Mealworm farming

[Lacy Blues]

Something I just thought of for those of you who live in high humidity areas, including New York and much of the east coast this spring/summer. I saw for sale, somewhere, a brown disc of some sort that's purpose was to keep in your container of brown sugar to absorb the humidity so your sugar didn't turn into a rock. Perhaps something like this or some other sort of dehydrator would work if you were to keep them right in the bin with your worms?

 

[acreed]

Okay, question For you mealworm pros. I had mites get into my mealworms in my early stages before eggs hatched. I removed all worms and beetles, rinsed and started with new wheat bran. I have a three drawer system. I moved my setup onto my covered front porch since it is sooooo hot outside and I wanted to speed up the process. Well...it did speed up the process. WOW! I can't believe how quick everything started changing. However, now I have what looks like fruit flies in my drawers! There are many! How do I get rid of those? I can't fathom trying to rinse now because there are so many tiny worms. Help!

 

[chrissyr]

Hi all
was wondering: How hot can the mealworms get? I'm in CA and temps are 90-100+ and my DH says they can't be in the house. Kids are freaking out a little bit about the idea of them too. Haven't got them yet, but need to plan for the hot temps. Wondering if crickets would hold up better.

 

[hannakat]

Hi all
was wondering: How hot can the mealworms get? I'm in CA and temps are 90-100+ and my DH says they can't be in the house. Kids are freaking out a little bit about the idea of them too. Haven't got them yet, but need to plan for the hot temps. Wondering if crickets would hold up better.

Don't know about crickets but the mealies love hot. Keep them in the shade though and give them carrots or such. They'll do fine. I think once your DH and DKs see them, they'll not be so freaked. Pretty fascinating actually. Good luck!

 

[hannakat]

Okay, question For you mealworm pros. I had mites get into my mealworms in my early stages before eggs hatched. I removed all worms and beetles, rinsed and started with new wheat bran. I have a three drawer system. I moved my setup onto my covered front porch since it is sooooo hot outside and I wanted to speed up the process. Well...it did speed up the process. WOW! I can't believe how quick everything started changing. However, now I have what looks like fruit flies in my drawers! There are many! How do I get rid of those? I can't fathom trying to rinse now because there are so many tiny worms. Help!

If you're keeping them outdoors, I'd suggest making a screened enclosure for your colony. Might be difficult with a 3-drawer unit but certainly not impossible.

Change out the veggies daily....and only use the dryer types such as carrot, celery. NO fruit...no apple, no potato....

 

[hannakat]

does anyone feed cooked or dry beans to their mealies? Beans are darn cheap around here... as compared to chicken feed or even oats, etc. Dunno why. And protein loading *sounds* like a good idea...

-Aleta G.

Just started our colony last night, and my 5 yr old is already asking if he can eat them. <sigh> TRYING not to make the Yew! face.

Never heard of using dried beans. You'd still need a veggie source. Try it and let us know.

 

[chrissyr]

Thank you hannakat

 

[hannakat]

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

What I've done in the past was shift them out as they grew. It'll take about a month but you won't lose many. I have different sized sifters and sift everything into another container while putting the worms into the new container.

After about a month, you'll have most of the babies out and can just pitch the old substrate. That's the only way I've found.

 

[hannakat]

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

There's not a whole lot you can do. Try sifting out the beetles/pupa/worms and put into a new container. Keep it DRY!!! Please make sure, if you're using anything other than store bought rolled oats, to either bake it for 15 minutes at 200 degrees, freeze it for a week or nuke it to kill anything that might be lurking in the bran.

It takes a certain temp along with moisture to make a mite explosion. You can have mites but not by the millions if you keep the colony in a dry, warm location.

Hope this helps.

 

[chrissyr]

Yes it's just 50/50 powdered sugar and boric acid you can get from Walmart. Make sure it is mixed up really well and sprinkle it around where they are coming in. Kills roaches and ants, they eat the sugar and get killed by the acid. We get ants coming in from the rain, and also from our parrot who is a very messy eater. He acts like a 2 year old.

But is the Boric Acid harmful to pets? I've heard of using it, but if it was mixed with sugar my dogs would eat it for sure