Mealworm farming

[del gallinero]

Can any of you experienced wormers help? I got my worms in November and did the three drawer thing. Once they started turning into beetles, I noticed many of the beetles had deformed wings. Okay, then in the last couple of months I have noticed that I have tons of beetles and a lot of larvae with holes in them (dead of course) and not many worms at all. What is going on? Is this a parasite or are the beetles eating the others? The holes in the larvae make me think an internal parasite eating from the inside. I have isolated 2 of the very few remaining larvae in another container and a few tiny worms to see if it happens to them also. Has anyone had this happen. I thought I was giving enough food, but maybe not. I gave other ground grains and brewer's yeast etc. SHould I have changed the bran more often???? My peeps are due soon and I have no worms. I should have a ton by now. Very disappointed with the outcome. I thought I could handle a batch of worms.
HELP please!

 

[BeccaSmith]

Can any of you experienced wormers help? I got my worms in November and did the three drawer thing. Once they started turning into beetles, I noticed many of the beetles had deformed wings. Okay, then in the last couple of months I have noticed that I have tons of beetles and a lot of larvae with holes in them (dead of course) and not many worms at all. What is going on? Is this a parasite or are the beetles eating the others? The holes in the larvae make me think an internal parasite eating from the inside. I have isolated 2 of the very few remaining larvae in another container and a few tiny worms to see if it happens to them also. Has anyone had this happen. I thought I was giving enough food, but maybe not. I gave other ground grains and brewer's yeast etc. SHould I have changed the bran more often???? My peeps are due soon and I have no worms. I should have a ton by now. Very disappointed with the outcome. I thought I could handle a batch of worms.
HELP please!

Well I'm still pretty new at this, but I just wanted to say that I started my 3-bin system in November as well. I still have a ton of live beetles, and a ton of new worms. Are you sure your worms just aren't so tiny you can't see them? Mine have matured to feeding size now, but depending on your growing environment could depend on how quickly yours will mature. I hardly feed mine at all and they are in a wheat bran/oatmeal mix. I originally started with everything in one of the 3 bins, decided to put a screen on the bottom of one of the bins and move the beetles to that bin to do their thing and have new worms fall through. My dear husband put the screen on the outside of the container....this made it difficult to open and close the bin. Eventually the glue gave and the entire contents fell into the bin below of just worms....oh-well, lesson learned, the screen needs to go inside the bottom of the bin....it is now fixed but I haven't moved the beetles back into their own bin. I did see holes in some of the pupa at first but I figured I'd just let the system take it's course. Hopefully someone more experienced will be able to give more advice...I personally would think you would have more worms by now as well....what are the dya/night temps you have them in?

 

[Zany Chick]

Thats what I though.. but for some reason I was hoping for some sort of sign.. like little cigars being passed out and all that jazz...

 

[del gallinero]

They spent the winter in a heated basement, but it was only about in the 60's. They seemed to be doing fine at that point. Then when it warmed up I guess in Feb, or March ( early spring)
I brought them up into the kitchen. It's actually somewhat warmer there. They just have regular air temp now since the furnace is off. I did see some tiny worms when I went looking yesterday, but the regular sized ones, the eating size just aren't around except a few. It is really strange. I just have three drawers. I put a screen in the middle one, but I didn't open it up fully, just in strips across the bottom to minimize sagging , so I don't think I'm getting any eggs going through. That's okay. I tried pulling the beetles out and putting them in one drawer, but I couldn't keep up with it.
So now it's just whatever they do.... In all of the drawers it's basically the same. Next to no pupae,many dead pupae, no eating size worms and lots of beetles. I give them veggies, which they seem to be craving at the moment. I heated the substrate before using it and haven't noticed any other creatures. My only two guesses are the beetles eating the others or a virus / parasite.
I hope someone can tell me what is going on and see if maybe I am doing something wrong. Thanks for your comments.

 

[Emily1220]

They spent the winter in a heated basement, but it was only about in the 60's. They seemed to be doing fine at that point. Then when it warmed up I guess in Feb, or March ( early spring)
I brought them up into the kitchen. It's actually somewhat warmer there. They just have regular air temp now since the furnace is off. I did see some tiny worms when I went looking yesterday, but the regular sized ones, the eating size just aren't around except a few. It is really strange. I just have three drawers. I put a screen in the middle one, but I didn't open it up fully, just in strips across the bottom to minimize sagging , so I don't think I'm getting any eggs going through. That's okay. I tried pulling the beetles out and putting them in one drawer, but I couldn't keep up with it.
So now it's just whatever they do.... In all of the drawers it's basically the same. Next to no pupae,many dead pupae, no eating size worms and lots of beetles. I give them veggies, which they seem to be craving at the moment. I heated the substrate before using it and haven't noticed any other creatures. My only two guesses are the beetles eating the others or a virus / parasite.
I hope someone can tell me what is going on and see if maybe I am doing something wrong. Thanks for your comments.

I have the drawers with several thousand worms in each one. They eat a celery stalk and a whole carrot about every two days. Are you feeding them veges in approx that amount?? There is oatmeal and wheat bran in mine for substrate. It sort of sounds to me like maybe the beetles are eating them. And they will do that if they dont have enough moisture. That would make more sense than thinking internal parasites. If you have beetles, you have eggs and baby wormies so dont give up. Keep them warm as you can and feed them often. They grow really fast. Wishing you luck!!

 

[Emily1220]

How exactly do any of you freeze your worms?? If I just put them into a plastic bag and freeze them arent they all going to stick together once frozen?? Do I need to add bran or oats to help keep them apart?

 

[Stark]

I'm sort of wishing I had ordered more to start, now. I keep checking on them obsessively lol. They are in a warm spot so seem very active. Very glad I got them started before my chicks arrive because the temptation to start feeding them out too early would be high...though I did give one to Dario the Jaguar Fish...he was appreciative.

 

[ajlynco]

I have 1,000 mealies from Amy and 1,000 Mighty Mealies from Grubco and would like to intermingle them in the same bin/substrate. Will the beetles from both mate and produce normal offspring? Will the Mighty Mealies cannibilize the rest of the colony? How do you grow wormies to become Mighty Mealies? Just wanting to combine the wormies and hoping there won't be any adverse effects.

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
Okay...I've haven't been on the site for a while and this really tickled me...or more like made me go "heh????" Don't know what ever made you decide getting beetles was the best way but please give this some more thought. First, don't think anyone is going to ship just beetles, but that being said....getting beetles mean they have spent part of their eggs in someone else's container, not yours and you'd have no idea (nor would the 'seller' really) of the age. Oh, wait, maybe they could. Anyway, this is certainly one of the more different ideas out there.

Who would a figured?

 

[hannakat]

I have 1,000 mealies from Amy and 1,000 Mighty Mealies from Grubco and would like to intermingle them in the same bin/substrate. Will the beetles from both mate and produce normal offspring? Will the Mighty Mealies cannibilize the rest of the colony? How do you grow wormies to become Mighty Mealies? Just wanting to combine the wormies and hoping there won't be any adverse effects.

I would not combine them. Over time, you will lose the 'mighty' size. IMHO

We cannot 'grow' a mealworm to "mighty" size, unless like everything else, you take out all of the largest worms and breed those developed beetles to only the largest and so on....

Anyone else?