dieing mealworms???

[nevinm]

i went in to the room last night to do a little feeding and found half of my mealies were dead and black. any ideas?

thanks
nev

 

[Leopardbreeder]

Are you providing plenty of fresh food and moisture?

 

[nevinm]

yeah i am. thats the thing, i know how to take care of them. thats whats wierd

 

[eyelids]

I would pitch the rest that are still alive... There could be something wrong with them... Better to be safe than sorry...

 

[nwheat]

I've had that problem in the summer when they get too hot in transit - or when they get too hot after they arrive. They also die off like that if they are too crowded.

 

[ReptileMan27]

Huh never had that problem with mealies anyway, had similar probs with stupid crix lol.

 

[Alchemy]

If you're an experienced mealworm farmer you've probably already crossed off temperature, food or humidity(drowning). Those are the common culprits for sure. Any chance you recently sprayed the room with an air freshener, or maybe cleaned some cages with bleach or another harsh chemical in that room? Did the neighbors recently bomb their house with pesticide? Etc.
The only things I can think of is possible contamination by chemicals, or else "something" got into the cage and killed them but couldn't eat everything it killed, i.e. a mouse or rat. I've never had them all just drop dead from saying "boo", there's usually a reason even if it's as silly as accidently hitting them with hairspray while doing my hair. They're pretty sensitive to chemicals.

 

[nevinm]

wow, theres one thing that sticks out to me. over crouding, and i bet thats what it was. i never had this problem befor, but ill lay money on it, that was it. thanks, and ill have to be mroe carefull, to see if that was it