Hi guys, I haven't kept any arthropods in a while since I have been focusing on my other hobhies(gardening, aquarium etc (well, I guess you could count the crabs in my aquarium as arthropods)). Anyways, I saw an ad for some some hissers on gumtree and I jumped at the opportunity, the seller was nice and I brought them home. When I got them home I saw that they had already covered the small container they were in with frass. That got me wondering, can I scoop it all up and use in on my plants ? I know it would work, but can anyone tell me about smell, mold or disease related factors I should consider ? And if anyone does this, would it be better if I just leave the frass to dry before use?
Madagascar hisser frass as fertiliser?
- Thread starter Defalt
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- Sep 9, 2010
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- 310
I don't have any hissing roaches, but I do own several large feeder cultures of which I harvest lots of frass, such as mealworms, superworms, discoid roaches, Indian stick insects, hornworms, and silkworms. Every few months I procure as much as several pounds of frass. It's all harvested dry, but to be effectively utilitised by plants it will have to be moistened and allowed to further decompose. In such a state it normally molds, and in large amounts there's definitely a sour smell. Due to this I normally almost always compost it, which works as expected. However, I have added some to potted and house plants by burying a small amount in a 1/2" deep circular trench around the plant itself. Never had an issue in such a case. Just make sure your frass is mostly vegetarian; avoid feeding lots of dog/cat food, etc.