are dried mealworms a waste of money?
15 years ago
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- 15 years ago
- 15 years ago
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anyone seriously raising mealworms?
Comments (38)Hi all, I am in Australia and raising mealworms for the local Noisy Miners. I have tried this mealworm thing before to no avail. I have three full tubs of mealworms (from tiny to fully grown) under the house that are brimming with grain mites. I'm still going to strain these and feed them to the 'locals' but I need to buy more worms to begin a new farm. I've had to consider heating as the new colony will live under the house. The old one was inside the house and when the mites broke out, I had a LOT of cleaning to do! After looking into all heating options (and reading all of your advice), I am thinking of buying a ceramic heating lamp with a thermostat. The basic idea is to put the beetles/babies container directly under the lamp with empty containers either side (for the egg-filled strained beetle subtrate). These 'sister containers' will benefit from the lamp, but to avoid overheating of the beetles, I will put the thermostat sensor in that box. Hopefully, by keeping an eye on the temperature and humidity (with a cheap Thermometer & Humidity Gauge) I will avoid those horrible mites. Oh, and for anybody that is interested, I've been playing around with a beetle container that I saw on youtube with the mite infested beetles to find what works best before I begin the new colony. So far, the best that I have found was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKJ52gW8i9M He does call it a 'Superworm box' but I've found that it works really well for the mealies (in a smaller box). I used a different substrate though, a roughly blended mix of corn flakes, wheat bix and oats. Instead of filling the bottom box, I gave it a little shake and let the loose stuff fall. When the beetles began to lay, the eggs/babies fell through and thrived in the lower box. Oh, I also used two of the same containers (he used a plastic container and a kitty litter container) and drilled air holes (with mesh) in the sides so the babies can breathe. I'll let you all know how it goes :)...See MoreFound Money / Lost Money
Comments (26)Here is ear full.... I found a new still in box double burner electric Hotplate. It sure came in handy while I was apt hunting and living in a motel while I was in community college. There has been dozens of other things over the years that I have found. One time a crushed watch with real jewels ( like rubies, pearls and opal's ) and a few diamonds that I sold for $50...I think back now and realized I was cheated as the jewels and diamonds were worth much more but I guess I needed the money. Found a $20 in grocery store, bought my daughter a school jacket with that money. Have found a ten here and a five there...on and on I could go. So many other things I have found that I could write a book. Bought a purse once and it had $9 inside...the purse was a buck. A dollar pair of pants that I found a ten inside the pocket. Bought a real leather coat at a thrift for .25 and found a whole pocket of change. Have dug up gold rings with my metal detector, watches that worked and other types of jewelry. Found $36 wad of bills on floor of Walmart isle, ( no name ) turned it in to the manager with my ph #, someone called claiming it and I gave directions to her to come to the house and pick it up....no thank you after I handed the money to her. Found a Disney trinket with a name, called and the father came to the house and said his daughter had lost it and he was nice, no reward though. When Sams Club first opened I found a pkg of two in a cart on the very far end of the parking lot, there wasn't anyone around so I didn't feel guilty. Another time at Sams I found two huge rolls of A. foil, again no one around . I found two full bags of groceries at a Winn Dixie shopping center on the other coast of Florida, t but I took it inside the manager took my name and said if no one claimed them within a couple of days it was mine. I remember there was a beef roast, chicken and canned stuff. so it was a lot of groceries I found. He called me to come pick it up. I think God had a big hand in that as He knew I was poor and hungry during a difficult period in my life. Found two twenty dollar bills but it was 2 separate times, wind blown money on ground outside. Ten dollar bill in my drawer where I keep underware only..nothing with pockets in that drawer. Odd. Not very many losses except one I will never forget, someone stole quite a sum of money out of my purse while I was in Beauty College....See MoreWasted food
Comments (27)One of the biggest things I did to cut down on waste was to unplug my freezer. I'd buy things and never use them. And for a single person to need more than just the freezer on the frig is rare. I do need to clean out the frig and freezer both but I'm making dramatic improvements. I wasn't cooking at home much for a stretch of time. Wasn't eating right to start with (even for me!) and just not feeling well enough to stand and cook. So I started buying a few convenience foods to work my way back into cooking and it's gotten better. Been enjoying a lot of eggs lately! Even with the price that I complained about. Making a list helps a lot too. When I get home from the store and put the stuff away, I make a list of the perishibles I have purchase adding to a running list that I modify as I use up and it gives me ideas and reminders that, hey I have some chili in the freezer to use, or I have a lot of bacon right