Mealworm farming

[Sonia]

Box mine came in had window screening on two sides.the

 

[MalMom]

How do mealworms survive the trip through the postal system in a cardboard box? Wouldn't they suffocate?

My box had a bunch of holes poked in it.

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

Patience has paid off. I never saw baby worms, but the beetles have definitely reproduced.
After about two months since I got the first beetle, and a month of warm weather, here's what my colony looks like. I started with 1500 worms. I am thinking of waiting for one more generation before feeding the worms out.

This first pic is of a piece of sourdough bread, the worms seem to like it. This piece would be gone by tomorrow night. I didn't even think about using bread, but my daughter suggested it and a piece like this one was devourved and disappeared in less then 24 hours. So glad I have a way to use up stale bread.


I also am feeding them with overripe fruits. In this next two pictures, you can see them swarming a piece of apple (lower right corner), and a piece of mango (upper right corner). You could hardly see the mango since the worms are all over it. I just added another piece of mango (partly seen in the upper right corner) so the worms haven't discovered it yet. It too would be gone in the morning.

 

[chrissyr]

Just got my mealies today!! Although they do give me a bit of the ebbie gebbies, I think i'll get used to it. I used gloves to touch them, so I was ok. Think this is gonna work out pretty good.

I think my carrots for them got thrown out by accident, do they like salad? I put a peach in there and will take it out later.I know I don't want too much moisture, so I'm looking for a backup plan. Thought I was prepared completely, but I guess not.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Just got my mealies today!! Although they do give me a bit of the ebbie gebbies, I think i'll get used to it. I used gloves to touch them, so I was ok. Think this is gonna work out pretty good.

I think my carrots for them got thrown out by accident, do they like salad? I put a peach in there and will take it out later.I know I don't want too much moisture, so I'm looking for a backup plan. Thought I was prepared completely, but I guess not.

I have given mine small handfuls of salad the last two days and they devour it! So, yes, salad is good.

 

[kwol]

Just got my mealies today!! Although they do give me a bit of the ebbie gebbies, I think i'll get used to it. I used gloves to touch them, so I was ok. Think this is gonna work out pretty good.

I think my carrots for them got thrown out by accident, do they like salad? I put a peach in there and will take it out later.I know I don't want too much moisture, so I'm looking for a backup plan. Thought I was prepared completely, but I guess not.

Lettuce leaves and cabbage leaves get eaten, but the beetles seem to especially like them.

 

[chrissyr]

I have given mine small handfuls of salad the last two days and they devour it! So, yes, salad is good.

Lettuce leaves and cabbage leaves get eaten, but the beetles seem to especially like them.

Thank you wow, this is more interesting than I thought it'd be having them here. I keep going and checking on them

 

[bbsnooks]

Hello Everyone.. i'v not been able to get back in a timely manor
thanks for the ideas on changing the bedding.
I did the strainer.. thing.. again.. and .. I think its hard on the beatles..
I seem to have numerous dead after the shaking and straining. ( along with lots of molting.. just when you clean their room...)
that is partly why i was looking for an alternaative to the strainer method. I havent found the "Right " size strainer maybe..
but i did sift out most and have the left overs in a drawer to sort again.. will try the Lacy blues method next

Could you not feed them for a week or so and then push all the old bran into one side of your bin and put new bran in the other side along with a split carrot or something? If you have bottom heat, you could also move that to the new bran end of your bin. After a week or so, you could scoop out all the old stuff but hang onto it for a while to be sure you got all the babies.

What I've done in the past was shift them out as they grew. It'll take about a month but you won't lose many. I have different sized sifters and sift everything into another container while putting the worms into the new container.
After about a month, you'll have most of the babies out and can just pitch the old substrate. That's the only way I've found.

Thx Hannakat.
I have saved the siftings.. and will use as fertalizer for fall garden..
and i put large cabbage leaf on top.. seems to bring them to the top but .. it takes a while..
there are lots.. of little one's in there..

There's not a whole lot you can do. Try sifting out the beetles/pupa/worms and put into a new container. Keep it DRY!!! Please make sure, if you're using anything other than store bought rolled oats, to either bake it for 15 minutes at 200 degrees, freeze it for a week or nuke it to kill anything that might be lurking in the bran.

