Mealworm farming

[Sarahsdawn]

You mentioned drop shippers - in a related topic...
I just recently discovered that apparently you can buy bulk LIVE mealworms from China by the 1000's of pounds. I wonder if there are sellers that are just reselling these instead of breeding their own... And if there are, does anyone know who, so that we can avoid them (and in a related subject - should we avoid them?)

Very interesting! Needs more research....

 

[mealworms4now]

I have a mealworm that has some strange black lumps on it's side above some of it's legs. I think it,s some sort of disease, but my mealworm doesn't seem to be afected by it does anyone know about it?

 

[aart]

I have a mealworm that has some strange black lumps on it's side above some of it's legs. I think it,s some sort of disease, but my mealworm doesn't seem to be afected by it does anyone know about it?

Post a pic?

 

[mealworms4now]

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

The picture is too fuzzy to tell what is going on. Does it look like fungus? Is this the only worm you've seen with this? If it's the only one I might be inclined to remove it from the colony and kill it.

 

[suebee]

I have a question. I started my mealworm colony about 9 months ago using chick starter and oatmeal. How long does the chick starter last? Does it go bad?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I have a question. I started my mealworm colony about 9 months ago using chick starter and oatmeal. How long does the chick starter last? Does it go bad?

It doesn't really go bad (unless it gets wet), but it does get eaten. Have you been regularly adding more over the past 9 months?

 

[suebee]

I originally started about 3 inches of starter in the bottom then added 2 inches of oatmeal. The container is about 8"x6" and started out with 500 worms. It appears to be about the same amount of starter as I originally added. I do add extra oatmeal every few months. It stays dry, newspaper, paper towels, 2 toilet paper rolls on top and only use 3 baby carrots every 4 days. Just didn't know if it would go rancid. I keep it in my MB closet.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I originally started about 3 inches of starter in the bottom then added 2 inches of oatmeal. The container is about 8"x6" and started out with 500 worms. It appears to be about the same amount of starter as I originally added. I do add extra oatmeal every few months. It stays dry, newspaper, paper towels, 2 toilet paper rolls on top and only use 3 baby carrots every 4 days. Just didn't know if it would go rancid. I keep it in my MB closet.

That sounds good. I would probably add a bit more starter, or better yet, wheat bran. Be sure to check the tag on the chick starter to make sure that it does not have diatomaceous earth in it. Eventually you should remove most of the bottom layer of substrate and add new material.

 

[suebee]

It's DE free starter. Any tips on how I would remove just the bottom layer?