Mealworm farming

[Emily1220]

I think that is ingenious! Great use of available resources.

I would paint or cover that box to match the beautiful hutch in the background and no one would know it is a container full of worms!!!

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

Hello everyone. I don't post too often but I do try to keep up with what's going on with all of you. The recent talk of incubators got me thinking about how to heat up my farm without actually buying an incubator or plugging in any sort of heater. Well, I think I may have come up with something that may work for some of us depending on how you heat your home. I have hot water baseboard heaters, but you may be able to adapt this simple idea to whatever you may heat with.

I have a 3 drawer style farm. It measures about 25 inches high, 14 inches front to back and about 12 inches wide. I just took a large cardboard box, stood it up on it's side and cut the box in a few spots so that it would mate up against the wall, over top of one of the baseboard heaters. So whenever the heat kicks on, the box traps quite a bit of heat and the mealworms stay pretty darn warm.
I've checked the temps several times and it seems to run anywhere from 78-82 degrees. Not too bad considering I keep the house between 67-70. Hopefully it works out, there's nothing invested and nothing drawing electricity, just stealing a little bit of heat but I doubt anyone will notice.

I think this idea would work well enough with a forced hot air system as well. I know it's not perfect, but it's cheap.

Humidity is running pretty low with this idea but I just toss in a piece of carrot or potato every other day.

What do you guys and gals think?

... Now why couldn't I think of that? What a brilliant idea! I might try it out next winter!

 

[In2Ice]

I just placed my first order for 1200 mealworms. Hopefully I will start raising them by mid-week. I'll be following this thread for many great tips and advice. Thanks in advance for all the great knowledge here.

 

[Homegroanacres]

Is any one on here selling meal worms?

John

 

[Kassaundra]

Is any one on here selling meal worms?

John

Yes look at the first post.

 

[AliciaM]

Just a dumb question cuz im having a brain fart... I got about 1000 small mealworms off ebay the other day... These things will continue to grow for a while before they turn into beetles, right? And ALL mealworms come from the same type of beetle? Except for superworms... they are different, I know.. A worker at petsmart was trying to tell me that the mini/small mealworms are from a different type of beetle than the larger mealworms(NOT superworms) and they will stay small and turn into small beetles.. Nothing ive read suggests this, but I figured I go straight to the sourse of all good information and find out.

Oh, and here are some of the worms I got in the mail yesterday from Grubco.com. Very shiney and wiggley..

And the worms I got off Ebay WERE NOT from grubco.com....

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

Okay... I just ordered 1,000 mealworms. I went and bought a 50 pound bag of wheat bran. Am I supposed to freeze it or cook it first in case there are any unwanted pests? If so, how long? I'm trying on getting everything ready for them when they arrive 10-14th of Feb. My mom said they must be in a sealed container, so do I need to put a bunch of holes so they have ventlation? She is afraid they will spill or crawl out some how...

 

[yankeefan]

Okay... I just ordered 1,000 mealworms. I went and bought a 50 pound bag of wheat bran. Am I supposed to freeze it or cook it first in case there are any unwanted pests? If so, how long? I'm trying on getting everything ready for them when they arrive 10-14th of Feb. My mom said they must be in a sealed container, so do I need to put a bunch of holes so they have ventlation? She is afraid they will spill or crawl out some how...

You should freeze your bran to kill off any possible mites or other creepy crawlies that could be in there. I like to freeze mine for a couple days just to be sure. You can freeze a pound or two to get yourself started or freeze the entire bag if you've got access to a big enough freezer. Some people like to microwave their bran, I just prefer to freeze it.

As far as ventilation goes, just drill some holes around the top edges of whatever you plan to keep them in and you should be fine. As long as whatever you put them in has nice smooth sides, the worms won't be able to crawl out. Most of us use plastic totes or a 3 drawer plastic organizer and some people use old fish tanks, all smooth sided and no escapees.

Anything with sides that are 6 inches high or so should work fine. The worms and beetles generally don't want to leave, they like all of the food that we provide them.

I started out with 1000 worms back in November and mine are doing really well. I'm sure yours will do fine also. Good luck!

 

[yankeefan]

I think that is ingenious! Great use of available resources.

Thanks Kassaundra! Hopefully it'll work well for a few people here and there. It seems to be working well for me, and best of all it's CHEAP!

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

I have a 9" by 10" container. Is that too small for 1,000 worms?