Raising Mealworms - best practices? How to prevent / stop grain moths to keep wife happy?

[saysfaa]

Hey, I read that some mealworms are treated so that they don’t pupate… could this be your reason for only adults?!

Good idea but no, I bought larva with no adults. They are now all adults. Still no eggs or larva unless the adults are eating them as fast as they come. I've tried picking the adults out and putting them in a different container so any eggs could develop. Several times. I still put cut potatoes or carrots in all the containers in case it takes a long time to get larva big enough for me to see. Still nothing. The adults seem to be doing well.

 

[shaelynn]

Where can you buy oat bran? I checked both my area feed stores & neither sell it.

You get it from the grocery store

 

[Maiahr]

Question on mealworms - apparently we have 3 different types of mealworms available in the country. Any idea which one is best for chicken?
@Alohacayo what is the Latin be of these super worms please? I need to find them here.

 

[Alohacayo]

Question on mealworms - apparently we have 3 different types of mealworms available in the country. Any idea which one is best for chicken?
@Alohacayo what is the Latin be of these super worms please? I need to find them here.

Hi,
They are zophobas morio. They are a darkling beetle. Super easy to breed and keep as a colony. Getting them to morph though is tricky, but really cool process.

https://www.fishersci.com/content/d...carolina-biological-superworms-data-sheet.pdf

Another bug that is super easy to keep a colony of is Dubai roaches.


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zophobas_morio

HTH, @

 

[Alohacayo]

Question on mealworms - apparently we have 3 different types of mealworms available in the country. Any idea which one is best for chicken?
@Alohacayo what is the Latin be of these super worms please? I need to find them here.

Hi again, it appears you are in Bulgaria? If so, I googled and they do appear to be available in your country.

https://service4pets.eu/portfolio-item/zophobas-morio/

Looks like min order is 50kg (that is ALOT of worms!), but I’m hopeful you’ll be able to find them in a smaller quantity.

You’ll need at least 50 full size larvae in order to start a colony. And from there it takes about 30-60 days to get beetles/eggs/new larvae (from egg to feed size is another 30-60 days)… so it’s definitely a process.

They are a prime reptile food, so they’re probably available just about anywhere there are hobbyists…

Price here in the US, in bulk is about a penny each. 5000/50$.

If you buy some, make sure to get a whiff of them first. They should have very little to no odor. If they have any type of rotten odor, they are dead/dying, and do not purchase them.

@

 

[Maiahr]

Thank you! At this stage I would like to know which one is better for my chicken : mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) or superworms (zophobas morio). We have both available here (yes, in Bulgaria) and I am just starting now, so step 1. Find out which one is better for my chicken
Step 2. Buy some of it and see how expensive it is. If it is too expensive I will make my own farm.

 

[Maiahr]

The nutritional profile of the Zophobas morio is, "46.80% proteins, 43.64% lipids, 8.17% ashes and 1.39% carbohydrates."

 

[Maiahr]

For every 100 grams of raw mealworm larvae, 206 calories and anywhere from 14 to 25 grams of protein are contained... Which means they have less protein than Zophobas morio, but are rich in minerals.

 

[Alohacayo]

The nutritional profile of the Zophobas morio is, "46.80% proteins, 43.64% lipids, 8.17% ashes and 1.39% carbohydrates."

A quick search led me to this:

It appears that the nutrition profile is very similar. Using either should work similar, so then it comes down to management of the food source.

Live mealworms can be refrigerated, super worms can not. Mealworms life cycle is much faster than superworms. Supers will reach and stay as a larvae for 5-7 months, and won’t pupate until they are isolated into a single cell container. I used bead organizers, one worm in each compartment with a small air hole drilled over each cell. Within 21 days they’ll pupate 2x. Mature worm > alien > beetle

I used super worms because they were easier for the setup I had and bc I was feeding almost 100 parrots, the life cycle of superworms made it much simpler. I also had a pretty huge colony of Dubai roaches, bc they had basically the same temp/food/habitat requirements. (Not housed together, lol.)

One of the benefits that I haven’t seen mentioned (in other threads, may have missed it) is that you can gut load and/or coat live feeders with supplemental nutrition. Calcium, paprika, dried chili etc.

I have not set up a new live food system for the chickens yet, except allowing the chickens access to my compost pile a few times a week, but based on the mob behavior they exhibit when they know I’m setting up the pile for them, I’m pretty sure the chooks would lose their minds over supers/meal worms and/or roaches.

Good luck!

 

[KCNC06]

I may have missed this somewhere, but for those with grain/pantry moth issues in their mealworm farm, were you baking the food before adding it to your mealworm bin? I decided to try to start a mealworm farm because my ducks are too spoiled and have gotten used to their fresh worms. I had been ordering them in bulk from a reptile food company (Premium Crickets) and thought if I could get the worms to grow into beetles, and the beetles to reproduce, maybe I could save a little money. The shipping cost is really the issue, this company's worm price seems very reasonable. I buy wheat bran to use as their bedding/food and haven't had an issue with moths. I had been ordering superworms, and then mealworms for a year before I decided to start the farm and the only time I had an issue with moths was when I tried using oatmeal as bedding and didn't bake the oatmeal first. Which is kind of gross if you let yourself think about it too much.