Wormy Sunflower Seeds -- YUCK!

Pony · #1 02/25/10, 12:18 PM

I found a bag of BOSS I'd picked up a while back in the cold sunroom. Thought, "Good. Now I have a treat for the goats when I give them their injections today."

Fed a small handful to the doe after her injections, then, when feeding some to the buck, saw a WORM in there.

Closer inspection showed wormholes in many of the shells.

I'm not inclined to worry about this, so I thought I'd better check (as I usually worry about everything).

Thoughts?

farmerbrown · #2 02/25/10, 12:28 PM

Oh nasty... I found wormy seeds and a huge white mass of what looked like spiderwebs when we were mixing our winter feed - took out the visible stuff and fed to the chickens and fed the remaining seeds (they looked ok to me) to the goats, thinking their regular worming program would take care of anything that lived thru their little systems. Months later now-they are fine!!

Bearfootfarm · #3 02/25/10, 02:34 PM

Do you have chickens?
They won't mind a few worms

fishhead · #4 02/25/10, 02:52 PM

Those aren't the kind of worms that infect goats. I would still feed them to the chickens.

Pony · #5 02/25/10, 04:42 PM

Yeah, I think I'll just give them to the birds for some extra protein.

Didn't think they'd turn into intestinal worms, just didn't want the pregnant doe to get sick on me, when we've been through so much on this road to kidding together.

Ugh. Those worms are still really gross, I must say.

jil101ca · #6 02/25/10, 05:51 PM

What you are seeing is meal moth larva. Completely harmless. the moths lay their eggs in the stiching on the grain bags and when the eggs hatch the larva feed off the grain or seeds inside and so the cycle begins. Disgusting nasty things that give a really good snap if you have an electric bug sapper

Tell the place where you bought the boss from, might not make a difference but you never know. I would give you a discount off your next bag.

Bearfootfarm · #7 02/25/10, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Ugh. Those worms are still really gross, I must say.

If you have room in your freezer, you can put the seeds in for 24-48 hours to kill them

wintrrwolf · #8 02/25/10, 06:34 PM

my first thought ooo chicken food. My ladies woulda been all over that.

Just extra protein my mama always said when the fly fell in the soup.............lol

Backfourty,MI. · #9 02/26/10, 05:38 AM

That would have been Yucky having the crawly worms in your hand! I would feed them to the wild birds or the chickens & ducks if you have those & get new seeds for the goats.