[janeislay]

We bought our wheat in bulk last year, and it was noticeably of poor quality.

Over last winter, our Arctic Seaducks all got polished off by a Buzzard and we have a lot of surplus wheat left.

Now I see it is crawling with wee mites.  We've checked and moved out all the other animal feeds from the feedstore and now we're bucketing the wheat out into a trailer for dumping.

What advice for cleaning the floor and walls with before using the feedstore again ?  Vircon ?  Dettol ?  Something else ?

[jinglejoys]

They  aren't mealworm beetles/larvea are they?...if so my hedgehog'll have them

[doganjo]

Grain weevils maybe - this may help
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/home/e300w.htm

[northfifeduckling]

I would keep it somewhere and feed the wild birds over the winter, maybe sore in an old bin with lid? Sounds like the things we find in flour occasionally, rather than beasties which attack birds or humans

[OhLaLa]

I agree - please don't just dump it. The birdies will enjoy the winter nourishment and any extra wiggly protein will go down a treat.

 

[doganjo]

Why can't poultry eat it then?

[janeislay]

Thanks for the suggestions; Dermestidae may be the answer.  When you get a handful of wheat and look at it closely, you see it has moved - they are absolutely tiny - the size of dust.  Can't see any beetles at all - just moving "dust" !

It was very dusty wheat in the first place - more like seconds, and our hens have not been laying so well this year, so I'm blaming the wheat being low in nutrients.

We're dumping it outside in a gully, in the hope that it will tempt the Rock Doves away from the chick rearing pen, the ducks and the hens !  The muscovies and turkeys are still getting it - until the new wheat comes in.

[shrekfeet]

sounds to me like you'll be encouraging rats!

[janeislay]

sounds to me like you'll be encouraging rats!

As long as it keeps the rats away from the feedstore, all the better 

Still don't know what to use to disinfect the feedstore tho 

[Hermit]

Dont dump it , as said you will be breeding nice fat juicy rats. To kill the mites in the feed keep it as cold as you can and in complete darkness. Wheat heats up and is warm as in wheat bags. Thats what I have always been told  anyway.

[doganjo]

I wouldn't dump it either. I have rats coming up from the burn and eating what is left while the ducks go for a  drink between mouthfuls. They are very brazen! So I ahve to stand over them while the ducks eat or they'd go hungry. The rats don't come out if they know I am there, but just a few yards away on the other side of the fence and out they come!