baby superworm problem?

[SquamishSerpents]

i've had my superworm colony since Sept 15th or something. well, that's when i separated them so they could pupate. now i've got my beetles (there are 40-something beetles) and even baby superworms crawling around!

their set-up is one of those 12"x12"x3" (give or take) drawer organizers. i use "Porridge mix" from Walmart as their food/substrate. i blended it all up so that it's a fine powder. i figured this would make it easier to separate the worms from the substrate when the superworms grew up enough.

the bottom drawer has the beetles with some toilet paper rolls cut in half lengthwise. there's an old sour cream lid that i put baby carrots on (so they don't get the substrate wet). the 2nd drawer has the same setup, but no beetles. just baby supers. they seem to congregate underneath the carrots. i put in about 4-5 baby carrots every few days. but i never want to take the old baby carrots out because i'm afraid i'd be throwing away a whole bunch of superworms!

the problem though, is today when i looked in, there seems to be a lot of dead baby worms. any idea why there would be so many dead ones? am i not providing enough carrots/moisture?

[aldebono]

I don't use just the oats as food, I also bought chick (chicken) starter feed to add with it. You can also use baby cereal and powdered milk for added vitamins and protein. I do not blend into a powder because I need adults more than the babies but I wouldn't think that would be a problem.

I put with skin carrots broken up right on the substrate. My tops are open so I have no condensation but the worms are able to get right at the carrot from the substrate.

Maybe add some foodstuffs in there and that will help. They are getting enough water because you are seeing bodies. They would eat the bodies if they were low on water, which may be the same for food but its a start at least.

[SquamishSerpents]

hmm it didn't show up in my CP that anybody had replied! but thanks for your response, i really don't know what the problem is.

now i've had about 6 or 7 beetles die...i find them laying on their backs.

i really don't know what the problem is, as i'm doing everything right according to caresheets and YouTube videos and whatnot. now i'm afraid that all of my beetles are going to die.

thoughts?

[aldebono]

Start new ones and get them pupating. My beetles lived for at least 3 months and then the whole colony of adults died within 2 weeks. No big deal, I have new adults now.

Other than giving them chicken starter or even the dust at the bottom of the rat food bag. I am out of ideas sorry!

[Trogdorpheus]

Could be mold, or something in the air putting off an odor that's mildly toxic to them. I dunno if you're a smoker, but if you were smoking in the room that would kill them. Could be (since you're putting carrots on lids) that they're not able to get to them (little ones at least)... could also be mites. Those suckers will destroy your whole colony if you have them. Check the walls or lids of your bins for very small bugs.

My setup is several 6qt shoebox tubs with whole oats (the quick oats or w/e are bad) and corn meal mixed in. I don't blend anything, because its much easier to have several tubs and move beetles rather than trying to move worms... so I just leave beetles in a tub for 3 weeks, then move them to an empty one. By the time all 4 of my tubs have seen the beetles, the first 2 are big enough to be consolidated, and beetles go into the newly emptied tub. Now that my bearded is brumating I have an excess of worms... so I'm just gonna let my beetles die of old age and then pupate more once she wakes up in the Spring.

[SquamishSerpents]

thanks for the help!

neither of us smoke and we have don't burn incense or candles or anything. no toxic chemicals, either.

i don't see any condensation or mold.

what would mites look like? what color and approximately how big? the only bugs i see are the baby worms.

would it be possible that i got mites this quickly? i started to pupate them on September 14th or something.

i've took away the lids and added more, smaller bits of carrot. going to pick up some apples tonight for them. there's about 15 small pieces of carrot scattered around the bins. i also crumbled a bit of Wheat Bran cereal as extra, and i'll add some of my rat food (hog grower pellets).

i'm getting kind of mad though, i would say i've lost at least half of my beetles and my supers are not going to be NEARLY big enough to pupate anytime soon.

i just find the dead ones on their backs, all crunchy.