Mealworm farming

[ZakoHero]

Are there threads on here that one is not allowed to join? I didn't know that. Either way, I know all are welcome on this thread. Welcome to the addiction haha.

LOL!

 

[ZakoHero]

Sorry but do any of you have websites that I can order from in Algeria(a 3rd world country)that are willing to ship to here or do I have to wait until I go to the us?(I'm not sure they will let me board the plane with 1000-2000 mealworms)LOL!

 

[LaBella]

The best thing to do would be to check European herpetology boards. They would know, or have the best idea on how to get you some without you schlepping all the way across the pond. In fact, if there is any kind of herpetology society in your nation, or any neighboring countries, you can try there, and someone might have a better idea than any I can come up with.

You MIGHT be able to stick some in your bag and go leaving here with golden wormie treasure, but there COULD be custom issues.. Just fair warning.
It might be easier, if you're coming here, to buy some, and put them in a larger container, with more food, and some kind of water source (like a couple sticks of carrots or celery), and instructions and mail them to friends or family back home.
But again, I would check to see the legality of them.

By the way, everyone, I just hit page 150.. I USUALLY read faster than this, but I'm involved with another farm site, and a virtual breeding site because I love breeding animals, and this is how I substitute not being able to breed things in real life, as well as some collecting game, because I'm a hoarder online and a neat freak in real life, lolol.

 

[ZakoHero]

The best thing to do would be to check European herpetology boards. They would know, or have the best idea on how to get you some without you schlepping all the way across the pond. In fact, if there is any kind of herpetology society in your nation, or any neighboring countries, you can try there, and someone might have a better idea than any I can come up with.

You MIGHT be able to stick some in your bag and go leaving here with golden wormie treasure, but there COULD be custom issues.. Just fair warning.
It might be easier, if you're coming here, to buy some, and put them in a larger container, with more food, and some kind of water source (like a couple sticks of carrots or celery), and instructions and mail them to friends or family back home.
But again, I would check to see the legality of them.

By the way, everyone, I just hit page 150.. I USUALLY read faster than this, but I'm involved with another farm site, and a virtual breeding site because I love breeding animals, and this is how I substitute not being able to breed things in real life, as well as some collecting game, because I'm a hoarder online and a neat freak in real life, lolol.

Oh thanks for the advice!BTW what is the name for the other farm site and the virtual breeding site?

 

[NHsolarguy]

A couple of posts have triggered a question: Someone mentioned heating up the bran or whatever to kill parasites and/or other species, and at the same time someone else mentioned buying and selling through craigslist... My question is, can these other species be transferred by contaminated worms? And if so, how do you pick a "breeder" who is reputable? Is it even possible to know if the worms have picked up some contamination? Can the worms be washed somehow before adding to the container?

 

[Hypertay]

I want to recommend Amy's mealworms, westknollfarm.com to purchase an initial supply. I got my first 1000 from her for only $17 after spending $5 on 100 from the pet store. She packs them wrapped in newspaper with some wheat bread and carrot, in a nice little cloth bag that they can breathe through. And they are shipped Priority so they come in 3 days or less. When they got here, it only took 24 hours for some of them to pupate so we are already on our way! They are growing and eating like mad. We've got a lot of bugs now, only a couple of weeks later.

Of course I had to take some worms out to my birds, and they didn't even hit the ground before they were gobbled up!

The rest I put in a drawer of a 3 drawer unit on wheels, a small one from walmart. I took the bugs which came from the pet store worms out of our first 10 gallon aquarium after about 3 weeks, and put them in another of the drawers and then the third one is for the beetles from amy's. The aquarium just started to show activity again after 3 weeks! The bran/oatmeal in there is wiggling finally! So it took about 6 weeks from beetle to worm from the 100 pet store worms. Amy's worms are in pure wheat bran because I finally found it on the internet. Stores around here do not carry it.

I hope I get a mealworm explosion! My chickens would probably eat them until they exploded haha!

 

[LaBella]

The other farming site is called homesteading today. I think I actually found out about this site from that one, and have been here more than there, mostly reading THIS ONE THREAD OF AWESOME!
The virtual breeding site is not a free site. One of the free sites I have played, but am not playing due to a lack of time is called creature breeders. I do like that one, and even had a blog devoted to trying to figure out the genetics of the site, but real life happened, and so I haven't been on it in a while.

I'm at a pause in my life, so I have a lot of time to do nothing but troll the net for information. This is actually a site that keeps popping up when it comes to information about chickens.. Example, I was looking at cornish crosses, and then I went to find what made a cornish cross, and one of the searches brought back several hits to here.
This would seem to be my one stop chicken shop, lolol.

 

[Mavrk]

A couple of posts have triggered a question: Someone mentioned heating up the bran or whatever to kill parasites and/or other species, and at the same time someone else mentioned buying and selling through craigslist... My question is, can these other species be transferred by contaminated worms? And if so, how do you pick a "breeder" who is reputable? Is it even possible to know if the worms have picked up some contamination? Can the worms be washed somehow before adding to the container?

I would say that the majority of the invaders would be in the bran. I would just sift out the bran or anything else from the shipment and only add the worms to the bin. I don't think that there was any bran in the shipment I got from Amy, so I don't know if it is commonly included. Of course, if you are using someone like Amy or others that are mentioned on this thread (or are posting on this thread) then I wouldn't worry about it. The reality is that if they had invaders of some sort, then they would have a hard time keeping the supply up. I found little beetles in the bran I was going to use for my worms. I actually had to heat it for longer than I thought to get rid of them. I did this before I even got the mealworms themselves (although it might have been while they were in transit to get here). Also, there is nothing wrong with getting them locally from a feed store or a pet store. Most of us just find them to be more expensive. In the long run though, you can get a lifetime supply of mealworms by farming them yourself so the initial cost may not matter so much.

I really don't think you have to worry about the worms themselves having contamination per se. You can wash them off in a little warm water and dry them quickly, but I wouldn't bother. I would say the substrate you choose has a greater possibility of having problems. Mites and other flour beetles are really the most common problems I have read about.

 

[Mavrk]

I hope I get a mealworm explosion! My chickens would probably eat them until they exploded haha!

If you want an explosion, heat them up and I am pretty sure they will pop, haha. Actually, if you warm up the room they are in or the substrate by use of some heating device you will get the good kind of explosion Temperature could be the difference between a few week wait and a few month wait.

On a side note, I do have to say that Amy's packaging was top notch. The cloth bag she used was really good quality. I would be interested to hear how other people have received their worms (that didn't order from Amy). Were they in containers, bags, with food, etc.?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

OOPS..Sorry for jumping in...can I join this thread?

I didn't start the thread, but I've been here a while, I am sure you are welcome to join!