Mealworm farming

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kendles said:
Mite Infestation?
How do you know if you have mites?
Will I have to abandon all my colony? Larvae, Pupae and Beetles?
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From what those who have had them say, it looks like the walls of the bin are "dusty" but if you look closely the "dust" is moving!! Some have had luck transferring beetles after rinsing them off in water, but usually the rest gets fed out to the chickens and they start over. It can be less likely to happen if you heated or froze your substrate before using and if the humidity is not high. The mealies can handle it drier than the mites can. Do a search of this thread for "mites" and you are sure to see the posts about it. HTH, Carrie
 
BABIES! I have them, tons of them! Itty Bitty Teenie Weenie things... I would say they are roughly 1/8" long and about the thickness of a mechanical pencil lead ---

I now have in excess of 300 Beetles and another 970 pupa and about 6,000 large meal worms, getting ready to add a 2nd colony system

I got a feeling we're going to have a population explosion SOON!
 
dharmasister said:
I don't know, but that seems contradictory to the previous post of finding a beetle walking around with just a head. Seems like someone could have been chewing on him and he was alive. I found a gnawed on pupae and it was twitching just like they all do when I picked it up. It was apparently alive when someone munched on him. I don't think its a big deal if they do cannibalize each other. I think they just each reproduce so many eggs that propagation is going to continue and the colony is going to grow because they can't eat as many as are laid.
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OK. Tray one started out with only meal worms from Rainbow. As some turned to pupa, I moved "some" to a separate tray with no meal worms. As some turned to beetles, I moved them to another tray. All 3 trays were started with oatmeal and all have had a refurbish of bran. Tray 4 has ONLY beetles in bran. All have potato, carrot and banana peels and the beetles are going nuts all over each other and the moist additions. Suddenly...Tray one has no meal worms and many, many. many hollow shells of pupa and still tons of beetles. Temps are in the 7
low 70's and they have lots, but not too much, moisture. I see no meal worms in any of the trays. Beetles galore and hollow pupa. What sounded like such an easy farm is starting to make me worry. Meal worms arrived in early April and within days started to morph into pupa..... Close it up and walk away for a week and be surprised at what happens?
 
Here is a picture of my first baby meal worms, from my own beetles. I tried to get a better picture, but my iPhone doesn't have a macro setting and I wasn't getting up for my Nikon LOL anyway, here are just two of them, I have TONS I know... I just can't seem them

 
kendles said:
Here is a picture of my first baby meal worms, from my own beetles. I tried to get a better picture, but my iPhone doesn't have a macro setting and I wasn't getting up for my Nikon LOL anyway, here are just two of them, I have TONS I know... I just can't seem them
Click to expand...
Quite informative! So many people wonder what they look like when they're little. This helps a lot
 

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