Mealworm farming

[WestKnollAmy]

Hooray for new babies! Always exciting to see life stirring among the bedding. I check every week. It is too difficult not to peek in all the time!

 

[bobbieschicks]

I've got broodies hatching babies and beetles hatching babies - lots of new growth here

 

[WestKnollAmy]

It is the time of year for growth though I swear my mealies did better in the winter.

Don't forget to share plenty of squash and other veggies from the garden with beetles and worms. Mine are waiting on the pumpkin to get ripe. They love it as well as fresh apples. With all the bins I have though it is difficult for me to keep up with all the foods so mine do not get as much as when I had only 4-5 bins.

 

[mychookschick]

Ok.... Question time!

I am terrible at estimating, so what do you guys think?



Can you estimate how many mealies are in this sift? I had about 7-8 of these, so I was trying to get a ROUGH estimate of how many large mealies I have... I have probably almost as many smaller ones.

Thank you!!!

 

[hemet dennis]

250 - 300 Hard to tell how deep they are in that pic.

 

[DMRippy]

Ok.... Question time!

I am terrible at estimating, so what do you guys think?



Can you estimate how many mealies are in this sift? I had about 7-8 of these, so I was trying to get a ROUGH estimate of how many large mealies I have... I have probably almost as many smaller ones.

Thank you!!!

Is there a prize if we guess right?

I would say about 300 give or take 50

 

[mychookschick]

Umm, a prize? Hmm.... IDK, have you been good?

Thanks guys! So that puts me at about 2100 large mealies, and more little ones on top of that number! So if I start with about 100 hundred, that means that each beetle produced 21 mealies early on, and then more after a bit!

 

[Kassaundra]

I still have a bunch of beetles eating carrots in there. It's been almost two months so when will the beetles finally die? Is there a possibility of having worms growing in there while I still have beetles? Would the beetles eat the worms? Should I be moving the beetles out somewhere or just keep leaving them alone?

You almost surely have baby worms growing in the substrate if your adult beetles have been in there for 2 months. No generally they will not predate on the young, if they have other food / moisture sources.

 

[bobbieschicks]

 You almost surely have baby worms growing in the substrate if your adult beetles have been in there for 2 months.  No generally they will not predate on the young, if they have other food / moisture sources.

Thanks! You are right too. I have found tiny little worms now in all three bins. They are easiest to spot on the carrots.

My beetles are still alive and presumably mating, but their number is slowly dwindling.

 

[onafixedincome]

How do you think they got the worms so big for the movie "Tremors"? It got the point where we had to feed them ponies.

We were going to feed them elephants until that one choked to death.

OMG...I'm dyin'....!