Mealworm farming

[hannakat]

BeccaSmith ~ to answer "So what size of a container would be adequate for a colony of say 1500 worms?"


1500 will actually fit nicely in a cottage cheese container. Even in my smaller 3-drawer set up, a couple thousand almost disappear. It takes thousands and thousands to populate a larger container.

House them however you want but remember that they don't need a lot of real estate!

 

[Kassaundra]

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Well, Amy. I'd say that is a good problem. My keeps cringing every time I check on mine. "Those can't get out, right? You sure they can't get out?"

Mine wasn't phased at all about the mealies, but then I started w/ dubias!

He has softened alot about the dubias, he still won't feed them out to the girls (b/c he won't touch them) but if I forget to feed them he will do that, and he likes going w/ me when I feed them out (he makes sure I don't leave any girl out or slight any in any way)

 

[hannakat]

Just realized that we need to recognize zzGypsy for the accomplishment of reading "all Two Hundred Fifty One pages"!!!

hip hip hooray!

Like those restaurants who give you a shirt if you eat the 15 lb burger or 2 doz hot wings........

how 'bout we dance as OwensMom suggested?!

okay girls..... get it on!

 

[oneofseven]

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[andrea98]

I have beetles popping up like popcorn

.. I put my 1000 worms in a sterilite container that is jay a bump longer than a papertowel roll & about half the width of a roll wide... They are doing great

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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That's true! We have counted out mealies and 1500 is a nice small colony so anything about the size of a soup bowl or cereal dish is a good size for that many.

Can you imagine how many I have in my 29x18x6" plastic tub? It is rolling in worms! Just looking at it you can see them moving the substrate but to run my hands through and disturb them is fascinating.

Had to edit cause I can't stand it when I misspell something!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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Always exciting to watch them grow and mature and make more!

 

[Kassaundra]

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[WestKnollAmy]

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Well, Amy. I'd say that is a good problem. My keeps cringing every time I check on mine. "Those can't get out, right? You sure they can't get out?"

Well, that may be a good thing since I found paper hanging half way out of a bin this morning and the beetles were high tailing it over to the TV stand. I went and got DH and led him back to show him what happens when you are not very careful. He didn't think too much about it until I said that was about 30 cents a day walking away with each beetle. Then he quickly scrambled to find them all and get them back in.
Now I hate to vacuum for fear of accidentally sucking some up.

Oh well! Any excuse to get out of house work!

 

[BeccaSmith]

Quote:
That's true! We have counted out mealies and 1500 is a nice small colony so anythign about the size of a soup bowl or cereal dish is a good size for that many.

Can you imagine how many I have in my 29x18x6" plastic tub? It is rolling in worms! Just looking at it you can see them moving the substrate but to run my hands through and disturb them is fascinating.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/9332_mealie_growth.jpg

Thank you for help everyone! Wow a small cottage cheese container, I would have never of thought they could be active and live is such a small container! I have a three bin system but I am only using one of the bins at this time and it is more around the size of a large shoe box or maybe I should say if you bought some boots, it is the size of a boot box...lol. Guess I won't worry about them over populating it anytime soon!