Hello all,
I recently tried making flake soil for the first time, but my larvae lost weight after a week on it. There was some frass, but not much. I'm hoping for suggestions on what might be wrong with my flake soil.
My process:
So my larvae lost weight despite the process seeming correct. Was the flake soil possibly too dry to ferment? I erred on the side of caution to avoid rot, I would add water to the point where the substrate would form a ball when squeezed and then I would leave it a few days. Maybe the batch size of 15L was too small and fermentation just petered out?
Or maybe the quality or particle size of the pellets an issue? The particle size was much more course than the flake soil I buy, but I put that down to the difference between using pellets and actual sawdust.
Would it be possible to try to restart fermentation again with this batch?
Any advice or suggestions on why my larvae can't thrive on this flake soil would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I recently tried making flake soil for the first time, but my larvae lost weight after a week on it. There was some frass, but not much. I'm hoping for suggestions on what might be wrong with my flake soil.
My process:
- I followed the recipe from Richard's Inverts webpage, using plain wheat flour, sugar and instant yeast (active dry isnt available in my country).
- I couldn't find sawdust, but used oak Alfresco Chef pizza oven pellets. I dissolved a 9kg bag with some water, mixed in about 8L of old flake soil, and added the necessary additives
- It came to about 45L which I split between 3 polypropelene bags (15L in each bag).
- I would mix everything in a tub twice a week and add water when it seemed a little dry.
- I did the whole process indoors, with temperatures ranging from 19-28°C (average 23°C).
- There was a strong alcohol smell for the first 1-2 weeks, which faded by week 5 to a faint damp wood smell. No vinegar or ammonia smell at any point. I counted it as done after 5 weeks when the alcohol smell was gone.
- I then introduced the new flake soil to a few larvae, along with some old substrate to avoid shock.
So my larvae lost weight despite the process seeming correct. Was the flake soil possibly too dry to ferment? I erred on the side of caution to avoid rot, I would add water to the point where the substrate would form a ball when squeezed and then I would leave it a few days. Maybe the batch size of 15L was too small and fermentation just petered out?
Or maybe the quality or particle size of the pellets an issue? The particle size was much more course than the flake soil I buy, but I put that down to the difference between using pellets and actual sawdust.
Would it be possible to try to restart fermentation again with this batch?
Any advice or suggestions on why my larvae can't thrive on this flake soil would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!