catcubus
New member
I just spent an hour and a half sorting through my mealworm bin, sorting out all the dead/half eaten, beetle, pupated larva, and regular meal worms from it. My back hurts from being hunched over the containers and my fingers still smell like mealworm frass. 
I had a system set up where I didn't have to spend nearly half as much time doing this. However, about three weeks ago, My husband noticed that one of the containers had this weird dust looking stuff on it. I assumed it was just oatmeal or chicken feed dust since the top bin has all the adults in it, and they're always moving around. Errol (my husband) stared at it for awhile and discovered this "dust" was moving. Upon further inspection, we discovered we had a grain mite infestation! Nothing detrimental to our critters, but it was bad news for all the feeders.
The dubia colony went untouched (for the most part), the mealworm colony had a very mild infestation, but my superworm colony had to be thrown out. Once you get these things into your feeders bedding, it's really hard to get rid of them. Most websites suggest you just throw everything out, sterilize your racks, containers, etc and start over. I threw all the mealworms into a clean container and put them aside in another part of the apartment for three week quarantine and (reluctantly) tossed all of my superworm beetles out. I am so happy I had the actual superworms set up in another container FAR AWAY from the beetles when everything happened. They went untouched completely.
I'm guessing the chicken feed we purchased (to feed the worms when I first started breeding my own feeders) was already infested with them (unsurprising) and when I didn't freeze it (like I do with oatmeal and bran), the little ****ers slowly moved out of the bag and infested everything else. My fault for not having done what has always been recommended to me by all reptile forums (including this one).
I had so many superworm beetles and babies that ended up getting tossed out with the trash, but the grain mites HAD to go. The infestation itself seems to be gone, as I've been paying close attention to everything on the rack where the infestation broke out after doing a through cleaning. From now on, I'm keeping all my oatmeal, bran, and chicken feed int he freezer until I need it, and only using about a week's worth of food so I can keep track of it all.
Let my error be a warning to all you folks that breed your own feeders; ALWAYS REMEMBER TO FREEZE YOUR FEEDER'S FOOD!
I had a system set up where I didn't have to spend nearly half as much time doing this. However, about three weeks ago, My husband noticed that one of the containers had this weird dust looking stuff on it. I assumed it was just oatmeal or chicken feed dust since the top bin has all the adults in it, and they're always moving around. Errol (my husband) stared at it for awhile and discovered this "dust" was moving. Upon further inspection, we discovered we had a grain mite infestation! Nothing detrimental to our critters, but it was bad news for all the feeders.
The dubia colony went untouched (for the most part), the mealworm colony had a very mild infestation, but my superworm colony had to be thrown out. Once you get these things into your feeders bedding, it's really hard to get rid of them. Most websites suggest you just throw everything out, sterilize your racks, containers, etc and start over. I threw all the mealworms into a clean container and put them aside in another part of the apartment for three week quarantine and (reluctantly) tossed all of my superworm beetles out. I am so happy I had the actual superworms set up in another container FAR AWAY from the beetles when everything happened. They went untouched completely.
I'm guessing the chicken feed we purchased (to feed the worms when I first started breeding my own feeders) was already infested with them (unsurprising) and when I didn't freeze it (like I do with oatmeal and bran), the little ****ers slowly moved out of the bag and infested everything else. My fault for not having done what has always been recommended to me by all reptile forums (including this one).
I had so many superworm beetles and babies that ended up getting tossed out with the trash, but the grain mites HAD to go. The infestation itself seems to be gone, as I've been paying close attention to everything on the rack where the infestation broke out after doing a through cleaning. From now on, I'm keeping all my oatmeal, bran, and chicken feed int he freezer until I need it, and only using about a week's worth of food so I can keep track of it all.
Let my error be a warning to all you folks that breed your own feeders; ALWAYS REMEMBER TO FREEZE YOUR FEEDER'S FOOD!
