CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Will mealworms die if the temperature drops below zero?

1. Will mealworms die below zero degrees?

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But generally the temperature in the house will not be lower than zero in winter. In addition, according to the process, the mealworms are covered with bran for insulation during the winter, so they generally do not freeze to death. But in extremely cold areas, you need to pay attention. When the feed temperature is lower than 5 degrees in winter management, it is necessary to heat the room.

2. There is black feces at the bottom of my mealworm box, and the bodies of the mealworms are flat and dead? Some of them die with black heads, and some of them die with straight and soft bodies. Why?

Flat death should be caused by dryness disease

(1) Causes: The main causes of the disease are dry air, high temperatures, and low water content in feed, which cause severe dehydration in the body of mealworms and cause the disease. This symptom is usually more likely to occur when using coal stoves to heat in winter, or when the temperature is high (over 39°C) for several consecutive days in the hot summer without rain.

(2) Symptoms: Drying starts from the head and tail, and then slowly develops to the whole body drying up and becoming stiff and dead. When larvae and pupae are infected with dryness disease, they can be divided into two types of symptoms, "yellow dryness" and "black dryness", depending on whether the insect body has deteriorated or not. "Yellow dryness" is when the dead insect's body color turns yellow but has not deteriorated; "black dryness" is when the dead insect's body color turns black and has deteriorated.

(3) Prevention and treatment: In the hot summer, the feeding box should be placed in a cool and ventilated place, or the doors and windows should be opened for ventilation, various vitamins and green fodder should be added in time, and water should be sprinkled on the ground to cool down to prevent the occurrence of this disease. When using a coal stove for heating in winter, the air humidity in the feeding room should be measured frequently with a thermometer and humidity meter. Once it is lower than 55%, water should be sprinkled on the ground to increase humidity, or the moisture content of the feed should be increased, or more green fodder should be given to prevent the occurrence of this disease.

(4) Dry, black, and dead mealworms should be picked out and thrown away promptly to prevent healthy mealworms from eating them and becoming sick.

The head is black and dead, it should be blackhead disease

(1) Cause: According to our daily observations, the cause of blackhead disease is that mealworms eat their own excrement. This is related to improper management or lack of knowledge of breeding techniques by farmers. Green fodder is added before the excrement is sieved out, causing the excrement and green fodder to mix together and be eaten by mealworms by mistake, causing the disease.

(2) Symptoms: The head first becomes diseased and turns black, then gradually spreads to the entire limbs and causes death. Some insects die when only the head turns black. After death, the insect body generally becomes dry or rotten (some people believe that blackhead disease is a dry disease).

(3) Prevention: This disease is man-made and can be avoided by improving work responsibility or mastering breeding techniques.

(4) Dead mealworms have already gone bad and should be picked out and thrown away in time to prevent them from being eaten by healthy mealworms and causing illness.

The straight and soft dead ones should be rot disease

(1) This disease often occurs in rainy seasons with high humidity and low temperature. The air in the breeding place is humid, and it is difficult to screen the worms, which causes excessive force and causes injury to the worms. In addition, poor management leads to contamination of feces and feed, which causes the disease.

(2) Symptoms: The insects are slow to move, have a decreased appetite, produce fewer offspring, and excrete black feces. In severe cases, the insects turn black, become soft, rot, and die. The black feces of the insects will also contaminate other insects. If not handled in time, it may even cause the death of all the insects in the box. It is a relatively serious disease and is also the main disease to be prevented in summer.

(3) Prevention and control: When this condition is discovered, you should immediately reduce or stop feeding green vegetable feed, clean up the excrement of pests and diseases in time, open doors and windows for ventilation and dehumidification, and pick out pests and diseases that have become soft and black in time. If it is cloudy and rainy for a long time and the indoor humidity is high and the temperature is low, you can burn a coal stove to heat up and drive out moisture. (4) Drug prevention and control measures: You can use 0.25 grams of chloramphenicol or oxytetracycline mixed with bean flour or corn flour 250 grams/box for feeding, and then change to wheat bran mixed with green feed for feeding after the situation improves.

3. Why do mealworms breed in the wild?

1. How to prevent and control mealworm wilt disease

(1) Causes: The main causes of the disease are dry air, high temperatures, and low water content in feed, which cause severe dehydration in the body of mealworms and cause the disease. This symptom is usually more likely to occur when heating with a coal stove in winter, or when the temperature is high (over 35 degrees) for several consecutive days in the hot summer without rain.

(2) Symptoms: Drying up starts from the head and tail, and then slowly develops to the whole body drying up and dying.

