Mealworm farming

[aart]

I dunno... 35 y/o is pretty old. MY dad bought it and never used it. It was nitrogen packed for all but the last year or so, but it's a bit older than I want to eat and I'm not really that comfortable giving it to the chickens.

I thought wheat bran is the exotherm. But I agree that grinding the stuff up would be good.

35 years!?!? Ha! Well, yeah, that's old.
Curious if it would sprout.
I'd try to sprout some and then pulse grind some, put some in whole too and see if the larvae will eat it, before committing to processing the whole bag.

 

[Kusanar]

Spoiler: Can be Gross

Its a, erm, well those beetles are kinda canibels(I know, can't spell)I saw them eating a beetle alive the other day

Hey peeps.

A couple months ago I got 500 Mealworms, I think?Well, I put them in a ten gallon fish tank, with apples slices.Fast forward now.My "Mealworm" Farm has turned into a "Beetle" Farm.I read that the Mealworms are underneath the substrate.True or False?Should I take a spoon and dig through the creepy things?yes or No?
Not to be gross, So I will put it in a spoiler up above.

Lol, the worms typically are at the bottom in a lighted room, they don't like light, they will come to the top in a dark room though but don't tend to stay there. The beetles don't tunnel, mine like things to climb on and under, but they don't go under the bedding, they seem to LOVE cardboard egg cartons turned upside down, they eat beetle sized holes in the tops of the little mounds and they go in and out of the egg carton through the holes.

If you just recently (within a month or so) got beetles in mass numbers likely you have worms but they are tiny. give them a little while longer and you'll be able to see them.

And yes, they will eat their dead, most of the dead beetles in mine get broken in half and eaten... They don't seem to bother the live ones though.

 

[evemfoster]

I tried reading as many pages as I could before asking my questions but obviously 873 pages is a lot of reading.

I want to raise mealworms to give to my chickens but also for their frass. Just placed an order for 40k.

I know the 3-drawer setup is the best to breed, but is it a PITA to get the frass out? Excuse me if this is a stupid question, I’m just not familiar with how this will work.

How many 3-drawer setups will I need for 40k worms? Should I cram all the worms into one drawer or should I do two 3-drawer setups?

Will I use 1.5” of wheat bran on all 3 drawers? Should the top drawer have less so that the eggs and babies fall down to the next drawer?

What size screen should I get and where should I get it?

How big do you let the mealworms grow in the middle drawer before transferring them to the bottom drawer?

How will I harvest frass? Do I need to wait until the worms eat all the wheat bran?


If your drawers are the same size all you need to do is switch the drawers.

I used metal window screen from the hardware store. It has to be metal and the beetles will eat cloth based screening. It's best if you put the screening inside the drawer and also cut squares out of the bottom of the drawer leaving strips of plastic across the bottom of the drawer to support the weight of the bedding.

If your drawers are the same size all you have to do is switch the drawers. Otherwise it doesn't matter where the worms are growing.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

35 years!?!? Ha! Well, yeah, that's old.
Curious if it would sprout.
I'd try to sprout some and then pulse grind some, put some in whole too and see if the larvae will eat it, before committing to processing the whole bag.

They might sprout because they were packed in nitrogen for so long.

Sounds like a good plan about testing if they eat whole grain.

 

[Kusanar]

I used metal window screen from the hardware store. It has to be metal and the beetles will eat cloth based screening. It's best if you put the screening inside the drawer and also cut squares out of the bottom of the drawer leaving strips of plastic across the bottom of the drawer to support the weight of the bedding.

If your drawers are the same size all you have to do is switch the drawers. Otherwise it doesn't matter where the worms are growing.

I may just be lucky, but I have been using the plastic mesh stuff that kids sew together with yarn and make little houses and stuff for the bottom of my beetle cage, I don't keep it heavily bedded (right now the beetles are on a double layer of cheerios....) and haven't had any issues with them chewing on the plastic.

 

[evemfoster]

I may just be lucky, but I have been using the plastic mesh stuff that kids sew together with yarn and make little houses and stuff for the bottom of my beetle cage, I don't keep it heavily bedded (right now the beetles are on a double layer of cheerios....) and haven't had any issues with them chewing on the plastic.

I think that is the same kind of plastic the drawers are made of. Its a good choice. Wish i had thought of it.

