Mealworm farming

[NewMomma]

I ordered the large ones from Flukers but I think they were more mixed because I have a few small worms and the rest are medium-large.

 

[DHinton]

ahh... any day now then.

 

[MamaAB]

have any changed into "alien grubs" aka pupae? or beetles?

are they jumbo sized, perhaps injected with hormones or whatever?

Yes I have LOTS of beetles...but I have had beetles for probably a month now and I don't see any baby worms ? Sigh... I think I will move them out to the shed where they will be warmer and maybe that will speed things up

 

[DHinton]

doesn't it take 4-6 weeks after beetles, and then the worms are still super tiny?

 

[Shanty]

My mealworm colonies were kept in grey open plastic service tubs--like the ones used in restaurants for dirty dish pick-up. BUT they were in shelves designed to hold snakes and geckos which had heat tapes running under them. You can use reptile tank heater pads under one end to keep them warm. That gets the colony breeding and keeps them in stable production even during the winter.

See Gecko Time online magazine for in depth information on setting up and maintaining meal or super worm colonies. Your chickens will really love super worms. Much larger than mealworms but harder to breed. I gave up breeding them and simply bought them for the geks and the chickens.

Shannon

 

[Sonia]

Subscribing to thread

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

Yes I have LOTS of beetles...but I have had beetles for probably a month now and I don't see any baby worms ? Sigh... I think I will move them out to the shed where they will be warmer and maybe that will speed things up

I got my first beetle about two months ago, and I now have several hundreds of them. I have been looking for baby mealies but couldn't spot them. I couldnt even spot the eggs. I did see a baby mealie a couple of days ago that was a quarter inch long. Anyway, yesterday, I put a couple apple cores in, and because the core had a spot that was partially rotting, I was afraid it was bad for the bettles and went to take them out after about half an hour. Lo and behold, the bottom of the cores were covered with baby mealies in all sizes, some nearly 3/4 of an inch. I guess they have been hiding all this time. The pieces of fruits now just disappear completely after a day or so. Even though I put them on top of the brown paper sitting on top, they get pulled down by the beetles/mealies. I can hardly wait until I can harvest my first "crop". Hopefully it won't be too long now.

 

[MelissaTXRn]

I just got mine about 5 days ago. I may get them a heating pad bc we keep our house @ 72 during the day and 69 at night. It's hot here in Texas! I think 98 outside is too hot for them. What do y'all think?

 

[NewMomma]

I just got mine about 5 days ago. I may get them a heating pad bc we keep our house @ 72 during the day and 69 at night. It's hot here in Texas! I think 98 outside is too hot for them. What do y'all think?

My house runs a little warm but mostly the temperature stays around 73-80 during the day and 73 at night. Now, I just got them Wednesday but it seems to be working so far

And they get SO active at night! I just love to sit and watch them devour a baby carrot haha I have beetlemania!

 

[MelissaTXRn]

LOL, I know what you mean, but mine aren't very active. I am going to check on them this morning and decide where to put them.