Mealworm farming

[MalMom]

Some of my beetles are already dyeing off.

I see lots of eggs, but haven't seen any new worms yet. I have no idea why they are dying so soon.

I hope the eggs hatch okay, so my cycle continues.

 

[gaitngirl]

My beetles have been lasting roughly a week - 10 days, it seems. Of course, it's harder to tell now because of the beetle population explosion. There are so many beetles and the dead ones disappear fast. I am still not seeing new mealies myself yet. I had expected to see some by now. I picked up another 200 mixed size mealies at the pet store last week and put them in a separate container. There were 5 or 6 pupa at the time of purchase. Within a couple of days I had a couple dozen pupa with more appearing daily. I forgot to check the container yesterday

. This morning . . . 22 beetles! So I added them to the big bin. There are probably about 150+ beetles crawling around in there right now. Hopefully making lots of babies

.

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

My beetles have been lasting roughly a week - 10 days, it seems. Of course, it's harder to tell now because of the beetle population explosion. There are so many beetles and the dead ones disappear fast. I am still not seeing new mealies myself yet. I had expected to see some by now. I picked up another 200 mixed size mealies at the pet store last week and put them in a separate container. There were 5 or 6 pupa at the time of purchase. Within a couple of days I had a couple dozen pupa with more appearing daily. I forgot to check the container yesterday

. This morning . . . 22 beetles! So I added them to the big bin. There are probably about 150+ beetles crawling around in there right now. Hopefully making lots of babies

.

I have had beetles for about three weeks now and have not seen babies yet. From my research, it may take several weeks for the beetles to mature, mate, and lay eggs. The eggs may take up to two weeks to hatch. The babies may take another two weeks to grow to the size that can be seen with the naked eye. So, we are talking about six weeks from the time we see beetles to when we see babies. I stopped checking everyday for babies.

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

Some of my beetles are already dyeing off.

I see lots of eggs, but haven't seen any new worms yet. I have no idea why they are dying so soon.

I hope the eggs hatch okay, so my cycle continues.

How do you look for eggs? I try to look for eggs, but all I see is their droppings on the paper.
My beetles are dying too, and I think it is because there is not enough moisture. They seem to need a lot more moisture than the mealworms. The fruit pieces are sucked dry in hours now rather than in days as before.

 

[gaitngirl]

Those are probably eggs you are seeing on the paper. The poop is the frass in the very bottom of the bin.

 

[sueblack]

I got my first mealworms in early March and I am just now able to see the wheat bran move in my oldest beetle bins.

When my first beetles hatched, I started a fresh bin of wheat bran and moved all beetles to this bin where they stayed for three weeks (to allow time for them to mature to start producing eggs). At the end of three weeks, I moved all the beetles to a new bin, where they stayed for two weeks until I moved them to a new bin. I am marking the bins "no beetles after xxx date", so I can keep track of when I should be able to start seeing baby worm movement.

Starting out certainly does take patience. I was starting to think I didn't have any eggs hatching in my bin marked "no beetles after 04/17/13". I just started to see the movement in the wheat bran two days ago. My house is around 70 degrees and this is probably why it has taken this long to get babies crawling around.

I have just started using a heat mat (seed starting mat) and plan on keeping one of the bins on the heat mat for two weeks until the bins need moved up. I am moving my bins so that the bin on the bottom shelf always has the newest bin of eggs on it and the last bin on the top shelf has the oldest bin of worms to feed out of and collect pupa from to start a new bin.

 

[MalMom]

How do you look for eggs? I try to look for eggs, but all I see is their droppings on the paper.
My beetles are dying too, and I think it is because there is not enough moisture. They seem to need a lot more moisture than the mealworms. The fruit pieces are sucked dry in hours now rather than in days as before.

Their droppings are dark (blackish) and the eggs are a cream, or white color.

I put a bunch of baby carrots in there, and they did eat some, but they didn't gobble them down. I don't think they are suffering from lack of moisture. I think I just have dumb beetles.

 

[Lacy Blues]

or busy

 

[MalMom]

or busy

Maybe that's it! Maybe they are dying from too much beetle sex.

 

[gaitngirl]

Maybe that's it! Maybe they are dying from too much beetle sex.