(3) Prevention and treatment: In the hot summer, the feeding box should be placed in a cool and ventilated place, or the doors and windows should be opened for ventilation, various vitamins and green fodder should be added in time, and water should be sprinkled on the ground to cool down to prevent the occurrence of this disease. When using a coal stove for heating in winter, the air humidity in the feeding room should be measured frequently with a thermometer and humidity meter. Once it is lower than 55%, water should be sprinkled on the ground to increase humidity, or the moisture content of the feed should be increased, or more green fodder should be given to prevent the occurrence of this disease.

(4) Dry and dead mealworms should be picked out and thrown away promptly to prevent healthy mealworms from eating them and becoming sick.

2. How to prevent and control mealworm rot (soft rot)

(1) This disease often occurs in rainy seasons with high humidity and low temperature. The air in the breeding place is humid, and it is difficult to screen the worms, which causes excessive force and causes injury to the worms. In addition, poor management leads to contamination of feces and feed, which causes the disease.

Symptoms: The insects are slow to move, have a decreased appetite, produce fewer offspring, and excrete black feces. In severe cases, the insects turn black, become soft, rot, and die. The black feces of the insects will also contaminate other insects. If not handled in time, the entire box of insects will die. It is a serious disease and is also the main disease to be prevented in summer.

(3) Prevention and control: If this condition is discovered, you should immediately reduce or stop feeding green vegetables, clean up the excrement of pests and diseases in time, open doors and windows for ventilation and dehumidification, and pick out pests and diseases that have become soft and black in time. If it is cloudy and rainy for a long time and the indoor humidity is high and the temperature is low, you can use a coal stove to heat up and dehumidify to provide a suitable temperature.

Drug control measures: 0.25 grams of chloramphenicol or oxytetracycline can be mixed with 250 grams of bean flour or corn flour per box and fed to the pigs. When the situation improves, change to feeding with bran mixed with green feed.

3. How to prevent and control mites

Mites can be said to be the tiny animals with the most tenacious vitality and amazing reproductive capacity in the animal kingdom. They can invade most animals, and even humans are not immune.

The adult mite is less than 1 mm long, soft, arched, grayish white, translucent and shiny. There are several bristles on the surface of the body, and there are 4 pairs of legs. Young mites have 3 pairs of legs, and when they grow into nymphs, they have 4 pairs of legs. Nymphs are very similar to adult mites. High temperature, high humidity and a large amount of food are the environmental and material conditions for the growth of mites. Under such conditions, mites have a generation every 15 days or so, and each female mite can lay 200 eggs, which shows its strong reproductive capacity.

The main mites that harm mealworms are mealworms, also known as "bran mites", "white mites" and "lice". In summer and autumn, they are easy to breed in rice bran and wheat bran, causing the feed to deteriorate. If rice bran with mites is brought into the box when it is fed as feed, under the suitable environmental conditions of high temperature and high humidity, with rich nutrition and strong reproductive capacity, the mites can reproduce and develop in a short time and spread to the entire breeding box.

(1) Cause: Mite diseases are more likely to occur during high temperatures and high humidity from July to September. Mite eggs in bait are the main cause of mite diseases.

(2) Symptoms: Mites generally live on the surface of feed. You can find clusters of white, wriggling mites, parasitizing on spoiled feed and rotten insect bodies. They feed on mealworm eggs, bite or eat weak larvae and molting larvae, contaminating the feed. Even if they cannot be eaten, they still disturb the mealworms day and night, causing them to become increasingly weak and lose their appetite, and eventually die.

(3) Prevention and treatment:

1) Choose healthy insects: When selecting insect species, you should choose individuals that are highly active and free of disease.

2) Prevent diseases from entering the body through the mouth: Mealworm bait should be free of insects and mildew. It should be stored in a sealed container during the rainy season. Rice bran, bran, local grain flour, and coarse cornmeal should be sun-dried and disinfected before feeding. The fruit peels, vegetables, and wild vegetables mixed in the bait should not be too wet. Insect feces and leftovers should also be removed in time to keep the food tray clean and dry. If mites are found in the feed, they can be killed by moving it to the sun for 5 to 10 minutes (spread the feed flat). Processed feed should be sun-dried or puffed, disinfected, and sterilized. Or feed such as bran, rice bran, and bean cakes should be fried, blanched, steamed, or cooked before feeding. The amount of feed should be appropriate and not too much.

3) Site disinfection: The breeding site and equipment should be sprayed with fungicides and miticides regularly. Generally, 0.1% potassium permanganate solution is used to spray the breeding room, food tray, and waterer for disinfection and miticide. You can also use 40% dicofol 1000 times solution to spray the breeding site, such as corners, breeding boxes, and insect feeding containers, or directly spray it on the feed, and the miticide effect can reach more than 80% to 95%. You can also use 40% dicofol emulsifiable concentrate diluted 1000~1500 times, spray the ground, and do not over-wet it. Generally, spray once every 7 days, and spray 2~3 times in a row for better results.