Mealworm farming

[Athena2344]

I know some people are going through all these extra lengths to separate the different sized worms and beetles, but with my superworms, a bigger version of the mealworm, I throw my beginning worms into a large clear storage container with drilled holes on the lid, and throw in a few large containers of plain uncooked oatmeal, with quartered potatoes. After a couple of weeks they turn into pupa, within a few days they turn into beetles, take a couple days to dry, the breed and lay eggs and die. To feed I would recommend a cheap one dollar scooper reach in pick out potatoes and throw on the ground.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I know some people are going through all these extra lengths to separate the different sized worms and beetles, but with my superworms, a bigger version of the mealworm, I throw my beginning worms into a large clear storage container with drilled holes on the lid, and throw in a few large containers of plain uncooked oatmeal, with quartered potatoes. After a couple of weeks they turn into pupa, within a few days they turn into beetles, take a couple days to dry, the breed and lay eggs and die. To feed I would recommend a cheap one dollar scooper reach in pick out potatoes and throw on the ground.

I thought super worms wouldn't breed unless they were separated to individual containers?

 

[Kusanar]

I finally gave up with my mealworms experiments, I have a TON of them... I just dumped them all in a kinda big tote and gave them some baby carrot chunks to munch on... the room they're in is pretty humid too so I'm not worried about them... I've got a 20 gal fish tank in there and it has lost 3 gal in less than a month to evaporation so all that water is going into the air in that room... One odd thing they did, I tossed some cardboard egg cartons in there with them and a bunch of them (20-30 at least) climbed up on top of one and snuggled down in one of the dips in a big pile... I started worrying if they could get out, so I dumped them all back down in the bedding, I'll see if they get up there again...

 

[Athena2344]

I bet they just got excited about having something new other than food in their container lol

 

[Kusanar]

I finally gave up with my mealworms experiments, I have a TON of them... I just dumped them all in a kinda big tote and gave them some baby carrot chunks to munch on... the room they're in is pretty humid too so I'm not worried about them... I've got a 20 gal fish tank in there and it has lost 3 gal in less than a month to evaporation so all that water is going into the air in that room... One odd thing they did, I tossed some cardboard egg cartons in there with them and a bunch of them (20-30 at least) climbed up on top of one and snuggled down in one of the dips in a big pile... I started worrying if they could get out, so I dumped them all back down in the bedding, I'll see if they get up there again...

I bet they just got excited about having something new other than food in their container lol

Well, I just checked on them today and none were back on top of anything, guess that was a fluke

 

[Athena2344]

They got mad that u dumped them, so they went on strike lol but in reality they could have laid eggs then left

 

[Latestarter]

The worms don't lay eggs, the beetles do... and typically they prefer to do so "under" something like newspapers or the egg cartons.

 

[Athena2344]

I know that only beetles lay eggs, and I thought that Kusanar had meant beetles climbed ontop of the egg carton, not mealworms

 

[Kusanar]

I know that only beetles lay eggs, and I thought that Kusanar had meant beetles climbed ontop of the egg carton, not mealworms

Nope, just worms, I don't have any beetles right now, beetles I wouldn't worry about getting stuck, they're pretty good at climbing things like cardboard, the worms... nah... lol
I do have some MONSTER worms in there right now though, about 4-5 of them that I have seen, never seen any that big before....

 

[Athena2344]

I have done a few mealworm farms in the past, but this is my first time doing super works. We bought a container of 15, and I have 9 left. My turtle only likes the big worms, and my friends keep insisting I feed him one every time he comes over, so I have 1 beetle finally dries, 5 pupas, and 3 changing into pupas. I just have a plastic shoebox with holes in the lid filled with plain oatmeal, and cut up potatoes, occasionally I'll throw in carrots but they go through em quick