Mealworm farming

[kizanne]

Quote:
Congratz, what size are they?

They are small, but not just hatched so they have molted once or twice. I figured I had them for a week or two, just had not dug down in the substrate to check for sure.

That was me too. I sat and worried I didn't have any. I feel silly cause I had read to look carefully and all that but they tricked me by not being on my veggies when I looked. Once I dug down and sifted alittle I was surprised how many were down there.

 

[appychick]

I can't wait to get started but decided I must wait until next spring as sounds like it would be easier to get the wormies established under constant temps. Anyway I see there is a list of members with worms as stated in early post. Do the worm starter kits ship without a problem to any location or do I need to order from the closest location to insure survivability ? Actually we do have these "worms" around here but not sure if I can find enough to start out with.....

 

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
You can order from anyplace and as long as it isn't ridiculously hot or cold they should survive, there is a list at the begining of this thread of places people have ordered from w/o problems.

If you plan on keeping them inside the house ambient temps are fine (so you could start your colony now). If you are growing them in an uncontrolled temp environment, what are you going to do w/ your colony next fall?

They are pretty self sufficient and hardy.

 

[Cakela]

My wormies are doing good, shedding like crazy!

I wrapped painters tape around the bin to make it darker and they are waaaaay more active now. Can't wait for pupae!

 

[slc]

Has anyone roasted or dehydrated to preserve them? I seen an article that freezing for 15-20 minutes will kill them and they you can slowly roast in an outside grill. I imagine a dehydrator would work, outside of course. If I decide to farm them, I'd probably try to store them dried like other feeds.

 

[galanie]

Quote:
Great idea! I'm doing this too. Got them a new house yesterday. Kroger's has the sweater boxes on 2 for $5.00. So I dumped them into one. It's much better than that drawer, mainly deeper. They appear none the worse for the dumping and are really active this morning. Have the windows open and the AC off so it's warmer than it was in here. Hoping for TONS of babies!

 

[galanie]

Quote:
Eventually I'm going to try this. I have one of those really old Ronco food dehydrators that is basically just a plastic thing with racks and a light bulb but it works great.

 

[Kassaundra]

Right now I'm just planning on feeding them to the girls "on the hoof". Since they will grow year round at room temps I have no plans for storage.

 

[emptynester]

My worms are here!! Never thought I would ever be excited about something like that LOL All 2200 hundred of the little buggers. Now I definitely need to get them some more wheat bran but they should be good a day or so. Let the Growing of the meal worm kingdom begin!!

 

[Cakela]

AAAAAHH!

First two pupae have appeared!

And this time I know they are pupae and not shedding worms.

So excited!