The Stanford study uses a common mealworm (the larvae of Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus) – we are using this same mealworm, but in addition to that we are also using what’s known as a “superworm” (the larvae of Zophobas morio), a type of darkling beetle, that has a lifespan of 3 to 15 years.The superworm seems to be more aggressive, larger, more sturdy, and eats a lot more material. You often hear the term that the nitrogen is “unavailable,” “locked up,” or “bound.”When the ratio drops to 25:1 the nitrogen becomes available for the plants.We don’t know that we would grow all of our carrots and food that we eat in this stuff, but it definitely is food for thought. and looking for any abnormalities. If you think about the carbon to nitrogen ratio – when it’s up 30:1 the bacteria need to the use the nitrogen to process the carbon.
So far, the numbers seem significantly higher than the numbers that the Stanford researchers found for the mealworms that they used.We also have found that the plants we grow with the mealworms manure show no significant differences from those grown in other compost. and looking for any abnormalities. There are several stages to fully break the styrofoam down which we will be sharing once our patent is finalized. Also is the frass from them consuming Styrofoam the same as it they eat Grains? Almost none went into biomass. So mineralization here pretty much means CO2 production.The other half of the carbon they tracked was still in the worm poo, much of it remaining as polystyrene – though, on average, somewhat shorter chains of polystyrene.Wouldn’t be surprised if you’re getting better results than them with your bigger, longer living worms, over longer times than their 16 or 30 day study. "Our findings have opened a new door to solve the global plastic pollution problem," said Wu in Stanford's news release. The studies are detailed Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer at NBC News; he started his role in April of 2013. We are looking to have the plants tested, that are grown with the mealworm manure and try and see if there any detrimental effects.There was also some information that was mentioned in the Stanford study indicating that the Indian meal moth is able to digest polyethylene plastic! The mealworms would then eat the plotted eating rate pattern, subtractive organic manufacturing, creating an interesting relationship between the two geometries. Is this accurate or did i miscalculate something. The average time is 7-10 days of separation to initiate the metamorphosis, 10-14 days pupae, and they will then emerge as the darkling beetle. I was wondering if you could provide any tips about how to house them, and how to collect the frass? And send us any more questions you have.Would love to do it, but I keep the worms to feed tinny birds…We have been feeding the worms to fish, frogs and other creatures for several years. Mealworms are the answer! *100 worms can eat 380mg in 30 days (12.7mg/day). We need to start thinking about how we’re going to leave a healthy planet for the generations beyond ourselves, and using mealworms to compost styrofoam is definitely thinking out of the box.Join our email list and get tons of free education on composting, off-grid solar, regenerative agriculture, homesteading…Great site, and thanks for putting your work on the web!We have been keeping the mealworms and super worms in terrariums of different sizes. Each worm ate about a few dozen milligrams every day, converting about half to carbon dioxide and leaving half behind as non-toxic waste.Amazingly, the worms seem to suffer no ill effects from eating plastic all day — they were as healthy as a control group that ate bran. I think we could live without making styrofoam, but in the meantime, what about all the millions of tons of it. And we’ll keep you posted — aloha EDDYAre the mealworm droppings actually becoming usable organic material?Now it’s your turn: go to your local pet shop and grab some mealworms – put them in a container with some styrofoam and report back in the comments below! You can keep the beetles in with the mealworms as they go through their cycle, or you can feed them to your fish (if you have an aquaponics system), or let them go in your yard. Within our living systems, we have been raising several types of mealworms in order to compost polystyrene (styrofoam). This is very interesting as well…The 2015 Stanford tests indicate that the mealworm droppings actually become usable organic material through the fact that they’re calling the process “mineralization.”Mineralization is the process of nutrients becoming available to plants. We recently came across the study by 2015 Standard University that confirms our suspicions that they are indeed turning styrofoam into usable organic matter!Their notes are not much different than ours, except their equipment (gel permeation chromatography, solid-state 13C cross-polarization/magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) was a little better than ours. And we’ll keep you posted — aloha EDDYHave you fed the mealworms to chickens, birds, or reptiles after they consume Styrofoam and did it affect them in anyway.
The initial tests have not shown the presence of any toxic isotopes!Although! Any help that you could provide would be very much appreciated! This is their natural cycle in nature – a year in the larval stage, then they pupate to become the beetle which lives for 3 to 15 years.According to the Stanford study, a single meal worm can eat 46.36 mg of polystyrene waste a year. The initial tests have not shown the presence of any toxic isotopes!BUT We are still in the testing phases and we do not recommend that people just start feeding Styrofoam to meal worms! strain YT2) that actually breaks down the polystyrene.