Wine cooler

[jamest0o0]

Hey everyone i was thinking of buying a small wine cooler or minifridge to store some worms in since it's starting to get warm here and i'm not ready to deal with the conversation of why there's worms in the fridge with the gf . I honestly can't believe i get away with having bins of crickets, dubia, and orange heads as it is. So anyway I was wondering what you guys think would be more useful for keeping these, could they all go in a wine cooler around 55-65 degrees, or would i need a fridge for some?

I'd like to keep on hand:

Silkworms(room temp)
Superworms
Hornworms
Butterworms
Black soldierfly larvae
Bottlefly spikes
Wax worms

 

[jannb]

I keep my wine cooler at 65 and I only keep hornworms and Black soldier fly larvae in it. I have kept silk worms cool also if they start getting really big. Butterworms and fly spikes can go in the frig. I've never used wax worms so I'm not sure about those.

 

[ScrantonStrangler]

I honestly can't believe i get away with having bins of crickets, dubia, and orange heads as it is.

This x10..it's only been a month for me and she's spazzing lmao

 

[ChamLB]

It could be worse your girl could be coming over to mooch feeders off you when she runs low at her house. Put some nice wine in there to and she might forget about the bugs.
Seriously I only use the fridge to store hornworms a day or 2 to slow them down. My gf stores silkworm eggs and chow but no adults in hers.

 

[jamest0o0]

Could fly spikes, butters, and hornworms be kept in the wine cooler at the same temps as Bsfl? I was just hoping i could get a wine cooler or a mini fridge even and be able to keep all my bugs that need cooler temps in it instead of using both.

Hahaha whenever i'm working with the roach bins in the cham's room i'll mess with her and yell like i dropped the bin and they got everywhere. Or tell her i accidently dropped a few and they ran into our bedroom.

 

[jannb]

Could fly spikes, butters, and hornworms be kept in the wine cooler at the same temps as Bsfl? I was just hoping i could get a wine cooler or a mini fridge even and be able to keep all my bugs that need cooler temps in it instead of using both.

Hahaha whenever i'm working with the roach bins in the cham's room i'll mess with her and yell like i dropped the bin and they got everywhere. Or tell her i accidently dropped a few and they ran into our bedroom.

Sure I guess you could. I just keep my butters cooler. It says to refrigerate the butters on their container. I also don't leave my horns cool all the time. Not at all as small ones and then only every other day as large ones. They get mushy and die when I keep them cold all the time.

 

[jamest0o0]

Okay cool i'll probably just go with the winecooler and hopefully it's cool enough for the butters, spikes, and horns. I just didn't want to buy a bunch of bugs and have them all die faster than i can feed them.

 

[trickedoutbiker]

I went out and bought a mini fridge specifically for my insects that need to be kept cooler, my roach chow, my silkworm chow, my two different fruit fly mixtures - and all of the leafy greens, fruits, and vegetables that I use for gutloading are kept in it as well. It has a small lil freezer part in it too, and I keep bee pollen and hornworm chow in there.

 

[jamest0o0]

I might just end up doing that, i can probably get more out of the fridge/freezer than a winecooler. I thought the fridge was too cold for most of the bugs other than butters, but now i'm realizing that's not the case.

Any success keeping bsfl alive in the fridge or is it cold? They're pretty nutritious from what i've read and my guy loves them.

 

[trickedoutbiker]

I might just end up doing that, i can probably get more out of the fridge/freezer than a winecooler. I thought the fridge was too cold for most of the bugs other than butters, but now i'm realizing that's not the case.

Any success keeping bsfl alive in the fridge or is it cold? They're pretty nutritious from what i've read and my guy loves them.

I have my fridge set at around 48-50 degrees which is quite a bit higher than one would typically have their normal fridge for food set at. 48-50 degrees keeps all of my chow, cooked hornworm food, vegetables, and fruits nice and fresh, but it's not too terribly cold for insects I keep in there. At least not in my experience.

I've kept butter worms in there 24/7 for weeks with no problems.

I stunt the growth of hornworms when I have them every time by placing them in there for a day, taking them out for a day, placing them in for a day, out for a day, so on and so forth. Never had any issue doing that either.

As for black soldier fly larvae.... I've never tried that honestly. I always place mine on a shelf at room temperature and let them all turn into flies because my chameleon loves the flies way more than he will ever love the larvae. I'm sure it could be done with no problem though at the temp I keep my mini fridge at. 50 degrees is cold enough to keep things fresh for longer periods of time, but it isn't too terribly cold to kill most of the insects we all use.

The fridge was a good investment though. I used to keep all of my chow and veggies and everything (besides insects) in my regular fridge. I got tired of digging through all of MY FOOD to find the INSECT FOOD though. Not only that, but keeping insects in my regular fridge at roughly 35-40 degrees would be too cold for the insects.

My breaking point was when I kept buying hornworms and lots of them would grow too fast for my chameleon at the time (he was still a baby). So instead of making a cheap cooler with a frozen water bottle like some people do, I just invested $100 in an energy-efficient mini fridge. Now, everything that I use for insects is kept in it to prolong shelf life. The freezer part is a tad small, as it is with most mini fridges, but at 26-28 degrees, it works great for storing my bee pollen (which never expires if kept in a freezer) and my dry hornworm mixture too (which I keep in the freezer part only because the other bags of chow are too big to fit!). I've also made some fruit and veggie mixtures and frozen them into ice cubes and stored them in the freezer part for use as a gutload at a later date.

Great lil investment. And for some reason, if you ever stop keeping chameleons or reptiles one day and have no use for a mini fridge to store your chow and such, well then you have a nice lil fridge to keep soda or snacks in!

 

[jamest0o0]

thank you! very informative post, I actually got a mini fridge/freezer today. Can't wait to do exactly what you mentioned.