Mealworm farming

[hannakat]

Mystery. I've been carefully heating my oats, chick feed, and wheat bran in the oven at 250 degrees for half an hour, and in spite of this, I noticed I have a new infestation of grain mites in a new worm tray where mites have never been before.

I did notice a couple days ago that the substrate felt rather moist, not wet, more like humid, when I rummaged around in there to pick out the largest worms for the "bribe" carton I keep with me at all times.

Is there some way mite eggs can be transmitted through beetle eggs into the new worms, then hatch as castings accumulate? I'm reaching for it here. Help me out please?

Did you start the new colony with all new worms/beetles? Not sure I'm getting the picture. As long as you keep the substrate dry enough, even if there are mite eggs, they will never develop. It takes the RIGHT temperature along with the RIGHT amount of humidity for those suckers to develop. So, reduce the amount of moisture (and increase heat if you can). They do not need to be fed as much as most ppl seem to think. And if the substrate is moist, the mealies will get whatever moisture they need from it so you don't need to put any veggie in until it is absolutely dry.

Really hope this helps.

 

[hannakat]

Oh and can I put a seedling heat matt in my container to warm things up?

yes

 

[MalMom]

I started my mealworm farm yesterday. I put them in a large terrarium that I had on hand, and went to the feed store for wheat bran. When I got there it was $18 for 50lb bag, but oats were only $13 for a 50lb bag. I decided to save money and buy the rolled oats. When I got home and opened the bag, it was not rolled oats, but whole oats. I don't know if I read the sign wrong, or if they were labeled wrong, but I was very disappointed. However form what I've read they will still eat the whole oats. I mixed the whole oats with some chicken feed (the starter/grower that my chicks are eating), sprinkled some corn meal on top, and dumped the contents of the mealworm container on top. Then I grabbed a roll and broke it up into pieces and put that in there. Next after reading all of these wonderful posts I put three toilet paper rolls in there for them to hide in/the beetles to lay eggs on.
The set up is currently in the basement because it is dark, and I have them in the warmest room in the basement, but it is still chilly. I might move them upstairs, although I don't think the temperature is that much greater in the room I would have to put them in. Once summer hits that room will be much warmer, but right now they feel about the same. I'm going to try to come up with some way to heat them. I do have a humidity gauge and it was reading near 40, so I put my humidifier in the room with them. It's not too close but it's putting humidity into the whole room. The last time I checked it brought the humidity up to 60 so I'm getting closer to reaching my goal of 70.
I bought 105 large mealworms and I thought that would be a good start as I only have two chickens right now. But I am impatient and even though they've had almost 24 hours I haven't seen any pupa or beetles!

So I went to another feed store today, got some wheat bran, and 100 more small mealworms. I put some of those in the terrarium and the rest I put in the fridge so I can add them later and they won't all be beetles at the same time. I tried to bake some of them wheat bran that I got today so I could add it to the terrarium, but I managed to burn it instead. I have no idea what I did wrong. Today I also put a couple of dandy lions in with them after reading a couple other posters did, and they were a big hit. So far mine don't seam too interested. I have a sponge in there now on a little plate as I don't have any potatoes or apples to give them right now. I'm heading to the store later today and will get some then.
The meal worms and starting to appear to be a little more active so I'm hoping the humidity, and turning up the heat in the house, has helped. If I can't find a good way to warm them up I'll move them upstairs. They seam kind of lethargic or lazy to me. Although I'm not sure how much running around they should be doing.
Here are a couple of pictures of my set up. I'm really excited for them to grow.

 

[MalMom]

Thanks so much Hannakat, I'll try that!

 

[azygous]

Did you start the new colony with all new worms/beetles? Not sure I'm getting the picture. As long as you keep the substrate dry enough, even if there are mite eggs, they will never develop. It takes the RIGHT temperature along with the RIGHT amount of humidity for those suckers to develop. So, reduce the amount of moisture (and increase heat if you can). They do not need to be fed as much as most ppl seem to think. And if the substrate is moist, the mealies will get whatever moisture they need from it so you don't need to put any veggie in until it is absolutely dry.

Really hope this helps.

The beetles all got washed the last time they had mites, then put into heat-treated bedding to lay eggs. The worms are from those beetles. The only thing I can think of is maybe at high altitude (7500 feet), the oven temperature needs to be higher to kill the mite eggs. Less oxygen so heat isn't as hot as it is down at sea level, if that makes any sense. So I cranked it up to 300 degrees for half an hour this time.

The infested tray is drying out by the wood stove, and that took care of them last time, so they ought to be history very soon.

 

[kwol]

I have a question and I hope it hasn't been asked before. I bought 110 mealworms today and I made them what I think is a nice mealworm home. My only concern is the temperature. The best place I have for them is in the basement and it's a bit chilly down there. I don't have a space heater and I don't like the idea of keeping one on for fire danger. I thought about a heat lamp but I don't want to fry them. I also thought about those black heating lamps for reptiles that don't emit light, but they give off heat, but they are like $25! From what I've read on here, and on other websites they cycle the best around 75-77 degrees F. What is the best way to keep them warm? Also I've read conflicting info on light vs. dark. Do they seam to like light, or dark better? I'm sorry if I missed the answer if this has already been asked. I tried to sift through the 500+ pages but couldn't read that much about meal worms.

I had kept mine on the kitchen counter this winter, I have a three drawer system, and yes, it is metal window screen I use in the bottom of my beetle drawer. I kept a heating pad on the lowest setting and I kept the whole thing covered with an old bath towel to keep everything warm. I think they liked the dark, and now that we are outside on my covered patio, I seem to find the beetels mostly underneath the toilet paper rolls I have in there( cut in half lengthwise to make two tunnels).

Since I am using laying mash pellets as my beetles substrate, I dont't worry much about opening the top drawer and eggs falling out. With the substate being so large, in theory at least the eggs should be falling through all the time. No sifting of substate necessary.

 

[tiffu22]

I have tons of malformed dieing beetles what is worng?. I read that it could be the humidity but what should it be at?. I have them on top of frezzer and it gets hot about ninety five during the day and just checked humidity

 

[MalMom]

I think I found a food winner!

 

[MalMom]

I had kept mine on the kitchen counter this winter, I have a three drawer system, and yes, it is metal window screen I use in the bottom of my beetle drawer. I kept a heating pad on the lowest setting and I kept the whole thing covered with an old bath towel to keep everything warm. I think they liked the dark, and now that we are outside on my covered patio, I seem to find the beetels mostly underneath the toilet paper rolls I have in there( cut in half lengthwise to make two tunnels).

Since I am using laying mash pellets as my beetles substrate, I dont't worry much about opening the top drawer and eggs falling out. With the substate being so large, in theory at least the eggs should be falling through all the time. No sifting of substate necessary.

Thanks for the info!

 

[EddieJ]

I think I found a food winner!

Yep.... mine like that too. They eat it until its just a little black piece of leather.