Mealworm farming

[gingerpeach22]

I flunked the test - box way too moist. Developed mold, clumping of oats & bran, but lively worms are in between the two sheets of grocery bags (brown paper), so I'll take a hint. Today, I'll clean out box, put screen on instead of plastic lid (which has a zillion holes drilled into it), use fewer moist carrots & apples, and take them out of the lightest place. They are in the house in the loft where it is warmest, but I had them fairly near windows. Just thought y'all should hear from someone not being successful on first try. BTW, 150 meal worms cost about $4.00 locally, so I am fully motivated to do this correctly.
Thank you one and all for posting so darned much information and feedback from your own efforts.

 

[flnatv]

Quote:
I've raised superworms, but not for many generations. There are two kinds of "superworms" on the market. One superworm is Zophobas morio. They grow up to be about 2" long before pupating. This species is relatively more labor-intensive to raise than standard mealworms, Tenebrio molitor. Cannibalism on Z. morio pupae is quite high so you have separate them (as you noted). They are also relatively slow growing. So, the pet industry figured out that you could treat T. molitor with insect juvenile hormones and have a worm that grew to similar proportions as Z. morio without the difficulties. The JH probably isn't really a problem to anything eating the worm--unless you're feeding them to arthropods. The problem stems from the fact that you never quite know what you're getting when you buy them. Z. morio take so long to develop, you can waste a lot of time raising the worms of which most never mature and reproduce because you were sold treated T. molitor. Of course you can bypass this problem by locating a reputable dealer and I'll bet that would be easier now than when I did it. It took me three purchases from different locations before I was able to obtain Z. morio. Then I realized they weren't really worth it for what I needed. I suspect you can easily grow as much biomass of untreated T. molitor as you could Z. morio in the same amount of time. I take the lazy approach to raising mealworms for chickens, so that would tip the balance for me. If you needed superworms to feed your lizards, they would be totally worth raising. I can only imagine how crazy they would drive the chickens.

Thanks... what I am trying to start are not the giant mealworms that you mentioned, but the true superworm. It is true that the giant mealworm will not reproduce and are sterile.
I guess I could have a colony of mealworms AND superworms. I have summer off, so what they hay... guess I will be breeding worms

Hummmm... scratching my chin... wonder if I can use this as a project for my biology class next year????

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
I don't think rice would work. Hopefully, someone else will come along with more information.


fowlplaying ~ I've read about the kiwi and have tried it. For some reason, it wasn't so successful. Where ever I was reading about kiwi, it said the worms grew faster when given kiwi. Have you noticed this?


gingerpeach22 ~ Try putting the fruit/veggie on a plastic lid so it's not touching the substrate. You'll get it going! Just keep learning.


flnatv ~ PERFECT biology class project!!!! I'd love to hear about it if you do it.

 

[BugTusslers]

Thanks so much for such a wonderful thread! Several months ago we weren't even thinking about chickens. Then, "something" happened, and after some CRAZY chicken math, we've got 12 chickens in our garage, 23 chicks scheduled to deliver this week, a fairly large chicken coop currently being constructed, and I've been VERY interested in starting a worm farm for my chickens! I love how much they enjoy them and would really like to have them handy all of the time. With all of the wonderful information, ideas and photos shared through this thread, I really feel as though I can do this without much trouble. Even better; I can tell my husband I'm farming them for his fishing hobby... should get a few brownie points for that too!

Thanks again!!

 

[benjoycei]

Thanks for the pics...confirmed that I can't handle mealworm farming. Too gross for me. I admit it...wimpy!

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
Awesome!!!!

Gotta love duel purpose worm farming!!! Good luck and let us know how you make out!

 

[flnatv]

Quote:
I don't think rice would work. Hopefully, someone else will come along with more information.

flnatv ~ PERFECT biology class project!!!! I'd love to hear about it if you do it.

I sure will... I am planning an embryology lesson (a way to sneak in some more chickens to the coop) and I could always add the mealworm/superworm farm as a feed supplement. Guess I will spend the summer getting all of this together. I also know the Special Education Class studies life cycles... I can probably get them in on the project as well... they would love it and it is something very doable for them.

I'm getting excited for next year and this year isn't over for another week!!!!!

 

[simplyscrambled]

I have to say that the meal worms are a huge hit here! And my bf is totally on board, especially after he fed them some, came inside the house to grab a few more. When he opened the door, there were all 3 girls standing right there, waiting. A first!

I'll have to try the kiwi, and right now they're eating up the carrots and the apple core from my lunch.

 

[Slepice]

Before I got my chicks (they're 2 weeks old now), I contemplated raising meal worms for my spoiled wild birds. I looked at different articles online and learned there were two kinds. Also, they mentioned that they were not really nutritious and recommended 'bathing' them in vitamins. It sounded like too much work so I never ordered them. Any comments about the truth of this? Thanks!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Here's a fairly thorough study of the nutrition of a mealworm, including the amino acid profile as well as how they compare to other things: http://www.scipub.org/fulltext/AJAB/AJAB44319-331.pdf