Mealworm farming

[gaitngirl]

I wrote a few pages back that I didn't have wormies yet - but I do! They are tiny but they are there. For some reason they are growing quite slowly but they are there and I've seen a few skins so some are getting bigger. At this rate tho' it might be winter 2014 before I can feed them to my hens but...

Once they get to the point you can see them they actually grow pretty quick. Before you. know it these will be pupating

 

[charlie476476]

Does anyone know what level of humidity is needed for a mealworm colony? Now that the season is changing I seem to have a lot of dead worms and pupa in my mealworm farm which is kept in my garage. I have seen some say they mist water on a paper towel in their pupa drawer. Do any of you do this and would this help with pupa dying?

how often do you separate the pupa from the mealworms? The longer they are left with active mealworms the higher chance they will become damaged by the live mealworms. If you don't have to many mealworms it usually isn't a problem. However I noticed if you don't removed them every few days they yield of pupa making it to beetle stage is reduced a lot. Even with plenty of moisture and food source they still tend to munch on pupa. Causing them to die throughout the pupa stage

 

[sueblack]

Quote:
I remove the pupa daily most of the time. I am guessing there wasn't enough wheat bran in the container for them to survive well. The bin was over 2/3 done pupating, there was a lot of frass and I really couldn't tell how much wheat bran was left since I was digging for pupa every day and stirring things up. Temperature was fine and they had access to fresh carrots every other day, so the only thing left is food source. Thats why I am assuming they just ran out of food. Thanks for your input and thanks for posting the life cycle times at 80 degrees. Very helpful. Do you use open containers or covered/vented containers to raise your worms?

 

[kwol]

I wrote a few pages back that I didn't have wormies yet - but I do! They are tiny but they are there. For some reason they are growing quite slowly but they are there and I've seen a few skins so some are getting bigger. At this rate tho' it might be winter 2014 before I can feed them to my hens but...

Happy day for you!

 

[JuniorMint]

Does anyone artificially 'warm' their mealworm living quarters. I'm using the 3 drawer Sterlite method and am keeping them indoors but would really like to keep the temperatures in the mid to upper 70's for them (my house room temperature is below 70). I was thinking of getting a small reptile heating pad and somehow attaching that to the drawer with the larva in it.
Anyone else have a method of heating their mealworms?

 

[AletaG]

Does anyone artificially 'warm' their mealworm living quarters. I was thinking of getting a small reptile heating pad and somehow attaching that to the drawer with the larva in it.
Anyone else have a method of heating their mealworms?

Yep. I keep mine in the garage, where it stays cool all summer, and due to get cooler, so found one of those stacking cookie cooling racks that stands about 3" tall, put it on top of a "warming tray" (tested the surface, gets about 140 after 2 hours) and the little guys seem to love it, the bottom gets to about 75 tops, the top one never gets below 65, I rotate the plastic boxes every once in a while, always seems to increase activity. I'd use my seedling germ. mat, but it always gets used for everything. I need about 10 of those things. Found the warming tray at second hand place for $1.50 - SOLD!

 

[sillybirds]

Does anyone artificially 'warm' their mealworm living quarters.  I'm using the 3 drawer Sterlite method and am keeping them indoors but would really like to keep the temperatures in the mid to upper 70's for them (my house room temperature is below 70). I was thinking of getting a small reptile heating pad and somehow attaching that to the drawer with the larva in it.  
Anyone else have a method of heating their mealworms?

For awhile I tried warming worm bins with reptile heating pads. I don't remember details of how I had it setup, but I recall ending up having worms dying. I'm sure it could be done safely, just be careful not to have heating pad too close to bin. (I do still successfully use the warming pads to increase temperature for blaptica cockroaches during the winter, however the roaches have the advantage of being able to walk around and move away from heat source easier than the worms can.)

 

[LaBella]

For awhile I tried warming worm bins with reptile heating pads. I don't remember details of how I had it setup, but I recall ending up having worms dying. I'm sure it could be done safely, just be careful not to have heating pad too close to bin. (I do still successfully use the warming pads to increase temperature for blaptica cockroaches during the winter, however the roaches have the advantage of being able to walk around and move away from heat source easier than the worms can.)

I have a thought. I was going to make a box, since I don't have any box the right size, just duct tape together cardboard boxes cut to fit, basically... And I was going to put the heater in the bottom, and have the shelf on some kind of a stand above the heater so it's not right on it..
The one I have stays static at 78 degrees. I used it to heat 5 gallon baby tanks when I was breeding bettas.

 

[AletaG]

I have my bins on top of one of those pie/cookie rack things with the foldable legs. Makes sure it can't get too warm... No fire hazard. Boxes = scary to me...

 

[LaBella]

Tell me about it, I have a fire phobia (and yet I'm a bit of a pyro too, oxymoronic, you betcha!!!) due to a fire next to my childhood home that killed several of my neighbors due to smoke inhalation.
It was a combination of smoking in bed and too much alchohol, but me and my cousins loved them. They were nice people that always had the time for a bunch of raggedy kids... which says a lot about their characters, because they were old and alchaholics (looking back with adult eyes).
This is why I like steady temp under the glass rep heaters, and there are seedling heat tapes that I have heard many good things about from my betta people which they use for their barracks which are water proof, (a plus when we're talking electric and water).

My guys are doing fine, they're not growing the way they could because I am neglecting them.
I do have a picture for you all though...


I saw it was wiggling out, and by the time I got my camera and turned it on and got the settings, it had slipped it's skin into a pupae!!