Ordered my starter stock of European Nightcrawlers and Mealworms from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm. Other than the long wait for shipping, going through Amazon.com, they arrived this morning. Only one dead earthworm I could see and no mites or otherwise pests.
They are shipped in dry peat moss and have lost some body mass which is expected and are added to the Clean Bug System worm bin and spread out...
They head directly into the wet cardboard bedding without delay. This is a sure sign the bedding is to their liking. If not, they won't go in at all and will try to escape immediately.
The mealworms are shipped in a breathable cloth bag, same as earthworms but in bran. They have eaten a hole through the bag during shipping and many are loose in the box. Good thing it was taped well! Some old fashioned oats were sprinkled on the enclosure's screen bottom prior to adding all the mealworms in.
Mealworms are poured in and more oats are added to about 1 inch depth. Most of the bran is falling through the screen already so after the surface of the composting worm bin was dusted, a tray was put beneath the screen to catch the rest of the falling bran. We don't want to overfeed the composting worm bin, especially right away since the worms need a couple of days to acclimate, get used to their new home and start surface feeding. Overfeeding more than they can consume in 24-48 hours may lead to sour bedding.
A couple of apple slices are put in, peeling down to help prevent getting the mealworm bedding too moist and causing mold problems that will kill them. Within a minute of adding the apple, the worms must be able to sense them and head straight for a drink of apple juice! As Gourmet Bugs expands, we will be trying many culinary herbs to provide the mealworms with moisture and see if they take on the flavors.
This is a good example of the Clean Bug System in action. All this excess bran was forced through the screen bottom by mealworm body action. So will their frass be falling through the screen and out into the composting worm bin. So we can't feed very small particles of feed with this size mesh but that's ok. Mealworms love oats and will do well on them. Will search around for some other, various larger particle feed source possibilities to give them variety of nutrition.
We need to keep a close watch on this system in both enclosures, particularly starting out. When the mealworms begin to morph into pupae, they are helpless without their hard exoskeleton and need to be removed quickly to prevent the others from eating them. They usually surface and become motionless for a day or two before shedding the last exoskeleton and a trained eye can spot and remove them quickly to solitary confinement.
Same with the pupae morphing into beetles. Pupae are motionless. A newly morphed beetle is thirsty and will eat the pupae if left in with them. The beetles need to be removed to their screen bottom enclosure immediately and given some apple slice or other moisture source as well as new feed/bedding.
Since we do not have or actually know at this point in time what size mesh would be suitable for newly hatched mealworm larvae, the tub under the beetle bin will be a solid bottom until such time as the mealworms grow sufficiently to be added to a Clean Bug System enclosure or at the very least the bedding can be cleaned frequently by sifting over a fine mesh screen such as a grease splatter screen used over skillets when cooking bacon. All this will be figured out as we go until mealworms can spend their entire lifecycle in a completely Clean Bug System.
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