Mealworm farming

[Cheryl1948]

Hey, want to raise my own mealworms and have been reading about it here and watching it on youtube. If I start now, info said not to have them out in the cold of course, so, can I raise them inside or do they stink?

 

[jenneverett]

Inside is fine. ..a garage or unused room is best.
keep them at approximately 80% f and they will take off like rabbits.

 

[MealWorm Farm]

Hey, want to raise my own mealworms and have been reading about it here and watching it on youtube.  If I start now, info said not to have them out in the cold of course, so, can I raise them inside or do they stink?

As stated, inside is fine, however...
They don't really smell (unless you let the frass get out of control), but do a little research on allergies to mealworms, as it is a problem that develops for some people.
They love 80F, and humidity, but too high humidity causes problems. They will easily tolerate a temp down to the 60F. When trying to keep them warm, avoid direct sunlight!
You may also have to consider where you place the boxes if you have other pets, especially cats.

 

[Cheryl1948]

As stated, inside is fine, however...
They don't really smell (unless you let the frass get out of control), but do a little research on allergies to mealworms, as it is a problem that develops for some people.
They love 80F, and humidity, but too high humidity causes problems. They will easily tolerate a temp down to the 60F. When trying to keep them warm, avoid direct sunlight!
You may also have to consider where you place the boxes if you have other pets, especially cats.

I'm sorry, what is "frass" ?

 

[aart]

Quote: Frass is insect 'poop'.

 

[evemfoster]

I'm sorry, what is "frass" ?

Little tiny dots of Mealworm poo. It tends to accumulate at the bottom of the bin. And you want it to stay down there. Less smell that way and the worm food stays nicer. So if you are digging about in the bin try not to disturb the lower layers. It just seems that the beetles and worms eat the food better if the feed and the frass isn't mixed up.

When the frass builds up thick and the food is nearly gone (about once a year) sift the frass out of the feed returning the uneaten feed and the bugs back into the worm bin. Don't toss the frass out right away it will be full of eggs and baby worms that are too small to see. Put the frass into a separate container with a bit of water source and allow the baby worms to grow large enough that you can sift them out and add them back into the worm bin. Takes a month or three and you may need to sift up to 3 times to get them all. Some worms grow faster than others.

A screen type strainer with very small holes seems to work best for me when i am screening out the frass.
Also i was told to wash the worm bin before returning the worms and bedding into bin. The one time i didn't wash the bin i later had trouble with my worms. It probably was just a coincidence but it doesn't hurt to wash the bin so i wash it.

 

[Cheryl1948]

Hey thanks evem for the helpful info. Got 1000 worms today. Put them in an aquarium with wheat bran, apple peels and sliced carrots. They are actually forcing the apple and carrots down into the wheat bran. Should I try to keep it on top or leave it alone?

 

[evemfoster]

Hey thanks evem for the helpful info. Got 1000 worms today. Put them in an aquarium with wheat bran, apple peels and sliced carrots. They are actually forcing the apple and carrots down into the wheat bran. Should I try to keep it on top or leave it alone?

I try to keep them on top but as you will find its nearly imposable to keep them up there. So i try to put in water sources that will be ate up in about one day. I also try to take out older veggies if they start looking like they are going bad. I place anything extra wet on a piece of plastic a little bigger than the water source.

I use a old pair of stamp tweezers with a long handle to search for lost veggies. I run the tweezers at an angle along the bottom of the bin in strait rows and the buried veggies come to the top and the frass stays on the bottom. The tweezers seem to work better than a single stick like object so something like a couple chopsticks or knitting needles tied together at the top should work fairly well.

edited because i cant spell.

 

[Eeko]

I have started my mealworm farm for a week. Beginning yesterday, I've had many mealworm turning black and dead(my girls are happy because they got a dead mealworm feast). Glad I ordered 1000 and still have many alive...

I fed them organic vegetables because that's all I have at home. Is it because of the unknown residue(pesticide?) on vegetable or not enough humidity? I live in CA and humidity is very low...

 

[evemfoster]

I have started my mealworm farm for a week. Beginning yesterday, I have many mealworm turn black and dead(my girls are happy because they got a dead mealworm feast). Glad I ordered 1000 and still have many alive...

I fed them organic vegetables because that's all I have at home. Is it because of the unknown residue(pesticide?) on vegetable or not enough humidity? I live in CA and humidity is very low...

Your worm die off may just be because of the shipping. Wait to see if it stops before taking any drastic action.

But, I have had mealworms for around 5-6 years and had this happen back in mid August for very the first time. I never did figure out just what caused the die off but my farm is recovering nicely now.

All the baby worms died off first and then the larger ones started dieing. I ended up having to remove all the worms from the old bedding and giving them new bran twice before the dieing stopped. I fed the bedding with any missed worms to my chickens. Chickens do like worm farm bedding.

The old bedding was mixed bunch of grain based feeds. Oats, old dried and crumbled bread, crushed spilled cookies and so on. Note: i used this bedding because it was free feed, but the worms will grow fastest if you feed them bran. I used a mix of organic veggies from the garden as the water source.

When I put them into bran the first time around i still had a few dieing every day. So I figured that whatever was killing them was still on the worms when i moved them so i moved them into fresh bran again. This time i moved them into just a small amount of bran in case i had to move them again. It worked that time. I think they just needed to rub off whatever was bothering them into the bran and when i moved them the second time around whatever it was stayed with the bran.

All but a dozen or so of the worms i had left have pupated into beetles and i now have a nice swarm of them. I have tuns of baby worms, the largest worms are just over a half an inch long. So i believe i have a full recovery.

I found the easiest way to remove most of the worms from the bedding is to put some bedding in a bowl and slowly remove the top of the bedding a thin layer at a time. The worms will head to the bottom and when nearly all the bedding is removed off the top you will have a bunch of worms left at the bottom.