Mealworm farming

[gaitngirl]

Well it sure has taken long enough but I'm finally starting to see the first generation of meal worms born in the bin. They are pretty small - about 1/8" but visible at least. I have about 80 adult beetles breeding and laying eggs. I have about 30 dead beetles, too. Very few pupa. I didn't refrigerate any adult meal worms to pace pupation but I probably will with this next batch.

 

[MalMom]

I just give mine theirs. The kids and my hubby and my self go out twice a day and ha feed all treats. Our choice yours may be different. So all our chicken of different ages stay completely tame. The only way I can think of letting them scatch for them would be in a box but you could only put so many at a time or your entire stock would be gone in an hour! And probably by one or two chickens. Don't know how many you have. Maybe someone else would have a better idea hopefully. Sorry that didn't really help to much

I only have two girls and they are quite hand tame. So I'm not worried about that. I wouldn't put my whole colony out there, just a few each day for them to find in the winter time when other bugs are gone. I'm just trying to think of a good way that they can hunt for them during the day to keep them active and give them protein. Thanks for your reply though.

 

[bbsnooks]

Hello.. Its been a while..
I started my colony in april.. and now have lots of visible babies..

i would like to change the substrate..
any ideas on how to get tiny mealies to migrate to a new batch of bran.. ?
I would like to toss the old bran.. but not the babies..
is this possible?

thanks for your experience in doing this..
( I do not... want to just add to with more bran.. i want to replace the bran.( and get rid of the phoo)

thanks

 

[bbsnooks]

I'm about to read 607 pages of posts about mealworms! I started a colony last fall and finally got babies. Now I have what I think might be an infestation of mites. I thought they were tiny mealworm egg hatchlings but there are millions. I'm sure somewhere in these 600 pages someone talks about this topic, but what do the mealworm eggs and hatchlings look like versus the mites? These things are tiny, white, oval and they move. And there are millions, well thousands anyway. I promise to go back and read from the beginning but reading about mites has made me itch.
Thanks for any help!
Mira

Mira.. i had /have some small worms that i think are fruit fly larve..
I had been putting in apple core.. / peach pits.. and my 3 tier basket was in the kitchen at the time..

I think what i have are the fruit fly larve.. and i'm considering that i'm over feeding
( but there are so many in there.. i'm sure theyre thirsty.) but.. it got me fruit fly larve.. and a small case of mites..
which i seem to have control of.. the mites by taking the trey out side ( cover with bath towel) and dry'd out in the wind.

will know more in a month if they return.. it was a very mild case.. as far as i can tell.

but I'm wanting to change the medium.. and am looking for creative ideas to get meal worms to migrate..
not sure how to do it .. but going to try some thing.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Could you not feed them for a week or so and then push all the old bran into one side of your bin and put new bran in the other side along with a split carrot or something? If you have bottom heat, you could also move that to the new bran end of your bin. After a week or so, you could scoop out all the old stuff but hang onto it for a while to be sure you got all the babies.

 

[Tacampbell1973]

How cool. I never thought about raising mealworms. I am breaking the bank paying almost $7 every other week at Walmart. I will definitely look into this.....Thanks all for advice.

 

[MalMom]

Hello.. Its been a while..
I started my colony in april.. and now have lots of visible babies..

i would like to change the substrate..
any ideas on how to get tiny mealies to migrate to a new batch of bran.. ?
I would like to toss the old bran.. but not the babies..
is this possible?

thanks for your experience in doing this..
( I do not... want to just add to with more bran.. i want to replace the bran.( and get rid of the phoo)

thanks

Changing the substrate without loosing any babies is very easy...

Get a metal sifter from the store. You can get them for just a couple of dollars at at store such at Walmart, Target, your local grocery store, or you could even check out a dollar store. Sift all of your worms, pupa, and beetles out of your old substrate and put them in the new stuff. Keep all the old substrate, and in two weeks sift through it again getting any babies that you find. Repeat that process a couple of times until you feel you have all the babies out, then toss the old stuff. Just make sure there is some kind of food in it so the babies can eat. Good luck.

 

[MamaAB]

Odd question but when you have your house sprayed for bugs will it kill my bettles ?

 

[Sonia]

Question: what is the current consensus of the best place to order mealies from? I'm starting my farm and want to start with a minimum of 1000 good stock.

 

[sueblack]

Quote:
Sonia, I found Amy (West Knoll Farm) to be very pleasant to deal with and my worms were in great shape when they arrived. You can find her info on the first page of this thread, along with others.