CATDOLL : CATDOLL: My mealworms are in the adult stage. In the bottom flour drink, dense transparent tiny reptiles grow. The size is much smaller than the feces of the adults. What should I do?

1. My mealworms are in the adult stage. In the bottom flour drink, dense transparent tiny reptiles grow. The size is much smaller than the feces of the adults. What should I do?

The description is not very clear. When the mealworm larvae hatch, you can tell them apart if you look carefully. Although they are very small, they will turn red after a week or so, indicating that they are larvae. From your description, they may also be mites. They will eat all the eggs, including the bran, which will be troublesome. If there are mites in the bran, just expose them to the sun. If there are mites in the incubator, increase ventilation, but do not expose them to the sun, which can reduce losses.

2. What diseases does mealworm have?

Yellow mealworm, also known as big yellow mealworm, yellow mealworm, mealworm, belongs to the mealworm tribe of the family Pseudocephaga of the order Coleoptera of the class Insecta. It is distributed all over my country and is the main pest in grain, medicinal material warehouses and various agricultural and sideline product warehouses. Because its larvae are rich in protein and multiple amino acids, in addition to being used as poultry feed, it can also be used as live bait for economic animals such as scorpions, forest frogs, geckos, frogs, turtles, etc., and can also be used as human food and health products. Yellow mealworm has the advantages of strong disease resistance, tolerance to rough breeding, fast growth and development, and easy reproduction. It is rich in chitin and unsaturated fatty acids in its body. It is increasingly widely used in human food and medicine, becoming one of the fastest-growing insect farming industries in the world after sericulture and beekeeping.

Mealworms can safely overwinter at temperatures above 0℃ and can move and feed at temperatures above 10℃. In particularly dry conditions, mealworm larvae have the habit of cannibalizing each other. Larvae and adults can move and feed both day and night, but are more active at night. Although adults have wings, most do not fly, and even if they do, they cannot fly far. They begin to mate and lay eggs 4 to 5 days after the adults emerge. Biological learning varies in different regions. In the natural room temperature in the south, most mealworms reproduce 2 to 3 generations a year.

Mealworms may sometimes be infested with mites or diseases during their growth. Mite infestation is prone to occur from July to September, and mite eggs in feed are the main cause of mite infestation. The main diseases are dryness and soft rot. High temperatures in the breeding place, dry air, and too little green fodder in the feed can easily cause the insects to lose a lot of water, leading to dryness, which is manifested as thin and stiff insects, with no difference in color from normal insects or yellow-white. When the air is humid or the insects are mechanically damaged, they are prone to soft rot and cross-infection between insects. This pathogen is likely to be a bacterium. In the early stage, the infected insects show slow activity and refusal to eat. In the middle stage, the insects become soft and the color turns to dark brown. There is brown viscous liquid in the body. In the late stage, the body color gradually changes from dark brown to black, and the insects lose water and become hard. If the mealworm larvae are exposed to the sun, especially the larvae that have just shed their skin, they will also die due to epidermal damage and water loss, which is manifested as a bent body with pale color and rough epidermis.

Prevention and control:

1. The main measure is to improve the feeding conditions: when the temperature is high and dry, pay attention to adding fresh feed or spraying water in time to prevent dryness. At the same time, pick out the fresh feed that has not been eaten on the day to prevent the feed from rotting and promoting the reproduction of bacteria. For areas with humid weather, the number of feces screening should be appropriately increased. Feed once every 1 or 2 days, so that there is a little surplus in the breeding box. This can also reduce the incidence of mealworms. After each batch of insect breeding is completed, the site and breeding utensils should be disinfected. 0.5% to 1.5% potassium permanganate solution can be used to spray the surface of objects for disinfection. Disinfectants such as bleaching powder and formalin solution can also be used.

2. Appropriately reducing the stocking density can reduce the occurrence of diseases, avoid excessive density of insects killing each other and causing wounds, creating opportunities for pathogens to invade.