I have found the plastic in the drawers slowly get rougher as the beetles try to chew on it. I had to toss out my shallow drawers after about 5 years as the beetles started being able to climb out. My new setup are large bins all 6 inches deep i place a smaller screen bottom drawer with the beetles in it inside the bin and move it as needed. Basically the same setup without the cabinet.

 

[Kusanar]

I think that is the same kind of plastic the drawers are made of. Its a good choice. Wish i had thought of it.

I have found the plastic in the drawers slowly get rougher as the beetles try to chew on it. I had to toss out my shallow drawers after about 5 years as the beetles started being able to climb out. My new setup are large bins all 6 inches deep i place a smaller screen bottom drawer with the beetles in it inside the bin and move it as needed. Basically the same setup without the cabinet.

I am currently re-arranging mine. Right now, I have the beetles in their little bin which is a small (about 6x6") plastic box with a lid (allows airflow but not bugs), and mesh bottom, that sits inside of another bin the same size, when they nest, there is about half an inch between the 2 boxes. I will periodically dump anything in the bottom bin (frass, food that fell through, eggs, baby worms, etc) into a small container with a small amount of bedding until the worms start getting big enough to see easily, then dump them from the small cup into a larger flat container until they start pupating... Right now I have about a million baby worms about half an inch long in with a TON of frass and eggs, and dead beetles, and oatmeal I can't sift bugs out of... it's a MESS... so once the worms are a little bigger, I'll start sifting what I can, keep the super fine stuff for a while longer to make sure no bugs are included, and then take it outside and give it to the plants... I want to get them a lot better organized...

 

[evemfoster]

I dunno... 35 y/o is pretty old. MY dad bought it and never used it. It was nitrogen packed for all but the last year or so, but it's a bit older than I want to eat and I'm not really that comfortable giving it to the chickens.

I thought wheat bran is the exotherm. But I agree that grinding the stuff up would be good.

I remember a national geographic story about 40 years back. In the middle east they dug up some jars filled with wheat that was dated around 3000 years old. They took the grain out and planted it and it grew. So it shouldn't expire.

If you want to use it as substrate you would need to blend it as small as possible.

 

[evemfoster]

I am currently re-arranging mine. Right now, I have the beetles in their little bin which is a small (about 6x6") plastic box with a lid (allows airflow but not bugs), and mesh bottom, that sits inside of another bin the same size, when they nest, there is about half an inch between the 2 boxes. I will periodically dump anything in the bottom bin (frass, food that fell through, eggs, baby worms, etc) into a small container with a small amount of bedding until the worms start getting big enough to see easily, then dump them from the small cup into a larger flat container until they start pupating... Right now I have about a million baby worms about half an inch long in with a TON of frass and eggs, and dead beetles, and oatmeal I can't sift bugs out of... it's a MESS... so once the worms are a little bigger, I'll start sifting what I can, keep the super fine stuff for a while longer to make sure no bugs are included, and then take it outside and give it to the plants... I want to get them a lot better organized...

I have been doing the mealworm thing for quite a few years now and have gone through a lot of different setups. The setup i ended up with is the combo i told you about. The beetles kept in a screen mesh bottom drawer. The bins are 28 Qt. bins. I place the beetle drawer inside an empty bin standing on feet (old pill bottles) until the bedding that falls through builds up so high it touches the bottom of the screen.

That takes a month to a month and a half. I rotate the bins feeding out of the oldest one. When it is nearly empty i sift the scoops of bedding. Frass in a bucket, worms to the chickens and remaining bedding into the beetle bin. Until the bin is empty and ready to start the cycle all over again.

I use several size screens to separate the beetles/frass/bedding mix. 1/8 inch is good for separating adult worms from the bedding, they become the new beetles, the 1/16 inch scoop sold at pet stores are good for removing most size worms from broken down bedding, the super fine kitchen sieves like kitchen-aid are good for sifting out the frass. I use the frass as fertilizer in my container garden.

 

[Richard Pryor]

I ended up skipping the drawers and getting a bunch of 28 quart containers with lids (16"x23"x6"). I put around 5k worms in each. I will check for beetles every few days and move them to a different container. Every 2 weeks or so I will dump the contents of that container into a new container (minus the beetles).

Might be more work, but I have plenty of time so I don't mind.