Wheat bran and those nasty little meal bugs

[Cactuskate]

Every sack of wheat bran I start to feed seems to get those little brown bugs. We call them meal bugs. They are about 1/8" long and multiply rather rapidly. They used to get in the food in the cupboards, too.

The bran is stored in garbage cans with lids, but the little boogers still get in. I hate to keep tossing all this wheat bran, fortunately it isn’t too expensive.

My question is do you go ahead and feed your wheat bran with the bugs?

“The older I get, the better I used to be, but who the heck cares!”

[coco]

Does anyone know the solution for properly storing bran? When you only have 2 horses, it’s rather difficult to feed the whole bag in 10 days (especially when you only feed it on Sundays)

[Cactuskate]

Great point coco. I only have one to feed and I do feed it daily mixed with rice bran and supplements. And believe me Bud loves his mush!!

Bumpkin, I believe it would be the straw that broke the camel’s back if I told Mr. Bud I was buying a 15 cft freezer to store Bud’s wheat bran. He is still choking over, "You are spending how much for a trailer to use in case you want to go somewhere? We aren’t exactly on the circuit you know. But good idea!

“The older I get, the better I used to be, but who the heck cares!”

[DMK]

think of those little mealy bugs as “free protien”

[Lucassb]

I know it is a pain, but way back when, I used to feed bran to one of my older guys on a daily basis. Since he was the only one on that program, a single sack went a long way, although I don’t remember anymore exactly what the size/ weight of the bag was…50 lbs seems about right.

We stored it in plastic-lined feed bins with plastic lined tops that fitted very snugly - the plastic was about the weight of a heavy lawn or trash bag. It worked fine and we never had a problem with bugs.

If they are getting into the bran by crawling into the garbage cans you are using, you may want to try storing the stuff in the large sealable plastic bags that you can buy at Target or Walmart - they are like giant ziplock freezer bags. I use them now to put together feed for horseshows, and they’re awesome.

I wouldn’t feed anything that had been contaminated with bugs.

---

To appreciate heaven well
'Tis good for a man to have some fifteen minutes of hell.
Will Carleton (1845-1912)

[Cactuskate]

Every sack of wheat bran I start to feed seems to get those little brown bugs. We call them meal bugs. They are about 1/8" long and multiply rather rapidly. They used to get in the food in the cupboards, too.

The bran is stored in garbage cans with lids, but the little boogers still get in. I hate to keep tossing all this wheat bran, fortunately it isn’t too expensive.

My question is do you go ahead and feed your wheat bran with the bugs?

“The older I get, the better I used to be, but who the heck cares!”

[Bumpkin]

I have no idea if it is the “correct” thing to do.
But the pet shop I worked at many years ago, use to freeze food that got bugs in it.
I wonder if that would help?

I can just see you shoving 50 pounds of bran into a freezer!! hahaha

[fernie_fox]

The shelf life of bran is very short once the bag is opened,in a warm climate I would only expect it to only be usable for 10 to 14 days.
If you have bugs in it when you open it I would take it straight to the Feedstore and expect a refund.

fernie fox
“I have lived my life-it is nearly done-.I have played the game all round;But I freely admit that the best of my fun I owe it to Horse and Hound”.