Mealworm farming

[chickenALD]

My worms are turning into pupa here my first few pupae or pupas, I found about 20 of them.

 

[azygous]

How exciting! Do you have additional heat or just room temperature? If they go to pupae too fast, you can move them to a cooler spot. Or the reverse. If it's taking forever, jack the heat up to 80F.

 

[chickenALD]

How exciting! Do you have additional heat or just room temperature? If they go to pupae too fast, you can move them to a cooler spot. Or the reverse. If it's taking forever, jack the heat up to 80F.

I have a light on them when it gets cold but no other heat sources. The room temperature depends on the weather if it is cold or hot outside. They're in the house but that part of the house use to be the car port. I have been using the light only when it is kind of cool or at night because we still are having some cool days and nights here. I do worry that it may get too hot in the summertime.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I keep mine outside in the summer. We usually have more than 100 days of 100+ temps and it regularly exceeds 110. It makes them grow wickedly fast, but you have to be more vigilant about feeding consistently.

 

[Arielle]

Arielle, you have the common sense to be a terrific worm farmer! You have great instincts. The worms can survive just fine on bran alone. They don't call them "meal" worms for nothing. The veggies are mostly to supply a water source. The worms and beetles suck them dry.

Yes, it's common for some meal worm farmers to add chick starter around the time they will be harvesting worms to feed. It does increase the protein content of the worms, though the worms are 50% protein to begin with.

You may microwave the bran, as well as chick starter, but it doesn't heat as uniformly as oven treating. I continued to have headaches with grain mites until I switched to treating ALL the grains I use in the oven at 300 F degrees for half an hour, stirring halfway through.

The added carrot or potato or apple will supply all the water needs that the heating process destroys. Mites thrive on moisture, and removing it from the grains destroys the mite eggs also. Battling an infestation of grain mites in your colony is an experience you really don't need. They are creepy, hideous little things, even though they're too small to see with the naked eye. But seen through a magnifying lens, they are bugs with lots of nasty little legs, and they MOVE! You know you have grain mites if the plastic lid appears to be fogged up with a white, dusty substance, and it will also cover the veggies. Look closely, and you can see they're not stationary, even without a hand lens. But if you heat your grains before using, you won't ever have to see the nasty buggers.

I experienced the mites the first time I tried mealworms. . . .needless to say I stopped the project right there. Willing to try again though . . . .. now that I know how to heat treat the bran.

 

[Arielle]

How exciting! Do you have additional heat or just room temperature? If they go to pupae too fast, you can move them to a cooler spot. Or the reverse. If it's taking forever, jack the heat up to 80F.

Question-- will the mealworm grow larger if pupae stage is delayed??

Or do people have different types/sizes of mealworms??

 

[azygous]

The worms reach a maximum length of around an inch. I try to harvest them when they reach that size because they will enter the pupae stage soon after. You will know when they're thinking about that by noticing them congregating in large numbers in the corners and kind of forming a "u" with their bodies. They quit being active then, don't eat any more, and won't get any larger.

The only way to delay development is to refrigerate them. (Do not freeze unless you don't care if they die.) You can refrigerate them at any stage and then take them out, warm them up, and they'll resume development.

Yes, there are different species of meal worms. For instance, there's the Super Worm which I'm told is tricky to grow, and another type of meal worm that occurs naturally in the stored pancake and cake mixes in your cupboard if they've been around for a while.

 

[Arielle]

THank GOd I have chickens . . . any questionable food goes to them!! THe pantry moths are a nusance. I have moved as many products as possible to glass jars!!

So most sources will have the 1 inch type of meal worm.

Another question-- how many, like what % of the mealworms can be harvested and not cause a decrease in numbers???

Maybe I need to ask how many eggs a day a beetle lays?

 

[azygous]

Beetles may lay around 30 eggs per day over a 90 day life span. I've had a few beetles live as long as six months and still keep laying eggs.

I ran across this really elegant web site on everything you want to know about meal worms and darkling beetles with pictures and videos. It's a gorgeous site and she links to BYC and this thread! http://www.westknollfarm.com/Meal-Worms.html

 

[Arielle]

Wow that is cool that she links back to this thread.

Thanks for the link-- need to do more reading.

Looks like it is easy to over harvest the mealworms-- any one have a rule of thumb like 5%of the visiable mealworms a day . . .