[ClackamasCootz]

I'll stipulate that it is, without a doubt, a material with THE highest microbial life in the entire universe. Finis.

So is a leg with gangrene. A festering sore. The socket of a decaying tooth. How does that relate to the microbes in a soil or those found in worm castings?

Manure is manure - run it through your worm bin

Originally Posted by MrSterling

Can we differentiate between what sort of frass we are discussing? Some of us are discussing mealworm frass, I remember one of the older members talking about cricket frass months ago too. I don't believe all frass is created equal. I need to find somewhere to get this mealworm frass sent off to be tested for microbial life or what have you.

Maybe a reptile veterinary office can do that for you. I'm assuming you've got that many mealworms to feed either amphibians or reptiles, maybe geckos or something like that.

When we had the leopard gecko he would mostly only eat crickets, for some reason mealies didn't interest him very often. Because of our distance to a pet shop where we could buy his feed crix I set up a cage for keeping a couple hundred crix. That led to a lot of cricket frass, which, when the cage got cleaned out, went as top-dressing to various plants. I never experienced a problem, they all seemed awfully happy to get the poop. But then perhaps it's one of those things like bat guano top-dressings--go too heavy or thick and you're going to cause rot or something similarly lovely.

[Babombeez]

Here are some shots of my garden using Insect Frass from Organic Nutrients:

Let the pictures speak for themselves...

~beez

[invocation]

Well frass me up, nice Garden!!! I saw them selling those shit bags at the grow store for 20 bucks each.

The cost at grow stores or garden centers is prohibitive, considering how mealworms and bugs pump the stuff at. My opinion has changed in the past year. Simplify it all, run the frass through the compost instead of worrying what the frass itself is directly bringing to the plant.

[Babombeez]

A little frass goes a long way... They sell 25 pound bags for $165 and that will last you quite some time, especially when you are using it to make an extract tea. Think about how much the typical cannabis gardener spends on nutrients, often in the hundreds and hundreds of dollars (e.g., Advanced). The frass doesn't go bad either like a lot of nutrients which have a shelf life. I am not saying run out and buy the stuff, but it works well and is teeming with microbes.

I find the insect frass extremely useful against fighting fungus gnats, and also spider mites. Anything that feeds on the plant is severely weakened. The spider mites on a few of my outdoor plants were left UNATTENDED and UNTREATED for over a month while I was out of the country, and the mites could not build webbing or destroy the plant because the chitinase from the frass was poisoning them. I have even had broad mites and the frass kept them at bay.

I am a believer in the stuff...

~beez

[bigshrimp]

Coot already said it all.

Poo and chitin need to be composted before using, so bang for your buck there are cheaper amendments with the same basic results.

There is a light outside my house that all the bugs go to die in, it gets dumpedin the worm bin which is a frass generator on its own with thousands of insects. living and dying daily.

[SpicySativa]

Back when I owned a chameleon, I used to go through a lot of crickets. Those things crank out a lot of shit...

I bet what your paying for is waste from a reptile food producer/distributor. If you really want it, cut the middle man and hit up your local reptile shop. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to hook you up with some free cricket shit if your willing to scoop it up for them...

Not for me....

[wintergreens]

I just top dressed my veg garden with 50# of mealworm frass. Also use it in act brews. I love the pics Babombeez!

[Babombeez]

Originally Posted by wintergreens

I just top dressed my veg garden with 50# of mealworm frass. Also use it in act brews. I love the pics Babombeez!

Hell yeah, wintergreens! Make sure to use some gypsum with the frass, since the frass tends to be high in magnesium and low in calcium. You would also benefit from using a readily assimilable source of Nitrogen, such as a fish emulsion/hydrolysate.

~beez