Frass Depth?

[sherpa-Al]

I'm noticing in the past few weeks my colony is slowing down on their feeding. The skulls that I'm putting in the bug tank are taking a day or so longer than usual to clean up and it seems that there are less larvae on the skull during cleaning than a person might expect. My humidity/heat/ventilation are all good and there are plenty of larvae when I scoop down into the frass. So then I got thinking what if the frass is too deep and not all of the larvae come to feed? My question is, what is the optimum frass depth from everyones experience? Some old threads refer to deeper frass helping the colony expand, but does frass that is too deep actually impeed feeding?

Your thoughts?  Al.

[Sarge]

Did you add new bedding with cedar or redwood in it?  (natural insecticide / repellant)  Is it getting compacted?  If the top is loose and the bottom is getting compressed they get confused as to which way they need to go to get to the food especially if there is blood concentrates in the bedding. Take like a dust pan and role it over stir them up.  Compaction also causes you to get different temperatures at different depths and causes mold.  If that doesn't help after a week clear an area and put a fresh food source on clean bedding and see if they migrate to it and start swapping it out to get them moving also a good chunk of styrofoam makes a easy place for the larva to move into and molt and a way to get them out of the bedding.

Hope this Helps

Jeff

[sherpa-Al]

The only bedding I have is pine and it has worked well for 3 years now. The frass is 4-5 inches deep and to be honest I've never stirred it completely up. If I scoop down onto it there are plenty of larvae and no mould that I've found. I will try mixing up the frass tonight as the bedding has migrated mostly to the top.

[Toxic]

I tend to keep mine about 2 inches deep, I don't disturb the frass unless cleaning it, I feed skulls in one area and on cardboard just the size of the skull. Have not noticed any ill effects from the deep frass.

[Toxic]

One other note, I tend to start new colonies with the frass, I think 4 inches would be to deep, therecould be a mold or moisture problem there due to not drying out.

[PA]

I have no depth of frass. I sweep up each weeks frass/live bugs/detritus and place it in a box where the live bugs are able to crawl out and back down to the food presented. There is no advantage I can think off where you would want frass, unless you simply want the smell.

[Sarge]

I think he is including the beddding

[sherpa-Al]

Yes, the total depth is 4-5 inches.