Beetles/Baby worms

They Stink. Does anyone know how to prevent this or change substrate without loosing all said baby worms?

Stupid question i suppose.....

Not sure what you mean by 'stink'. Mine smell, for want of a better way to put it, 'dusty', but not 'bad' (or 'musky'), they just smell like the smell you get from sticking your head in a flour container after you've removed most of the flour (and so can inhale without a faceful of flour!).

I mean like reek smell, i open it and whifffff! Not a normal mealwormy smell as i have 2 new tubs that smell normal. I think its just the old substrate along with remains of mouldy stale bread that are making it smell but i think it could do with a change :/

Kiania wrote:Not sure what you mean by 'stink'. Mine smell, for want of a better way to put it, 'dusty', but not 'bad' (or 'musky'), they just smell like the smell you get from sticking your head in a flour container after you've removed most of the flour (and so can inhale without a faceful of flour!).

lol i beg to differ as your bettles are sat in my house!!!!

Tiggy

Maybe they start to smell after a while generally? Mine always smell normal when i first get them then end up really smelly by beetle time

Bear in mind that I like the musky smell of ferrets and marmosets, and aren't bothered by primate poo. So everything is subjective

I'd suggest getting rid of as much of the substrate as possible, and moving them to fresh - keep doing it every week until it is cleaner. That is what I did with my mouldy babies. I'd get rid of the mouldy bread - ick!

it took andy a week before he saw them in the room - all i can say is alice, you are lucky they are still here and yes i have looked after them very well

I read that stale bread is good for beetles to lay eggs in? Apparently it has worked hence the baby worms haha

Thanks Faye Not too long until I come to rescue them back now And see how the roaches fared

I used a piece of bread - stale is okay, but mouldy can't be good. And to be honest, not entirely sure it is necessary - but I use fairly deep substrate for my beetles.

mine dont smell at all but there is no stale bread in mine lol

Lol i will take a picture and post it, i think then you may understand why it is smelly...possibly......its full of dead beetles aswel

God opening smelly worms when you have a hangover is not advisable Everything in my tub has gone mouldy now, oops. Including potato i put there through the week

Hmmm, is there enough ventilation? I found that when we first tried breeding mealies that the plastic box didn't have enough air getting to it which caused it to go mouldy and make it smell.

I have just bought a 4 tiered plastic drawer storage box from Asda to sort out my mealies.

The other thing you could do it when you want to gutload the mealies take some out and put into another tub with the food in.