Tips and Troubleshooting

If additional questions, comments or problems with any of the products or equipment sold by Whitmire Micro-Gen, please e-mail our Tech Services department at jared.harris@wmmg.com or call 800/777-8570.

To Ensure Your Darkling Beetle Results

Procedures before applying an insecticide are as important to follow as the label of the insecticide.

Built up Litter

  1. After removing birds: Remove cake immediately (the longer you wait the less time you will have to control the Darkling Beetles).
  2. Close curtains and increase the house temperature: This procedure will bring the Adult Darkling Beetles and Larvae to the surface (It takes less than an hour in the summer to accomplish this step).
  3. Apply insecticide with an even spray once the populations have surfaced.
  4. Close the curtains again and let the house stand empty as long as possible (the longer the house can remain closed without birds in it, the better control you will have).

Clean Out

  1. After removing birds: Remove litter as soon as possible.
  2. Soap and Disinfect.
  3. Spread new litter.
  4. Close curtains and increase the house temperature: This procedure will bring the Adult Darkling Beetles and Larvae to the surface and out of the wall voids.
  5. Apply insecticide with an even spray once the populations have surfaced.
  6. Close the curtains again and let the house stand empty as long as possible.

Whitmire Micro-Gen Rotation Program

  • When litter and cake debris are spread on fields, large populations of Darkling Beetles are mixed with this material. These Beetles can be transferred across the fields with the wind to nearby farms. If a colony becomes resistant to a class of insecticide it can quickly spread from farm to farm. To combat Darkling Beetles we must rotate our chemical classes of insecticides.

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System III Conversion Guide

Click here to download

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Vector Bulbs Need Replacement

It is very important to replace the bulbs in the VectorTM

Fly System every year and Spring is the time to do it! The bulbs may not have burned out, but their effectiveness diminishes up to 6% per month. For optimum performance, the best time to install new bulbs is at the beginning of the fly season, which is typically in the spring months.

20-7019 -- Standard Blacklight Replacement Bulbs (packed 24/case)

20-7018 -- Sleeved Replacement Bulbs (packed 24/case)

These are used in areas where breakage of a bulb could lead to adulteration of an edible product.

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