I've got baby meal worms! But questions

[kuntrychick]

I had bought a little bowl of 100 meal worms at PetCo and then got beetles. Now, I noticed some little tiny baby meal worms in there!

I still haven't separated mine. I've got them in one of those plastic shoeboxes.

I don't want the beetles to eat all of the baby meal worms. How do I go about separating them and also cleaning out the substrate? I mean, these babies are tiny tiny little things.

Also, I can't figure out how to keep mold from growing. The only thing I've found that doesn't get the substrate moldy is using a cut potato in it, skin side down.

Every time I put pieces of carrot in there, it gets dried out and makes the substrate where it was laying moldy. Then, I try to clean that part out but am afraid I'm losing the beetle eggs in the process. An apple gets horribly moldy.

For now, wheat germ is my substrate, but when I clean it out, I'm gonna use wheat bran, oatmeal or something cheaper.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Joz]

would rice work as a substrate? It would keep the moisture (and hopefully mold) down. Would it also be good food?

I haven't researched mealworm keeping yet (still need chickens!), so this may not be a good idea. <shrug>

 

[ShaggysGirl]

I took the beetles out and put them in a separate container... fed them to the chickens

I use wheat bran and carrots. Try putting the carrot on a piece of cardboard or something so that when you remove it the bedding won't be caked with moister and mold.