Yep, I will definitely be inspecting each culture deeply to find the root of the problem. I guess not everything in life goes our way.
I really didn’t notice any imposters among the isopod bins. I had a huge mite and mold outbreak back in mid 2021 that had a similar outcome (much smaller scale), but after a few months that had taken its course. The only visual organisms that aren’t isopods are the springtails, which pose no threat. I will definitely be staying away from grain diets for a while to observe any changes in behavior/production.
There must be some sort of contamination of something that’s shared between all those cultures. If you were using the same grain across all those cultures, then bad grain is looking like a possible explanation…but I honestly couldn’t say for sure that that’s the culprit. I hope you’re able to figure it out and save your remaining cultures.
Oh my goodness, I am so sorry you’ve had such massive losses. It’s always tough to lose any project you’ve put so much time, money, and love into on such a scale. I really hope you get to the bottom of what caused it, though based on what you’ve found, it does suggest the food source as a culprit. I wonder if trying to move surviving cultures into new substrate could be beneficial, in case there is any residual environmental contamination?
My only other thought was some sort of entomopathogenic nematode or bacterial contamination. I know organic growers use them on grains, both in the field and in storage situations. Perhaps if you have the financial ability and can find a place, soil testing of your culture media might shed some light on things?
That’s terrible! I’m so sorry about your loss. I’m glad that you’re planning to stay in the hobby. I think the problem is fungus from moisture that sunk to the bottom of the grain. I think that fungus used up a lot of the oxygen and released other gases like carbon dioxide and/or ammonia.
With it being accross so many bins and so many all at once, I would almost be willing to say it was 100% contaminated food source. Either apple not rinsed off enough, or the grain. You said you were at the bottom of the bag, it is possible that the dust on the bottom had pesticides and so that final feeding with the last dredges had high concentration. The only other idea i would have would be the water source. Is your water city or well? If its city, perhaps there was a surge in chemicals and the prime didnt completely purify the chlorine. If its well, it may be worth having it tested to ensure no toxins have leeched into the aquifer that its fed from. That could be dangerous to you as well if toxins are getting into your well.
The water thing would make sense too since its getting ready to be planting season for many farmers now that the risk of frost is minimal.
I have city water. Although, we have it filtered through Reverse Osmosis and I additionally use Reptisafe water conditioner for good measure. If something harmful made it through that process, I guess I really can’t do much about that.
Only way around that is some people buy bottled spring water to avoid any of it, but that gets expensive! Im fortunate enough to have well water, and since i live on a hill, im largely unaffected by runoff. But if you are doing RO and reptisafe, i highly doubt any chlorine made it past, and since its city, i doubt runoff is an issue.
