them out and start over. Several other members mentioned the grain mites gave them a problem. It was one of our member that told me about microwaving the substrate and sense I did I haven't had any more infestations in my worm bins.

 

[sddragons]

Oh good idea. Freezing them might work too. I remember when I had birds I would get the little moths that would come out of the seeds and the bird store said just to freeze first overnight and I never had moths again. Not sure if this would work the same way or not. How long do you microwave for?

It took months for them to get to that size,(about 3) but once they reach that size they grow rather quickly.
If your going to try to pick them out one at a time your going to be at it for an entire day. :lol:
You poor thing.
I usually Microwave each substrate item separately as my microwave isn't all that big and my new worm bins are larger than the ones I had previously. (Don't microwave baby cereal if you decide to use it it will clump up terribly.) Then I mix them all together I notice that the corn goes fastest so I do usually add a couple of cups of corn product every week or so to the baby worms.
In case you missed why it's best to microwave the substrate is due to grain mites and grain moths.....believe it or not they are in our food we buy. My first batch of worms got infested with the grain moths an I had to throw them out and start over. Several other members mentioned the grain mites gave them a problem. It was one of our member that told me about microwaving the substrate and sense I did I haven't had any more infestations in my worm bins.

 

[fresnowitte]

Those little moths are a pain in the you now what aren't they. :twisted:

It of course would depend on how much you put in, but just long enough for it to get good and hot somewhere around a minute or 2 not long enough to cook/burn it.

 

[MAJ]

Glad to hear you have babies!

It is one of those things that once you know what to look for, you will find them much more quickly in the future.

As for microwaving your substrate... I don't know what size bowl it is that I use, but it is the largest that will fit in my microwave, and holds close to a combined two pounds of wheat bran, wheat germ and cornmeal (a good sized microwave). I nuke it for about three minutes, and then let it cool to room temperature.

I would avoid freezing the substrate for a couple of reasons:
a) some bugs are surprisingly resistant to freezing. don't know about the pests we are trying to prevent, but I trust microwaving them to kill them more than I do freezing.
b) When thawing, you may get some condensation. Condensation means moisture and moisture could lead to mold. Keeping it sealed while thawing will likely prevent water from condensing onto the grain, but is a risk.
c) two or three minutes and a few minutes of cooling time versus a overnight in the freezer. I prefer to get my substrate changes over and done with quickly.

As your worms are growing, if you need new substrate, it is best to just add new on top of the old until they are big enough to separate from the frass/waste. I use a seive for separating the worms from the waste, and even at the size shown by fresnowitte, I still find that several worms seem to be able to work their way through the screening and fall down with the waste. A few losses are inevitable, and not a big deal.