Mealworm farming

[Arielle]

The idea of using an older dresser is a great one! One thing, though. You will need to make the sides slippery and smooth so the worms and beetles can't get a grip on the wood grain to make an escape. If you have some scraps of linoleum, that would work, or line the drawers with 6 mil (heavy) plastic.

I would also line the bottoms of the drawers in case the beetles might develop a taste for wood. They love to eat newspaper, so wood might be on their menu, too.

Beyond that, there's not much else you'd need to do, unless you want to cut out holes in the drawers for the eggs to sift through.

No, no need to keep the drawers ajar.

THank you-- great details. I was really hoping you had all the reasons in the world why this could NOT be done!! I can see meal worms taking over my house. lol I will start small though and see if I really have the guts to fill the drawers with a couple inches of bran.

How does everyone handle company coming over to visit??

 

[aart]

How does everyone handle company coming over to visit??

Well, if your guests go thru your dresser drawers.....won't THAT surprise them!?!?!

I was thinking something slippery to line the drawers with, do the bottom and the sides with one piece using inside hospital corners....6 mil plastic worked great for my refrigerator box chick brooder.

 

[azygous]

Ummm, let me tell you about finding meal worms where they weren't supposed to be.

I was keeping the three-drawer file box on my small boiler inside the water heater closet. I noticed a couple meal worms crawling around on the floor under the boiler. That led me to inspect the worm box, and there were worms crawling around on top of the boiler. Then I pulled out the drawers of the file box and discovered the worms had found their way out of the drawers and had colonized the inside portions behind the drawers.

The little critters had figured out they could escape the drawers through the air holes I'd drilled in the sides of the file box. (Lesson: only put air holes on top of your worm containers if you feel you need them.) As I was taking the box apart to get to the worms inside the walls, I dropped the pieces, and worms went everywhere. In trying to get the worms corralled, I ended up with worms all over the kitchen. Luckily, the beetles were so busy having sex, they didn't join the jail break, or I'd have really had a circus on my hands.

This is why you need to make sure your worm containers have vertical, slick sides, and the bedding needs to be low enough they can't reach the top by extending their little, wormy segments.

This episode was nerve-racking, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the time I was trying to verify I had grain mites and was looking closely at some with a hand lens and ended up sniffing them up my nose.

Good times.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Ummm, let me tell you about finding meal worms where they weren't supposed to be.

I was keeping the three-drawer file box on my small boiler inside the water heater closet. I noticed a couple meal worms crawling around on the floor under the boiler. That led me to inspect the worm box, and there were worms crawling around on top of the boiler. Then I pulled out the drawers of the file box and discovered the worms had found their way out of the drawers and had colonized the inside portions behind the drawers.

The little critters had figured out they could escape the drawers through the air holes I'd drilled in the sides of the file box. (Lesson: only put air holes on top of your worm containers if you feel you need them.) As I was taking the box apart to get to the worms inside the walls, I dropped the pieces, and worms went everywhere. In trying to get the worms corralled, I ended up with worms all over the kitchen. Luckily, the beetles were so busy having sex, they didn't join the jail break, or I'd have really had a circus on my hands.

This is why you need to make sure your worm containers have vertical, slick sides, and the bedding needs to be low enough they can't reach the top by extending their little, wormy segments.

This episode was nerve-racking, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the time I was trying to verify I had grain mites and was looking closely at some with a hand lens and ended up sniffing them up my nose.

Good times.

My apologies, but that was hilarious.

 

[K9Dave]

@azygous:
Actually there are worm trays on the market for commercial breeders.

I do have some similar to these:
http://www.wormfarmfacts.com/Worm-Trays.html

Just thought I'd put it out there since a lot if is do this to save money.

Does anyone have extra Meal worms that they can spare to a newbie? I want to start meal worming and vermicomposting and am looking for some start up stock. Thanks everyone.

 

[dstinett]

I do if you are in NE Texas

 

[Latestarter]

Ummm, let me tell you about finding meal worms where they weren't supposed to be.

I was keeping the three-drawer file box on my small boiler inside the water heater closet. I noticed a couple meal worms crawling around on the floor under the boiler. That led me to inspect the worm box, and there were worms crawling around on top of the boiler. Then I pulled out the drawers of the file box and discovered the worms had found their way out of the drawers and had colonized the inside portions behind the drawers.

The little critters had figured out they could escape the drawers through the air holes I'd drilled in the sides of the file box. (Lesson: only put air holes on top of your worm containers if you feel you need them.) As I was taking the box apart to get to the worms inside the walls, I dropped the pieces, and worms went everywhere. In trying to get the worms corralled, I ended up with worms all over the kitchen. Luckily, the beetles were so busy having sex, they didn't join the jail break, or I'd have really had a circus on my hands.

This is why you need to make sure your worm containers have vertical, slick sides, and the bedding needs to be low enough they can't reach the top by extending their little, wormy segments.

This episode was nerve-racking, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the time I was trying to verify I had grain mites and was looking closely at some with a hand lens and ended up sniffing them up my nose.

Good times.

 

[Latestarter]

My worms came to day I real didn't count them bc I order 5000 worms. I never Order from rainbow mealworms.net again they were just in bag and news paper and no food and found some died ones.

I too ordered from Rainbow and received my package exactly the same as yours. I am and was completely satisfied!! That is the customary way to ship them, and it is also quite common that there will be a few dead ones in there. I think I found perhaps a dozen... not bad at all when you consider there were 5000+ worms in there! And now in a matter of about a month, I have more beetles and pupae than I can count! Since each adult beetle can lay between 200-300 eggs over a several month period, I don't think I'll be running low on worms any time soon

I keep seeing hearing "talc powder" associated with mealworms, and have no idea why or where that came from... The two have no reason to be spoken of in the same conversation. Anyway, I think I'll go check for grain mites and snort some

LMAO!

 

[Latestarter]

THank you-- great details. I was really hoping you had all the reasons in the world why this could NOT be done!! I can see meal worms taking over my house. lol I will start small though and see if I really have the guts to fill the drawers with a couple inches of bran.

How does everyone handle company coming over to visit??

Are you kidding? both my (rather large) containers are sitting at one end of the dining room table, and that's the first place I take them, so they can check it out

The grand kids especially liked it, and I still go look in every now and again just to see what's going on

Can't wait to feed some of them to some chickens!

 

[crazy huhn]

Just thought I'd put it out there since a lot if is do this to save money.

Does anyone have extra Meal worms that they can spare to a newbie? I want to start meal worming and vermicomposting and am looking for some start up stock. Thanks everyone.

I do sell and ship. Feel free to send me a PM