now, or I have whatever meat. Sometimes the biggest frustration can be deciding what to make! This way it gives me ideas. I also started to log my meals to see what I've been having. Check my eating patterns a bit. Had a number of times I just plain didn't eat all day. Put it off, was tired, whatever the reason, just didn't, and I know that I can skip a meal or two and not suffer that much but I know that I should be having some nutrition going through the body. I despise going to the grocery store. I'm seeing that coupons often contribute to a lot of waste, with buying things "because I had a coupon" and not using it, or liking it or whatever. Now, buy being more organized, using my checklist for commonly purchased stuff as a reminder, checking ads for TRUE sales, not just that markup/markdown scam and buy less at a time and a little more often. Less frustration, less money spent, less money wasted from less waste and less money spent overall I think. I do buy some better quality things now, and of course there's the price increases, but my grocery budget is still within reason I think. I got caught up in keeping too large a pantry supply. I'm whittling that down. Still keep some soup, canned vegs, pasta, rice, etc around so if there's a snowstorm, well I can usually get out anyway but I don't have to either. Plus when I get the right prices I do save this way. I do try to having something around that's simple, just in case I do get sick or if I'm extremely tired or whatever. Whether it's some summer sausage and cheese to snack on, can of soup or whatever. The other way I'm improving is to buy more appropriate sizes and then prepare for few if any leftovers. No waste that way, or at least minimal. Problem is that it's tough to make a small batch of good chili! If I had a garden, and prepared everything from scratch with no canned items, it would be different. Now for some frustration.... I wish more people would buy the small sizes of canned veggies so they could sell them at a reasonable price! The way it is, the little "single serving" size costs 50¢/can and the conventional size is on sale for 30¢! So even if I throw away half of it, I still save money buying the bigger size. I realize the packaging and shipping cost roughly the same for each so I understand why they're priced that way... but it's still frustrating. I have some baskets I'm going to try in the refrigerator to see if it helps for organization. Still have no ideas on how to organize the freezer on my top-freezer frig. I'm thinking some dishpans or heavy clear totes that will stack would help keep things from falling out as I open the door and let me see better what's in there or what I need. And it'd give me a chance to clean it out, wash it out and start fresh. I had to throw a bunch of stuff when we had a power outage a while back but I think there's still a lot that should be tossed. But at least it's not as bad as when I had the freezer going... Ah, the stuff freezing into the frost buildup. Don't miss it though!...See MoreRaised bed dries out too quickly.
Comments (27)I’m just guessing The word exotic was used to be an attention getter and it certainly was. I believe what the what the composer of that text was truly talking about was the addition of certain items which I have used. Some Bing kelp meal, bonemeal blood meal, green sand, (can’t remember any more, but there were about 4 more) some powdered minerals from rocks. All of this was added to Pete moss, Vermiculite my home brown compost no animal waste compost such as, newer or chicken manure. It was strictly grass clippings and leaves and whatever else I can throw in it it wouldn’t attract ants. It was very expensive to put together I was so excited. I emptied all my pots and refilled all of them with my wonderful new body style and put my new plants back in it. It’s been three months now they’re not growing or looking lush and green and wonderful; they are living. Finally I started putting miracle grow on them and now they’re beautiful but that would’ve happened with the quality soil I bought from Lowe’s. I also believe that would be referred to as an “exotic potting soil”. I also believe that, that’s what the person meant that used the expression “exotic potting soil“for the first time and all of these comments or something similar give or take a few additives. I got my exotic potting mix recipe from savvy gardeningI got my exotic potting mix recipe from savvygardening.comI got my exotic potting mix recipe from savvygardening.com on the Internet. The owner of this website lives in Canada. I live in coastal Louisiana, Baton Rouge. I tried and tried to get her to ask if she thought this recipe would work in the deep South. You never can get her, she doesn’t respond. I just figured since it was such an intricate recipe she would have taken into account a drainage issue that all states share, since I couldn’t get her. The The only worry that I had was that the drainage would be wrong because I had never worked with that much Pete Moss, but it did have almost equal vermiculite so I figured it would probably drain really well. I was right; it drained beautifully thank goodness. Louisiana is a third rainiest state in all of our United States. We are right behind Florida and Hawaii. I now have a very large city garbage cans filled with Pete Mas vermiculite vermiculite and my compost plus a very long list of additives so next time I make the recipe( b cause I got to get rid of this stuff) that I will cut back a bit on the amount of vermiculite....See More- 15 years ago
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