Mealworm farming

[Gallo del Cielo]

Hmmm....I'm not sure. They're probably not maggots (unless it's very wet). I would guess they are some sort of darkling beetle. But I'd have to see them to know if they are T. molitor. All of the larvae are white the day the molt, but then become gradually more yellow with each day. My concern would be that they are lesser mealworms. Those guys can be trouble.

 

[Klwright1122]

Ok.....I read about a lesser mealworms. How do u tell the diff between the two? They have 3 tiny pairs of legs and then one at the abdominal proleg at the rear...doesma meal worm have this proleg at the rear too?

 

[Hunterlauren93]

I started my mealworm colony about 2 weeks ago. I got 166 mealworms and then 200 meal-worms today. How long does it take them to turn into Beatles. I have done a ton of research, but it all says about 5-6 months.
The lady also gave me a cup of the giant mealworms, and i didnt realize until i got home. I was suppose to have 300 mealworms. But i think im just going to feed them to my girls. I want to find a supplier that sells some Beatles or something.

 

[JohnandJacquelineW]

Well, we got our meal worms yesterday - and when we got ready to open the box we noticed at least 5 worms on the outside of the box. There was a slight hole/tear in the screen that had been used to add vents to the box and I'm guessing that is where they got out.

Not sure how many more got out and as we've never had mealworms before I'm not sure what 1,000 of them looks like. Part of me thinks we're missing some, but I really don't know.

I've got a picture here - let me know what you guys thinks:

I sent the seller an email with essentially this same message and the same picture.

 

[Klwright1122]

Quote:
Once hatched They can take 30-90 days to go from larvae (worms) until they pupate....which Can take 10-20 days...then 5-10 to beattles...where they lay eggs for up to a month and then die....
http://lhsfoss.org/fossweb/teachers/materials/plantanimal/tenebriobeetles.html

 

[LibertyChick]

Quote:
Can you give them beets, not just the beet greens? Wouldn't that make them more purple? A purple worm would definitely be much easier to find.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I know this is a lot of pages to read but there is a lot of info within these pages!

I started with my meal worms back in April. Since then they have pupated, turned to beetles and now are producing baby meal worms. Within 3 months I have another generation already.

It also depends on your environment and feeding. I live in a pretty warm, high humidity location. My bins are in a darkened room on the west wall. My beetles are trying to eat me out of house and home! I went through a small bag of carrots last week and gave them broccoli yesterday to appease them which they jumped on. When I came home from the grocery store and opened the tops to give them carrots the broccoli was no where to be seen in my 2 bins with the most beetles.

I have 4 bins going but 2 have very few beetles in them because of the mites. My bugs are still living but they are not very happy.

I must say that my meal worm colony has been a fun experience and I still have chicks begging for those treats. They still nudge their beaks into my fingers looking for yummy mealies but I have to wait until I can actually see the darn things in the bins before I start scooping and giving them to the chicks.

Oh and I must not be feeding enough food to the beetles because I lost a lot of them the week before. Either not enough food/moisture or they had something else going on but I had piles of them dead in my 2 big colonies. That is why I started giving them a lot more food this past week. They are consuming a good bit of carrots and celery so I give them as much as they will eat every other day now, which seems to be a lot but I started out with 5000 mealies.

Purple worms!

 

[jomoncon]

Quote:
It could be that it was just the end of the beetles' life cycle. They live for a while, breed, lay eggs & die.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I thought they lived about 5 months?
I suppose I need a chart to go by but yeah, hopefully it was just the end of their life cycle.

They didn't live but maybe a month or 6 weeks though.

 

[hannakat]

Quote:
Can you give them beets, not just the beet greens? Wouldn't that make them more purple? A purple worm would definitely be much easier to find.

That's my next experiment since the stems and greens didn't faze em.... rubbing my hands together....