3. For areas with serious mite infestations, the feed used should be spread thinly and exposed to the sun for 20 to 30 minutes at noon to kill the mites. If necessary, 800 to 1000 times diluted 40% trichlorodicofol should be sprayed on the breeding places and utensils to kill mites.

4. The diseased insects should be picked out in time, and 0.25 grams of oxytetracycline should be ground into powder and mixed with 200-300 grams of cornmeal and fed to the pigs for 3-5 days. Sulfadiazine, chloramphenicol, etc. also have good therapeutic effects.

3. What are mealybug mites?

Yellow mealworms are important pests in food, medicinal materials warehouses and various agricultural and sideline products warehouses. Because their larvae are rich in protein and multiple amino acids, they can be used as live bait for economic animals such as scorpions, forest frogs, geckos, frogs, turtles, etc. in addition to being used as poultry feed, and can also be used as human food and health products. Yellow mealworms have the advantages of strong disease resistance, tolerance to rough breeding, fast growth and development, easy reproduction, and rich in unsaturated fatty acids, and are increasingly used in human food, medicine and other aspects, becoming one of the fastest growing insect farming industries after sericulture and beekeeping.

Mealworms can safely overwinter at temperatures above 0℃ and can move and feed at temperatures above 10℃. In particularly dry conditions, mealworm larvae have the habit of cannibalizing each other. Larvae and adults can move and feed both day and night, but are more active at night. Although adults have wings, most do not fly, and even if they do, they cannot fly far. They begin to mate and lay eggs 4-5 days after the adults emerge. Biological learning varies in different regions. In the natural room temperature in the south, most mealworms reproduce 2-3 generations a year.

4. What are the many transparent little bugs in the mealworm pot?

Mites. This is caused by humid air and poor ventilation. Completely change the substrate and expose the container to the sun. Then pay attention to ventilation.

5. What should I do if the adult mealworms come out every night?

How thick is the bran layer under the egg-laying net? Some forms of egg-laying trays have wooden strips between the bottom and the egg-receiving board (egg-receiving paper, egg-receiving tray), which will make the bran layer very thick, and the adult insects will lay eggs in the bran layer (even on the screen), which of course cannot be seen. However, after you replace the egg-receiving board as usual, if you check the bran again in half a month, you will find small insects wriggling.

6. What should I pay attention to when raising mealworms?

Generally, the following are the most common ones: (1) Rot disease: The cause is excessive humidity, feces and feed contamination. Symptoms include black feces, and the insect body becomes soft and black. The black feces of the diseased insects will also contaminate other insects. If not dealt with in time, the entire box will die. This disease is more likely to occur in the cloudy and dry season. One is soft rot disease. In the early stage of the disease, the insect body is swollen and soft, and the joints are bright. After death, the insect body becomes black, rots and stinks. It can be prevented by mixing wheat bran with chloramphenicol, and at the same time stop feeding green feed. One is dry disease. After death, the insect body is stiff, some are gray, and some are black. It can be prevented by mixing wheat bran with oxytetracycline, and feeding green feed in time. (2) Dry disease. The reason is that the air drying temperature is too high and the water content of the feed is too low, causing serious water shortage in the body of the mealworm. Drying first occurs from the head and tail, and then spreads to the whole body. This disease is more likely to occur during high temperature drying. (3) Damage by mites or other insects. The main pests are carnivorous mites, flour mites, wheat moths, etc., which will eat yellow mealworm eggs, bite larvae, and contaminate feed. Prevention and control measures: (1) When selecting insect species, those with strong activity and no disease should be selected. (2) The feed should be free of insects, mildew, and humidity should not be too high, and insects and debris should be disposed of in time. (3) Processed feed should be exposed to the sun or puffed, disinfected, and sterilized. (4) The breeding grounds and equipment should be sprayed with fungicides and miticides regularly; (5) When drying at high temperatures, pay attention to cooling, humidification, and enhanced air circulation. The moisture content of the feed can be higher, and some green fodder should be fed to reduce the stocking density. (6) Prevent rats, poultry, ants, snakes, and frogs from entering the breeding room.