@Larry WOW I saw those other pictures and the difference is just amazing!! Wasn't the last picture only a week ago? They're definitely outpacing mine. Very fortunately, I haven't had any problems "potting up". Boy, I'm grateful for that since my timing is off and slow to get the ground decent, start the silly things in pots that are too small OR the soil mix I made wasn't proper. I think some of my tomato plants have been potted up three times since seeding. I didn't kill any but I bet it stunted them. All the tomato plants that got damaged are doing OK. Dawn and Jay were right. New growth came in and only those older leaves have the damage. I cannot believe every one of them are still alive! Thirty tomato plants! (that must still survive the onslaught of bugs) A few days ago I had to sit -right in the garden while working the soil. I just couldn't move well any other way. I commit to bathing as soon as I got indoors. I was trying to hoe. Apparently, Bill was watching. He walked over to the shed, grabbed this old concrete tool, lopped off part of the handle and threw it down by me. The length was accurate and the leverage I gained was perfect. It's amazing how a little change can make a huge difference. Today I couldn't sit at all so I worked on compost piles standing up. I'll let Bill see this picture. I know he can make me one of those. He brought me over a step stool just like the one you're using and my seven year old is always carrying it around the garden for me to sit on. He's the water boy and an OK weeder, too. So far I've had three different sources suggest cereal rye for ground cover so it must be really good! Today Bill installed the compost bins for a new plan we came up with. I dug up the dirt from beneath the old compost pile and planted a tomato in it a week ago. By far it is my most prosperous plant! I decided to put the compost bins right on top of the garden bed to let it work itself over time just like that one did. I made them small - no bigger than 1 yard sq so I don't have too much trouble turning the entire thing. When I turn the pile from the first bin to the next I'll leave about 4-6" of the compost where it lie. I found out exactly the ratios I need for effective composting and over time, the entire area will have a compost pile atop it. This will limit my garden space for veggies this year but the sacrifice will mean less work getting that soil ready next year and the cover crop, too. If I have enough browns I think I can create about 1sq yard of compost every two weeks or less. @Dawn "sow them very thickly in the cells in flat inserts, water lightly, keep the fan blowing on them and otherwise ignore them" I hadn't thought of using a fan since my tomato seedlings were small. That might help a lot. I must reuse a lot of my soil so I'm sure to cook it in the oven before I reuse it on seedlings (boy, does it stink). I must be watering too much and it very well could be the environment. Come to think of it, I have more trouble with dampening off when they're in the kitchen window versus the dry idle store room in a south window. Maybe I'll "sow them very thickly in the cells in flat inserts, water lightly, keep the fan blowing on them and otherwise ignore them". I've "ignored" other seedlings in that back room because it's easy to forget about them and .. guess what? I went and found them thriving. Sounds like a plan to me! I'm going to try sage and oregano again with some used miracle grow potting soil and sterilize it first. I LOVE to cook and want herbs SO badly. No. I NEED an herb garden. I imagine how many wonderful trace minerals and vitamins are contained in freshly picked herbs. I'm not real certain what it was about the compost dirt. The compost is very old and well aged and no chemicals at all. The tomato plants recovered but they took longer than the others after transplant shock. It very well could be I damaged those and it's not the compost soil at all. I have since marked them to watch the differences in their growth. I bet they do better, but their transplant shock was far greater. Plants.. weird. Since they eventually recovered I went ahead and amended the soil with compost on the ones I planted today to help avoid compaction. Today I transplanted a few of the tomato plants from old coffee cans containing makeshift soil. They are only about six inches tall. I noticed the roots went all the way down to the bottom of the can. That little bit lifted my spirits a lot for I know it means they were very healthy and strong. I managed to fertilize these old Irises in our yard earlier this spring hoping they'll bloom - even a few - until I can get them divided this fall. These were present from long before we arrived to this house and there are so many from looking at the foliage ... at least a hundred that I can count? I've never seen any bloom. Little miss and I walked over to the Irises along side the fence where, surprisingly, three beautiful white blossoms were showing their glory. She joyfully screeched to high heavens as she ran and bounced over to greet them. Something happened to my heart right then. ♥ Yeah. I gotta get those bulbs divided and cleaned up this fall. bon

Absolutely!! You'll see little drifts of skins! That's very good news! I do not mist---too worried about mold. I have drawn boundaries regarding what I will and will not do to raise mealworms. I'm pretty overloaded as it is! Mine do fine with just veggies and cornmeal. At least I think they do! In a box that big, I usually put 4 little pieces of celery (or whatever) to supply each "quadrant." If they're that tiny, I don't know how far they can go to get food! Hope that helps, Ann

Congratulations! This is our first year with birds in our new house, so we're new too. We order them online also from drsfostersmith.com When our geriatric kitty was alive, we ordered her supplies from them, and they were always friendly, affordable, quality, and prompt. This year we first ordered 2k mealworms, then another 2k, then since we had a decent routine of feeding & cleaning, this last batch was 5k. We keep them in the fridge, except during weekends when they come out for their 'dinner'. The grocery store clear-plastic Salad clamshells work very nicely for punching holes in the top & top-sides, and make a nice worm-home in the fridge. We just pull the worm-homes out of the fridge, pick 20 or 30 worms out of them, then take them out to the feeder. Hope this helps !

Live mealworms may also suffer from relatively slow sales since even people that feed mealworms to their pet lizards, birds, and so on probably don't buy in bulk unless they're a breeder of such critters and therefore would have a constant and possibly even a daily need for such fare. As to a reasonable size to start with? The giant size might feed a few general population birds but without some care, it seems that you'd go though a container pretty quick. The smalls look tiny and you'd probably have to ration out a few more than you'd like to make a container last any amount of time. The medium size is what I'd try if I were that interested in feeding mealworms to draw in certain species. Price is right and there are enough that your mealworm experiment could last long enough for observation of any species that are drawn in just because of that addition to whatever you've been feeding on a regular basis. Long ago, I decided that within reason, if I had to ration what relatively small amount of funds I use for feeding the wildlife that comes to my little backyard compared to the enjoyment it brings me, I'd probably just take down my feeders and quit buying raw peanuts for the blue jays and that one damn ornery (but cute) squirrel that visits daily. I fully realize that not every budget is flexible enough to do that but I figure that I'm only here on this earth for a short while so why not enjoy what impacts my life and brings joy to my eyes while I'm here. Perusing a few websites on raising your own mealworms seems to be quite popular and while it doesn't look like the initial outlay would be much, would you use enough of the little buggers to make it worthwhile even if you just counted time and what space is required? Reading over those sites does remind me of a time not that long ago when every fishing and hunting magazine in existence (and they may still have them) had ads touting raising your own bigger and better fishing worms! "Yes Friends, you too can raise enough of my extra special extra large energetic red wigglers and nightcrawlers to go fishing any time you want and you'll never run out of fish bait!!!! Get your starter pack of worms NOW and in only days you'll have more worms than you can use. Send only $19.95 to PO Box XXXX, to get started." Not... Problem is that nightcrawlers won't live south of the Mason Dixon line unless you keep them in a refrigerator and most little red wigglers are just on the borderline of being so small that you almost have to use tweezers to put them on your fish hook. Too, both types have to be kept practically n the dark to keep them happy, temperature and moisture levels have to be maintained and appropriate worm food is not as easy to manage as they would have you think. Oh wait... the subject was mealworm acquisition, not fishin' worms. It appears I have strayed off subject again. Sorry bout that.