Looking for mealworms for my ducks at a reasonable price.

[Pekin duck mom]

Weeks and put in carrots baby ones or potatoes cut in 1/4's change them out every 3-4days

What about water?

 

[Flockincrazy]

What about water?

They get the water from the carrots and potatoes and food to thats why they are so easy

 

[Jp617]

Weeks and put in carrots baby ones or potatoes cut in 1/4's change them out every 3-4days

Yes.. you will know when you left the potatoes in for too long lol. As stated all the hydration comes from the veggies. I've tried water crystals before. They work but more expensive and same results as cheap potatoes or fresh sliced carrots

 

[DucksAreBest]

I probably will buy 50 mealworms for $1 on my Craigslist.

 

[Jp617]

I probably will buy 50 mealworms for $1 on my Craigslist.

Thats not too bad I guess. Id start with as many as I could afford

 

[igorsMistress]

Walmart sells them near the bird seed for an ok price

 

[MotherOfDuckens]

I've been growing mealworms and dubia roaches for my 15 ducks, but unfortunately I lost both colonies last week when the thermostat on their heater broke and overheated them. It was heartbreaking.

+1 for Rainbow Mealworms. High quality critters and good service. I got my mealworms and dubias from them, and will again if/when I restart my colonies.

I grew live tropical cockroaches once for my ducks. With the care required to breed and keep them alive I actually got attached to them and felt bad when feeding them to my ducks. Yeah.... I'm that much of a softie.

Were they dubias? I can relate! I had three separate batches of nymphs growing in the colony and it was so exciting! All the time and energy and interest I had in them, I had a feeling it would be hard to actually feed them. I have a couple composting worm colonies, and I can never bring myself to feed them to the ducks. They are just too useful and too interesting alive!

Mealworms are super easy to grow. I had better luck using wheat bran instead of oatmeal and other substrates. Both potatoes and carrots worked best for me. I would also put pieces of bread in and pile up some homemade mealworm chow on those. I made sure to sterilize both the substrate and chow in the oven to kill off any grain mite eggs, and highly recommend that step. I had explosive growth with that setup. I'd let all 5000 mealworms pupate into beetles and they had already completed a breeding cycle when the heater broke. I easily had tens of thousands (if not more) baby mealworms in there. You do get used to the beetles, even if they seem a little creepy the first go around.

 

[KaleIAm]

I've been growing mealworms and dubia roaches for my 15 ducks, but unfortunately I lost both colonies last week when the thermostat on their heater broke and overheated them. It was heartbreaking.

+1 for Rainbow Mealworms. High quality critters and good service. I got my mealworms and dubias from them, and will again if/when I restart my colonies.



Were they dubias? I can relate! I had three separate batches of nymphs growing in the colony and it was so exciting! All the time and energy and interest I had in them, I had a feeling it would be hard to actually feed them. I have a couple composting worm colonies, and I can never bring myself to feed them to the ducks. They are just too useful and too interesting alive!

Mealworms are super easy to grow. I had better luck using wheat bran instead of oatmeal and other substrates. Both potatoes and carrots worked best for me. I would also put pieces of bread in and pile up some homemade mealworm chow on those. I made sure to sterilize both the substrate and chow in the oven to kill off any grain mite eggs, and highly recommend that step. I had explosive growth with that setup. I'd let all 5000 mealworms pupate into beetles and they had already completed a breeding cycle when the heater broke. I easily had tens of thousands (if not more) baby mealworms in there. You do get used to the beetles, even if they seem a little creepy the first go around.

View attachment 2524177

Yeah! They were dubia roaches! I spent so much time researching how to take care of them. Then my cats wanted to eat them so I had to keep them safe. And I was worried pesticides would kill them so I carefully selected organic produce for them, and even grew them organic food in my garden. After all that I didn't want to murder... I mean feed them to my ducks. Yeah, that did not work out for me. Lol.

 

[Tonyroo]

I'm getting my 20k mealworm order today from https://www.rainbowmealworms.net. I'm also culturing them but they take a long while to be usable.

 

[Jp617]

I'm getting my 20k mealworm order today from https://www.rainbowmealworms.net. I'm also culturing them but they take a long while to be usable.

fantastic prices on that site. $10.00 for 2000 would start someone off with no issues