Buffalo Beetle Concerns..

[richard22]

I’ve been focusing on breeding buffalo beetles (Alphitobius diaperinus) large scale at this point and am concerned with the presence of grain mites in the lower section of the bin. The bin is a 25qt sterilite bin composed of mostly wheat bran in the middle, and old chicken feed and lots of brittle and dry fruit scraps at the top. I’ve heard the beetles need tropical conditions, I can easily provide high temperatures but if they need higher humidity than room humidity the mite problem will surely exasperate. I can keep sieving the substrate for mites but the frass in the bin will always seem to compact, become moist, and smell like ammonia providing I don’t turn the substrate to dry it out and start harboring mites again. I read somewhere they eat mites, not just figuratively ‘combat’ them, but I doubt they would treasure grain mites as a good meal over moist semi-rotten vegetable/fruit scraps. I recently added red runner roaches to the bin to possibly aid in the consumption of food.



The top level always is very dry since I provide adaquate ventilation in the hot room I keep them in, so is it a good idea to limit ventilation inorder to keep humidity and moisture in the bin even if it may give grain mites a stronger presence? Also, how might I lower the presence of the mites other than by sieving if it is a problem worth being concerned about. If you have any info or tips on how larger-scale buffalo beetle farming is carried out that would be appreciated.

 

[1Lord Of Ants1]

At a relative humidity of 30%-60%, they don’t need any more moisture than mealworms. If grain mites are present, you have too much.

I would keep things simple, so consider removing the majority of that substrate. Cheap dog kibble has worked best for me when breeding this species and the coarse texture makes sifting out old frass easy. Feed moist foods sparingly and only as much as the population will eat in a few days—none of it should rot. Larvae prefer some privacy when pupating. I use sections of corrugated cardboard or particularly crevice-y pieces of cork bark.

 

[richard22]

At a relative humidity of 30%-60%, they don’t need any more moisture than mealworms. If grain mites are present, you have too much.

I would keep things simple, so consider removing the majority of that substrate. Cheap dog kibble has worked best for me when breeding this species and the coarse texture makes sifting out old frass easy. Feed moist foods sparingly and only as much as the population will eat in a few days—none of it should rot. Larvae prefer some privacy when pupating. I use sections of corrugated cardboard or particularly crevice-y pieces of cork bark.

I have sieved the substrate and it seems there aren’t many small larva anymore, maybe the grain mites ate the eggs. The mites were all below a 600 micrometer layer and mostly below a 425 micrometer but not many below a 225 micrometer layer, so I trashed all the frass and am going to restart with the remaining beetles, larger larva, and roaches in a wider 64qt sterilite bin with a generous amount of dog food where I can turn the substrate easily. The problem is the frass starts to accumulate moisture within in, giving the grain mites a perfect breeding ground; I will see what happens in a wider bin with high ventilation. I will also sterilize the brittle fruit scraps and try to find a way to increase the edibility of them to the beetles.



I am wondering if I could automatically sieve the larva, beetles and roaches from substrate they are similar in size to, because the wheat bran is mostly around the beetles’ size and I can bet there are grain mites that weren’t sieved from the substrate which remain. Any ideas on how I could accomplish that?

 

[RoachCoach]

I would like to add to @1Lord Of Ants1 comment as it is pretty on point. If you do decide to keep feeding them grain from the same source you have been buying it from, I would suggest you either nuke it in the microwave for a bit or in the oven to destroy any potential pests/eggs. I sieve my frass with 1/4" wire mesh, then through a 1/2 mm wire mesh screen. If you mean automatically like a meal worm farm then you will need multiple containers for breeding adults etc. Or just make it all on top of a 1 mm or so mesh so the tiny worms can dig their way and fall through. The larger worms won't fit through a 1/2 mm screen.

 

[richard22]

I would like to add to @1Lord Of Ants1 comment as it is pretty on point. If you do decide to keep feeding them grain from the same source you have been buying it from, I would suggest you either nuke it in the microwave for a bit or in the oven to destroy any potential pests/eggs. I sieve my frass with 1/4" wire mesh, then through a 1/2 mm wire mesh screen. If you mean automatically like a meal worm farm then you will need multiple containers for breeding adults etc. Or just make it all on top of a 1 mm or so mesh so the tiny worms can dig their way and fall through. The larger worms won't fit through a 1/2 mm screen.

I am not going to use grain anymore anyway, I am going to use ground up crusty fruit scraps and dog food powder and other powdered stuff ontop of whatever is already there since grain-fed buffalo worms had much less protein and slower development time. They seem to be doing well nowadays, but I don't have a way to separate all of the worms from the substrate automatically without manually picking them out. I also can't throw used substrate away as there will be eggs and worms so I need a way to get them out of the frass and substrate powder. I tried a tilted bucket pouring into a shoebox but it took too long and didn't work well, maybe I could use a powerful fan to blow the substrate away from the worms and beetles. Any info on how mealworm farmers deal with this issue, like on a larger-scale worm farm?

 

[RoachCoach]

I saw this dude's small scale operation a while ago. It seems he is on to a good system designed for a single person to operate. I 'm pretty sure most of the larger scale operations are done out of country in impoverished areas where they hire tons of people for cheap and send them dry packaged to the states. I wouldn't believe they have invested much into automation. Probably not much until we start using insects more here. Plus the cycles of diff species wouldn't lend very well to having specialized machines to sort. You can glean some info on how people build sorters for BSF. They have an awesome way that is fully autonomous because the larva sort themselves. The fact the eggs and newly hatched nymphs are virtually microscopic makes it so hard to sort them. Having them crawl through a floor screen with frass below after they hatch is the best method I've seen so far. My 1/2 mm screen catches nearly all the late instar worms. Also the fact that lessers will have to burrow like dermestid to pupate while mealies don't makes it even harder. I use corrugated cardboard then peel off the layers when changing them. I find about 30-50 beetles/larva/pupae in a 1'x1' piece.