It takes a certain temp along with moisture to make a mite explosion. You can have mites but not by the millions if you keep the colony in a dry, warm location.

Hope this helps.

Funny thing.. i have a 3 drawer.. and just recovered from a mite infestation. and the only drawrer.. that was infested.. was the one i baked the bran before using. that said.. ? many reasons or way's to get mites.. but i did talk to some one.. that said.. just dry them out a bit.. and when the moisture is under controll. the mites will get better. ( thinking that there is no total controll with out killing the worms too).

I put mine out side ( hot and dry here) for 2 days.. mostly to separate from the other bins -
and then have watched to see if they return. Its been 3 weeks now and i still dont see any sign of mites - probably one day would have worked.
I think the key is the moisture.. and it was so interesting feeding.. that.. i got carried away and the moisture came up.

I had also.. stopped sifting thru the bedding. which i think helped keep the dissapearing food from making moisture pockets under ground.

Why no fruits? I gave my colony ripe netarines, mangos, watermelon rinds, apple cores. These things get gobbled up and disappear overnight, except for the nectarine pits. If the fruits get eaten quickly, shouldn't they be okay? As it is summer, fruits are plentiful and I didn't want to have to buy carrots while I have leftover fruits.

i like'd feeding the fruit.. the core of apple .. fun to see whats left over. but it did bring the fruit flies.
another possibility is to put the fruit under a plastic food container as one would a cake cover.
. I use a hummus tub so that the fruit flys cannot get to it . and i have less of a problem now.

For outside fly/gnat issues - Go to Goodwill or Salvation Army and get a large sheer curtain. Wrap it around the bin or just drape it over and tuck it under the bottom. That will keep fruit flies and gnats out for the most part. Better yet, you could put velcro around the base and fit the curtain with the self-stick (or sew it on if you want) velcro and customize it a bit to make the bin drawers easier to access. You could just remove the front piece if you cut the curtain to fit and velcroed around the front edge. Hmmm. That's a purdy good idear, lol.

great idea.. there is also a fabric.. i think called toole that they make tutu's out of.. that is really cheap netting type fabric.. ( walmart or hobby loby)
-- I found an old ankle length circle skirt with elastic top - @ good will. it keeps it dark and is easy to get to the bins for feeding.

Got my mealies what is the time frame of their life cycle in 85-95 degree temps?

My .02$
its like waiting for water to boil..
at first the're very fun.. i watched them daily..
over fed them.. had to learn about too much moisture .. they burry the food
that they like newspaper.. and cardboard.. but the cardboard makes this .. nasty by product in the bedding when they chew on it.

and you think its never gonna happen .. and just when you ( i ) forget about them..
life happens. if i were going to feed these it would be another month.. so about 4 months.
I got my large mealies.. mid april.. and they are producing small to medium size worms mostly.. ( i have a few pupae now but most are small )
I'll not feed out much of these and wait to have an addition to feed in the winter.

Thank you wow, this is more interesting than I thought it'd be having them here. I keep going and checking on them

they really are kinda fun.. glad we can say that here with out some one rolling theyre eyes or .. going to get the strait jacket .


Thanks every one.. for the help.. I enjoy reading about your successes and troubles.. and how you fixed them.
back to the garden..

 

[gaitngirl]

Pics of my bins. The first is a little container for the pupa that I take out of my big bin.

The second is a drawer from the 3 drawer bin system I finally got around to (since it's too hot to work outside for any length of time!). It's housing a couple hundred beetles in the top drawer, several thousand (probably between 10 and 12) mealies in the second, and I will use the third drawer for rotation. I still have a smaller bin with several thousand tiny mealies of varying ages. All of the eggs from the beetles should have hatched by now so I just have to grow them a bit before adding them to the other bin.

I did list some for sale on CL in varying quantities. I have gotten several responses but no takers yet . . .

 

[gaitngirl]

This is the beetle drawer and another shot of the large mealie drawer. I've found beetles that look just like these in the feed I've been getting from the local Elevator. I seriously thought about adding them to the bin but decided to just feed them to the chickens instead. I haven't found any mealworms, surprisingly enough . . .