the worms have arrived!
The worms arrived and I set them in the new small bin containers from costco. After sorting out the desiccated worms from the live, there were 4 soup-size containers of waxworms and 6 of mealworms. The waxworms arrived in poorer shape than the mealworms, both ordered from Amazon although from different companies. Around 30 dead waxworms, and 1 darkling beetle and pupa was found with the mealworms.
I'm letting the worms stabilize from transit and will begin the experiment on Tuesday. I gave each container 100g plain steel-cut oatmeal with 6 carrot slices each. The waxworms had their original sawdust bedding added with the oats, and the mealworms were solely in oats because they came in an cloth bag. I added part of a egg carton added to waxworm bin for them to spin their cocoons on.
Checked back on the 5th and WW1 bin had 81 more dead, WW2 bin had 92 more dead and 2 cocoons in bin 2, WW3 bin had more 93 dead, and the WW4 bin had 171 more dead. I think this batch of waxworms have a disease already amongst them and predict them to continue to die, unfortunately :( I will likely order another batch incase the WW experiment is faulty due to their health. I may also order Black Solider Fly Larvae later after the mealworm experiment to replicate both the WW and MW experiments and see how they react to plastic film, styrofoam, with/out honey or food substance.