How to grow your own mealworms instructions

[mistyt14]

i have meal worms for our lizards and fish. I feed them carrots. I also heat any food (oatmeal, ect) for 20 min at 200 in the oven. the first time i didn't do this i ended up with grain mites and had to dump my whole coloney

 

[miraquila]

I have a question about growing mealworms. I thought I had just hatched a million mealworm eggs, but in reading up on this topic, I believe they might be mites, not mealworm hatchlings. I've looked everywhere on the internet for what a mealworm hatchling looks like vs. mites but found nothing helpful. What do the mealworms look like when they first hatch from the egg? For that matter, what do the eggs look like? What I see are tiny white oval things that move. Thanks!

(I see there is more than one topic on mealworms so I am posting this in two places.)

 

[adoptedparent]

How many chickens are you feeding? How many mealworms do you feed each chicken per day?

 

[kubotafoot]

I am having great difficulty in raising my meal worms. Followed all directions. Pupa (1 " larva-like crawly things) appear and then just die. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I am having great difficulty in raising my meal worms. Followed all directions. Pupa (1 " larva-like crawly things) appear and then just die. What am I doing wrong?

First of all,

You followed the direction at the beginning of this thread? We need some more details to help you. What kind of container are you using? Are you using a single bin or are you separating pupae? What are you using for substrate? If you're using chicken feed, does it have diatomaceous earth in it? What are you using for vegetables? How often? At about what temperature are they kept? You'll have better luck getting fast answers by posting in the main mealworm thread. Lots of folks subscribe to it and can usually answer any question you have pretty quickly. Hopefully, we can get your colony producing beetles soon!

 

[fionnandeburca]

This is really helpful

 

[seismic wonder2]

Nevermind...I just realized the post is a year old...

 

[Mistahbue]

So funny - I did a Google search on how to grow your own mealworms and it brought right back here to BYC!!

Thanks for posting the information and the links. I agree the freeze dried are way too expensive - also having the live ones might help entice the Eastern Bluebirds in the yard to come a little closer to pose for photos. LOL

Thanks again!

 

[kubotafoot]

First of all,

You followed the direction at the beginning of this thread? We need some more details to help you. What kind of container are you using? Are you using a single bin or are you separating pupae? What are you using for substrate? If you're using chicken feed, does it have diatomaceous earth in it? What are you using for vegetables? How often? At about what temperature are they kept? You'll have better luck getting fast answers by posting in the main mealworm thread. Lots of folks subscribe to it and can usually answer any question you have pretty quickly. Hopefully, we can get your colony producing beetles soon!

FYI....The main problem was not enough moisture in the container. I WAS using carrots and they did OK, but it takes a long time for the critters to eat them, so I just figured if there were visable carrots still in the farm, all was OK. WRONG!!! I started using cucumbers and melon rind and potatoes and it was like I hit the trifecta! They disappeared in no time and the farm is thriving. Warning to newbies.....Don't under-water! It slows everything down so very much.

 

[birdman55]

im about to try this myself so hope it goes well...good info.