Mealworm farming

[Arielle]

Chickened out," ha ha ha.

Ok. Here's a bit of a laugh on me. When I check my mealworm farm I always see lots of pupa and beetles but wonder where all my mealworms have gone. Finally the other day I asked Michael, my fiance, why don't we have tons of mealworms by now as we've been at this for a few months now? So he checked out their farm and pointed out all these teeny tiny worms wriggling happily away in there that I didn't even see. Well, of course they are! What was I thinking! They have to be babies first and grow up. I just hope we get tons of grownups before these go through their cycle.

LOL, thanks for the laugh. ( I wont tell you about having to plunge the tub drain--why it wont drain was because the drain lever was in the closed position.

)

 

[Latestarter]

They average 12-14 molts on their way to adulthood and morphing into pupa. Once they get to adult size, you can "keep them there" for 4-6 weeks by refrigerating them (~40 degrees... no lower). Of course you can start slowing down the growth process before they become full blown adults as well. You'll need to take them out about once a week for a day or so to warm up and eat. Give them a little bran and some veggie moisture; carrot/potato/greens/etc. to keep them alive, then back in the fridge. That way you can leave quite a few in the colony to pupate and become beetles to produce the next generation, or re-add them to the colony from the fridge to create staggered breeding so you have new worms being produced continuously over time.

 

[Lynn Manes]

LOL, thanks for the laugh.  ( I wont tell you about having to plunge the tub drain--why it wont drain was because the drain lever was in the closed position.  )

Haha. I thought you were going to say bc you threw baby mealworms unknowingly down the drain and they grew there and you had beetles coming into your sink by the millions! Lol

 

[dstinett]

Would love to have you all join our mealworm group on FB and share your experiences.https://www.facebook.com/groups/MealWormFarming/

 

[Latestarter]

hmmmm

??

 

[azygous]

Thanks for the great info and useful tips on grain mites.

Recently, I had grain mites again in my colony. I've been heat treating my wheat bran in my oven, but I guess I just didn't get the latest batch hot enough for long enough. I usually treat at 250-300 degrees for fifteen minutes.

The first time I ever had grain mites, I washed all the beetles and worms. It was very labor intensive, and unnecessary. Now I simply leave the lids off my containers and let the mites dry up.

It was an ugly mess this time, as the "walk-about" involved the mites spilling out all over the shelves the worm and beetle containers rested on and migrating down to the floor beneath, hiding under any cover they could find in order to keep from drying out. It looked a bit like snow drifts on the floor around the baseboards. It looked for all the world as if I was a very bad house keeper.

I had a house guest during this period, but his horror turned to morbid fascination with the behavior of the grain mites and their panic to survive. They're singularly utterly disgusting creatures. Grain mites, not house guests.

 

[pdirt]

Hoping someone can help here!

I moved my 18 month old mealworm colony outside and covered it with chicken wire. It's been out there for about two months now. Recently I'm seeing some rogue invaders... Small fuzzy caterpillar type things. They are about the size of a mealworm. They are brown and have two longer hairs that look like a tail. I can't yet tell if they are a detriment to the colony or not. I still see beetles and mealworms. Anyone know what they might be? I will try to get some pictures of them tomorrow.

 

[NevaehFeathers]

Can yall post More photos of your worm farm? I'm very intrigued on this entire process. I heard fruit and veggies is best?

 

[Kusanar]

Can yall post More photos of your worm farm? I'm very intrigued on this entire process. I heard fruit and veggies is best?

The worms eat grain, the consensus is that wheat bran is the best, but oatmeal will work if you have to have a wheat free household. The veggies are mostly just for adding moisture, so the worms eat grain and drink carrots. Fruit is not optimal, it has too much moisture and can cause the bran to mod which can kill the entire worm population. Also, things like grain mites have to have more moisture than the worms need, so giving the worms too much just invites trouble. Fruit also somehow sprouts fruit flies out of thin air if it sits for a while... if you read through the tread, there are TONS of pictures of different setups, also, if you are on the desktop version of the site, there is a thing on the right side of the screen that you can go to and just look through all of the pictures without having to sift through the whole thread.

 

[Loretto girls]

Just oats are fine. I have an oat / wheat bran mixture. Check Amazon for wheat bran if you're interested.