Mealworm farming

[hannakat]

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I'd be worried about smell and rot with wet paper towels. Fresh fruit/veggie has all the moisture they need. Maybe consider a folded dry paper towel or newspaper? They like to lay their eggs on items so I'm using an empty toilet paper roll and cut up egg carton.

When the eggs hatch, the larva drop into the substrate.

 

[GiddyMoon]

Isn't he cute?? I shall name him Patrick

 

[hannakat]

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[aggie9296]

I was worried about the moisture too. But actually, it's all been dry. No mold on the potatoes even. No smell. The carrots and taters were drying out in 1 day, so that's why I put the paper towel in there. It's on a little lid so nothing gets wet. We've been having a little drought, so it's not wet like it usually is.

And I found my first few second generation larvae today! About the size of sesame seeds. So something is working. Do they really lay 300 eggs apiece? if half of my 300 beetles are female, I'm looking at 45,000 larvae? Cripes. I will be putting some in the fridge to slow them down. Hope the chickens are hungry!

 

[speedy2020]

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What is the purpose of the screen bottom? I will start later this year, but I am going to use the 10gal aquarium tank with screen on top.

 

[DickGJ]

Typically, folks will use a screened bottom under the adult beetle drawer so that when the eggs are deposited...the eggs and more likely the tiny larva drop through the screen into the second drawer after hatching. All I have at this time is small and medium sized larva so it's going to be a while before I consider that. I raise mine in what will eventually be four black bins that are 6" deep with snap shut lids. Right now, one is full of sm/med larva, the second is for med/lg larva, and when the large larva turn to pupa...the pupa will go into a third bin, and the fourth will be for the adult beetles and egg/miniscule larva collection. We'll see how it goes...I just started my "mealy farm" yesterday. I use chicken-layer crumbles as my substrate. Why buy all that oatmeal, wheat bran and other stuff when most of us BYC'ers have plenty of feed for them. On commercial farms the darkling beetle is a well known pest to feed products for livestock/chickens!

 

[hannakat]

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Keep in mind that what you feed to the worms will be fed to the chickens and can be enriched by using the corn meal, wheat flour, dried milk, etc. I'm growing my 'stock' worms in basic oats and feed but will have the enriched layer for the baby larva to grow in. Some people 'load' their worms for 48 hours before feeding them to the chickens, adding more specific vitamins and minerals. They do this loading for lizards and young frogs too.

I have a very well stocked pantry so I didn't need to go out and buy anything except for the worms and plastic unit. I've read a lot about brewers yeast (which I don't have) and want to do more research on it before my worms are to the stage of freezing for my winter supply.

I'd love to see pictures of your set-up DickDJ. The more ideas the better and I do better 'seeing' things! Also, why the 2 sizes of worms? Did you buy the separate sizes or will they all grow to be the same? The site where I bought mine had 3 sizes and I got all mediums. (btw....I'm certain now that they sent WAY more worms than 1000 since I have 625 (yes, i counted

) pupae and too many worms to try to count!)

Are you going to stage them during growing to get beetles at different times? I have some in the fridge but can't decide if I want to let them all get to beetle stage ASAP or save some for growing later. Definitely will need a bigger container, so again, I'd love to see what you have going!

 

[hannakat]

Added a very small (but about 1-1/2" high) container of water to the beetle drawer yesterday. Mealworm talk jogged my memory that higher humidity made for more egg laying. According to the article 70% RH increased productivity. Yey!

http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm

(Thanks for locating it GiggyMoon....hope Patrick has been joined by Sylvia, at the very least!)

 

[lebentier]

this sounds like a fun project. i can't find a downside yet do i have to be concerned about escaping beetles? i read somewhere that they are fused-winged and can't fly. what happens if there are escapees?

 

[hannakat]

Unless they escaped into a wheat-like substance, I imagine they wouldn't live too long. AND it takes 2 beetles to tango so there wouldn't be any egg laying

As long as the container is a couple inches higher than the oats, and the sides are smooth (glass or plastic), you can consider yourself safe.