Mealworm farming

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HELP!!!! I have invaders in my colony. These guys are grey and brown striped, look like centepieds of some kind--many legs. Does anyone know what they are and if so, are they a threat to my mealworm colony? I'm sick about this.

 
Tumbleweed Farm said:
Looks like it, but I don;t know--I got 4 out and there are quite a few more in there.  Now how did these things find there way in there, a 20 gallon aquarium in my guest bathroom.  I have never, ever seen a caterpillar or insect like this in my house.  OMG!
Click to expand...
maybe post in predators and pests? There may be some entomology nerds over there.
 
Tumbleweed Farm said:
HELP!!!! I have invaders in my colony. These guys are grey and brown striped, look like centepieds of some kind--many legs. Does anyone know what they are and if so, are they a threat to my mealworm colony? I'm sick about this.

Click to expand...

Looks like it might be a house centipede but I cant tell for sure. Google it. See what you think
 
Tumbleweed Farm said:
HELP!!!! I have invaders in my colony. These guys are grey and brown striped, look like centepieds of some kind--many legs. Does anyone know what they are and if so, are they a threat to my mealworm colony? I'm sick about this.

Click to expand...

They are beetle larvae from the family Dermestidae. It would be hard to know what species they are from the pics and how much of a threat they are to the Tenebrio. Some species are pretty bad to deal with and others are supposedly benign enough to put into a mealworm colony to clean the mess. I would think they'd be in direct competition with the mealworms and would get rid of them. You could either pull out all the dermestids or all the mealworms, depending on what the stages are and which would be easiest. If you try to just remove the dermestids, be vigilant over the next month to find any new larvae.
 
I am going to assume this is the meal worm farming thread and go from there...... It sounds like your farm is thriving, unlike mine. I am raising in stacked plastic drawer clear boxes with "bedding/feed" of Generic oatmeal and wheat bran. I add banana peels weekly (or when dried out and eaten up) and an occasional piece of unpeeled apple. I started out with 5,000 meal worms from a good source, but they came by post when temps were below zero, so they may have been a bit compromised in transfer. I have them in 2 bins w/ oat mixture of 2 inches and worms under 1 inch. Some of the mealworms died off right away and I attribute it to the freezing temps in postal time. I have had them for about 3 1/2 weeks now, and when they arrived, they were all large meal worms. Now they are changing to pupa and the worms are shedding skins, but the pupa barely move any more and some are drying up and dead. I am very worried, as I really need to raise these for my chicks, but it looks like a death trap right now. Temps in the area they are in are about 65 degrees in the day, down to 60 at night. What am I doing wrong, please? Should I separate the pupa out? I really have never had such great difficulty with things, but this one seem to have me stymied!

Paula
 
kubotafoot said:
I am going to assume this is the meal worm farming thread and go from there...... It sounds like your farm is thriving, unlike mine. I am raising in stacked plastic drawer clear boxes with "bedding/feed" of Generic oatmeal and wheat bran. I add banana peels weekly (or when dried out and eaten up) and an occasional piece of unpeeled apple. I started out with 5,000 meal worms from a good source, but they came by post when temps were below zero, so they may have been a bit compromised in transfer. I have them in 2 bins w/ oat mixture of 2 inches and worms under 1 inch. Some of the mealworms died off right away and I attribute it to the freezing temps in postal time. I have had them for about 3 1/2 weeks now, and when they arrived, they were all large meal worms. Now they are changing to pupa and the worms are shedding skins, but the pupa barely move any more and some are drying up and dead. I am very worried, as I really need to raise these for my chicks, but it looks like a death trap right now. Temps in the area they are in are about 65 degrees in the day, down to 60 at night. What am I doing wrong, please? Should I separate the pupa out? I really have never had such great difficulty with things, but this one seem to have me stymied!

Paula
Click to expand...

Death during pupation is sometimes related to diet leading up to it and sometimes environmental conditions. Your temperatures are a bit on the low side, which slows development but shouldn't contribute too much to the deaths you're seeing. I'd probably give them a wider variety of vegetables, perhaps carrots or the occasional potato, sliced thin. Whatever you put in, make sure it's washed well beforehand, especially if it's not organic. Also, make sure there is a consistent source of vegetable matter. It is their principle moisture source and if it dries out and the ambient humidity gets really low, the pupae will suffer the most. This is most likely your problem. I'd also switch from your mixture of oatmeal and wheat bran to all wheat bran. There have been a lot of reports on this thread of problems during pupation and it almost always occurs on oatmeal. I don't know if this is a dietary issue or one of the physics of moisture in bran vs. oats.
 

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