Mealworm farming

[Sarahsdawn]

Yeah, the mealies were fine....they are in inches and inches of wheat bran, so they had plenty of space to occupy that wasn't warm. (Or too warm.) But the pupa were in a plastic dish, in the sterilite drawer, which was on the stove surface. I had a towel underneath, so that they would have a barrier, but it wasn't enough for the pupa...if they were on top of the wheat bran they would have been fine.

Ugh. Worst worm-life lesson ever! This is the last cold day and then we're back into the 80s on Monday, but I need to get them set up in a system that is well insulated enough to maintain a consistent heat, without a lot of energy output. I'm heading to Lowes and Target for supplies to work on this endeavor.

 

[Sarahsdawn]

 

[BriardChickens]

I accidentally cooked about 50 pupa.

Ooops...

 

[Sarahsdawn]

My heart is breaking. I feel the need to go eat copious amounts of leftover halloween candy.

 

[aart]

How do you know they are dead?

 

[Sarahsdawn]

They have Xs where their eyes used to be, and their tongues are hanging out sideways.

 

[jenneverett]

they definitely like pecking at the wedding ring

 

[Sarahsdawn]

I'm moving them into a larger home, with consistent temps, and cleaning and rotating bins in the process. Looks like I lost a lot of mealworms that cold night, too. My kids are picking out the dead ones for me (which will go into the worm composting bin) but I don't think that my babies are going to be grown soon enough, before I run out of feeding size mealworms. I might need to order 10k or so.
Luckily the babies seem fine, but they have a constant heating pad to keep them toasty. Once the setup gets insulated they should all stay a little warmer....I moved them from the exterior wall/window to an interior wall, too. Hopefully all that helps.

 

[Cheryl1948]

Sarahsdawn, what kind of heating pad do you have? How many watts? and where do you place it to warm them. I have a small 4 watt pad I stuck on the side of the aquarium where I keep my mealworms and it doesn't seem to be doing much.

 

[Sarahsdawn]

Oh gosh, I couldn't even tell you. It's one of the reptile brands, black with a sticky side that you can stick on a tank for belly heat. It's long since lost its stick, but it still works, so I duct-taped it to a piece of tile to help conduct the heat a bit better, and I put that under the setup. It keeps it warm, but not hot. (Doesn't make them swim up, eep!) I think that I'm going to get another pad (from walgreens/cvs) to put maybe on top, to keep the heat a bit more spread out.
I put my hand by the window, and they are horrifically cold! I don't even want to see my heating bill! (I finally caved and turned it on, Saturday night.) I'm taping up the house windows too, to help with the draftiness. This old house is not very well insulated at all!