wax_worm_futures

Without a full spectrum of their natural diet, these things have a turquoise color instead of a green one.

They still are able to go through their full life cycle just fine, they just aren't camouflaged for live foliage.

All I know about growing them is that we had a limited number of them on wet substrate in 32oz containers, and the breeding adults were fed hummingbird-style on a syrup that was boiled in-house.

You don't want these anywhere near your garden though.

I didn't even have to work in that kind of wetbulb at the bug farm. Highest it ever got was 88° and 90% humidity- but I was 20 feet from an external door where I could step outside anytime for cooler air. And eventually I ended up just turning the humidifier off during my shift because...

You are in a situation where the brain will start to think less clearly. You literally can't work in that for more than half an hour at a time, even someone who is heat-tolerant will be much slower and make all kinds of mistakes.

Would you like a lifetime supply of tasty bran?

All that I require is that you break the volcel pledge enough for daily egg laying to occur

When I was working at the bug farm it would take up 11-12 hours of my day. 8 on the clock, 1 hour lunch, 1 hour carpooling plus 1 hour of carpool arbitrarily getting there way too early, or 1.5 hour on the bus and 1.5 hours of waiting for the bus. That's 55-60 hours a week, not including any hours I would work at a restaurant job at the same time.

It wasn't great, and for me it definitely wasn't tenabke for more than 2 years. And my carpool wasn't the only one who got there more than 20 minutes early, maybe around 10% of people did. By and large these were people who had no sense of valuing their time outside work.

Hmm it's gonna be a while before I get little a hornworm production going.

Does he like mealworms?

Would you mind if I sent you some of what I've got so far, on the co-op aspect of the plan? I'm always itching to include more people's thoughts and input.

Rad!

If I was less than 500 miles away from you, I'd offer you unlimited beetle frass for potting mix and top dressing.

Instead, would you have any interest in comparing notes on business plans and structure?

Also, the Seed Commons network has an operating member in your area, the RMEOC.

Yes! I was just reading a few scientific articles about the mating patterns of darkling beetles. (not a gov't employee tho)

a dirty Bird, or a litter Bug?

2 days ago I talked to a guy who said he just uses smooth plastic bottles for those roach traps, with some water inside and maybe something that smells like food.

A lot of online how-tos recommend the drop of dish soap. I personally never got it to work, I think it blocked the smell of the vinegar and flies didn't even come close. When I tried the vinegar on its own, they flew right in and drowned in it.

Ah yeah, roachmilk. A year into working at the bug farm, a coworker told me about it, and we all thought he was bullshitting until we looked it up.

You need to kill the roach to extract the milk; it would be really hard to reconfigure the organ such that you could pump it out. More importantly, you get maybe a few microliters of milk per roach, after a process that is neither simple nor energy-economical. It's only ever going to be a wealth-flaunting food item.

Instead of wasting most of the roach, you might as well eat it. Or better yet, eat your beans instead.

ice cream beanis