Mealworm farming

[hcppam]

There are a lot of YouTube videos out there on raising meal worms.

 

[sassifrassi]

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Everything turns that colour when its dead. Trust me. I'm a paramedic.

 

[sassifrassi]

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I keep mine in the garage. Last week a racoon got in and he only ate the oatmeal and some carrots.

 

[hannakat]

okay sassifrassi ~ so, the racoon left the worms and beetles .... just flicked them off the oatmeal?

You have no idea the pictures I have running through my brain of this very neat racoon pulling his chair up to the meal worm bin and daintily picking out oatmeal bits....

 

[OwensMom]

Guys, just got my order of 10,000 mealworms and I'm so excited. I've been buying drips and grabs of 100 from the local pet shop. Those worms were mostly dead and not very active. Then I began to run out of worms--HORRORS!!!! So I decided to bite the bullet and go for broke. Well these worms are very active. They devoured 8 small carrots and 2 stalks of celery overnight!! Personal best for me!!
AND my husband, who thought that I had gone completely off of my rocker, now tries to beat me to the worm bin in search of pupae!!! There is something addicting about these creatures. I was one who had he heebie jeebies when I first began all of this. Now I'm actually thinking of maybe touching one of these creatures!!
Happy worming all

 

[hannakat]

Congrats OwensMom!!

You sure did bite the bullet! 10,000..... now that's a lot of potential! 'Addicting' is a good way to describe it.

Just let us know when you start talking to them and naming them......

Don't forget pictures! Please!!!

 

[ForeverFree]

Guys, I'm worried.
I've seen that a lot of people use oats as bedding for the mealworms, and I have to, but what am I going to do when I have to clean them out?
Is there a sifter or something I can do?

 

[hannakat]

ForeverFree ~ Yes. I used a large mesh strainer, doing small batches at a time. Stood out on the deck and sifted it over the side. You only need to get rid of the built up poo. HOWEVER.... this really does not need to be done very often. Have you read Gallo del Cielo's BYC page?

If not, here's the link... https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=56638-how-to-raise-mealworms Hope this helps!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I know I wanted to clean the one with the mites out but since there were beetles in it I worried I was going to throw out those eensie weensie eggs and could not do it!

I still have mites crawling all over that bin but the others are still fine. I swear it was those seeds that brought them in. DD didn't know and I never thought about it so chalk that up to lesson learned.
Back off! NOTHING on my meal worm tables!

That one bin has lots of stuff on the bottom but it can stay for a while longer. I'll figure something out.

 

[hannakat]

Amy ~ Are the mites ever on the sides where you can wipe them off? G del C mentioned that he wiped his down to help get rid of them.

Meal worm farms = hands off!

I agree...these need our protection!

For the love of our birds...do not mess with the farms!!!