Substrate method

Mars

Mars

L1
anyone use Ratmosphere's YouTube guide to make substrate? Is it a good guide/method to make substrate? 

 
Guidelines to substrate fermentation have been known for decades.. Everyone has their own recipes too. I've been making my own, with many different recipes about two decades now. Even with basic method, it should be very helpful for beginners. Following his guidelines won't hurt you, but WILL HELP YOU a lot, especially if you have just started in beetle breeding.

Also, if you are not too sure about making your own substrate, you have an option to buy them now. There are couple people regularly selling substrate in these days, unlike in past. For your information, below:

Insect Brothers : https://www.insectbrothers.org/product-page/beetle-substrate 

 
I would say that Ratmosphere's method of flake soil is good quality, but Insect Brothers has some stable and VERY good quality substrate that they sell on their website. The thing is about Ratmosphere's method is that sometimes if you don't have the right conditions, your substrate can start rotting. On the other hand, Insect Brothers has stable and perfectly made flake soil. 

 
Insect brothers never put out a guide and I do not wish to purchase, I want to make my own

Seems like everyone who has a "secret" method just keeps that to themselves and make profit off it

 
In my opinion, bran alone wasn't enough to heat up the sawdust. I could've not added enough bran but for me adding more flour did the trick. I know a lot of people add soybean powder, chitosan, milk powder, etc.. to make their flake soil more nutritious. It's obvious why people would keep their recipe a "secret" because they put countless of hours into making flake soil that work and produce good results. However I'd say that most guides out there is good enough imo for the average hobbyist. Making flake soil is really just experimenting what works for you.

 
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I would add flour, wheat bran, trehalose, yeast or EM water. The flour and bran acts as nutrients for the larvae. I used trehalose in substitute for the sugar. 

 
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