I've got worms - lots of lovely worms!

[Sjisty]

I didn't start with mealworms. Sillybirds sold me a starter kit with only beetles, I don't remember how many.

 

[sillybirds]

Quote:
Hi, I just noticed this thread... cool...

I'm glad everyone's bugs are doing well. Sjisty, you had a little more than 160 beetles to start out with. Now that I have more worms than beetles, I'm selling the starter kit with 1000 worms and 50 beetles (plus 20% overcount, of course).

 

[Germaine_11.20]

To feed mine all I do is add potatoes cut in half or I add whole carrots. Sometimes I will break them in half. It all depends on how large your containers are.
I have so many worms now that mine are in large, shallow rubbermaid containers. In a shoebox I add 1 potato a week or two depending on size of beetles or worms.
The bigger the container the more food. My climate is dry here though so I don't have to worry about mold. They will petrify (no kidding) before they mold.

Oh and here is a big TIP Whatever grain you place your worms in, freeze it first for at least 4 days to kill any weevils )eggs, larvae) that are already in the grain.

Lots of packaged dry foods, including bulk grains have eggs and larvae already in them. If you let them sit in the right conditions--they hatch! Then you have trouble.

I am dealing with that situation right now. I think I have it managed, but so you don't have to deal with it--freeze it or even bake it at a low temp in the oven or microwave first to kill the weevils.

 

[oberhaslikid]

Do you have to cut the worms head off before feeding?
We had a little lizard that we fed meal worms to and we did this to keep the worm from attaching itself to the inside of the lizard.The pet store told us to do this.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Quote:
Oh boy I hope not! Ewwww. I think that would be the SuperMeal Worms. I have seen them and they are a bit larger. The pet store guy said they bite too.

No, I just scoop them up and put them in and she just gobbles them down. Mine are only about an inch long and about as thick as a piece of spagetti (maybe a bit thicker depending on age)

I am having a tricky time sifting the wheat bran off of them (I don't want to pick them up) and trying to find something that will sift out the bran without letting the worms go through. Same dilema with the beetles.

I don't want any of the bran because I am still trying to rid myself of the darn weevils. They will make a "web" type mixture in the bran. If you see ANY of that, scoop it up and toss it.

I wanted to make sure that it really was weevils so I put it in a rubbermaid container and left it alone. Within two weeks the moths had hatched and were flying around in there trying to get out. Ahhhh. Freeze your bran!

I have got to get a picture of the worms and post it on here. My battery is always dead.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Pictures coming in a few minutes

 

[feathersnuggles]

I didn't know there was a KIT here!

I started, beginning of August, with 500 mealies from the pet store. Gave most to the chickens and reserved a few for breeding. They pupated & became adult beetles. NOW, I have a big rubbermaid tub full of tiny wriggling mealies, the biggest are about 1/4-1/2" long! And I still have lots of beetles in there crawling around still. Probably still mating & egg-laying. Can I give beetles to chickens now? Do I need to stop them breeding, in order to grow out the younger generation?

Oh, another question... I put a handful of calf manna into the wheat bran bedding. Is that okay for the larvae? Was trying to up their nutrition, for faster growth.

Can't wait to harvest these homemade meal worms!

ETA: typo fixing.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Here are a few shoeboxes filled with beetles.

Here is a larger rubbermaid filled with more beetles (I was running out of room!) You can only guess how many eggs are going to be in here...

Here is a tote that I put all the eggs in from all the little shoeboxes to make room for more

Note all the worm skin that they shedded off. That is all new from yesterday!

Here I am picking up the paper bag, The adult worms crawl in there to morph.

Here is underneath the bag...

I've got lots and lots and that is only this one tote. I have more! I have been waiting for them to grow to feed to the chickens and are they going to love me.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Quote:
Actually you are supposed to be able to let everything stay together with no problem other than the beetles will munch on some of the pupae (especially if they don't have adequate food)

I micro managed mine and took all the "aliens" out and put them in a seperate shoebox until the hatched into beetles. Then the new beetles went into a box with bran and potato or carrot to start all over.

In about a month I take those beetles out and put in a new box for another month. The third month they seem to die off so I feed them to the chickens before they do.

I would think the calf manna would be excellent for them.

 

[feathersnuggles]

Great pictures, rustyswoman, thanks! And thanks for responding to my calf manna question. I thought it would be good, too - just was wondering about the high mineral levels. But, then again, it's only a handful or so, and the rest of the feed is wheat bran.

I like your beetle management plan, btw, and I may try that, in the next generation. For one thing, I think it would give me a better idea when I could replace their bedding and throw away their excrement, without also throwing out eggs and new hatchlings.