Mealworm farming

[azygous]

The conditions that cause the larvae to escape are drawers that are just two inches deep, the drawer case not really the same as having lids that fit securely, and the larvae, as they approach pupation, piling up and the ones on top of the pile being able to stretch their bodies to grab the top of the drawer side, liberating themselves.

Deny them these conditions and you won't need to deal with meal worm insurrections. Although, if you happen to be an adrenaline junky, chasing meal worms across your kitchen floor is enough to supply a surge.

 

[MichelleT]

@azygous
Thanks for the heads up. After looking over my three drawer container I decided not to use it. I have a plethora of random plastic containers both with and without lids and I figure I've got a lot of shelf space so I'm just going to go with what I've got there. For starters, I'm going to use one that's about 12 x 18" and 12 inches deep. I don't have a lid, but I can secure a tea towel or cheese cloth over the top with a very large rubber band. From there, I'll check out my other options as my population grows.

 

[azygous]

Glad I could help.

 

[Kusanar]

Oh good lord they can get out? Don't tell me that! I've got a bunch coming in a few days to start my own since I'm going broke buying dang worms.I'm not scared but all I need is for hubby to find a mealie on the loose. At least they aren't superworms those things bite.

Lol, they CAN get out, but I've never had one escape. I keep them in anything with sides 3 inches tall or taller.

 

[Richard Pryor]

Are these mealworm eggs?

I was doing a cleanup of one of the beetle bins that had been untouched for a few weeks, and I saw these. But they are kind of encrusted to the bin.

Not sure if the reason is because I used wheat bran as bedding? I don't use a screen.

Man, this is a lot of work. About to give up.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Are these mealworm eggs?

I was doing a cleanup of one of the beetle bins that had been untouched for a few weeks, and I saw these. But they are kind of encrusted to the bin.

Not sure if the reason is because I used wheat bran as bedding? I don't use a screen.

Man, this is a lot of work. About to give up.

Eggs do stick to the bins in clumps sometimes. I use wheat bran and don't use screens either.

I wanted to tell you... I fold up a couple pieces of newspaper and lay on top of the bran. The mealworms will crawl in there to pupate, making it easier to collect them.

I haven't got the system down yet, been going more than a year now, yes with excessive sorting and such! I think if I just screen my beetle bin and use oats, it will greatly improve my process. Tried the whole sifting thing... not gonna happen again! But I believe the end goal CAN be accomplished a lot easier, with some time and a little better management on my part.

Also, for the worms I was thinking.. the bran is for them to eat. But if I wait until it's gone before "feeding" them, then they are living in their own waste. So maybe I shouldn't wait until it's all gone?

 

[abraga]

get 2 large buckets..drill lots of small holes n one. Put ur mealworms with thier bedding in that one. Put it inside the other bucket. The waste will fall through into the other bucket. I put folded paper, paper towels and paper egg cartons in with my beetles. They hide in the stuff so i can easily transfer them to next breeding container. After baby meals hatch and get large enough they go into double bucket system. Great 4 my garden! I keep a rotation of containers and buckets going so i have a constant supply of buggies with not to much work

 

[Richard Pryor]

If you wait until it's gone before feeding them and they're living in the frass, you will probably have a lot of dead worms. I know I did.

 

[MichelleT]

I also used Rainbow, twice... no problems.

Hi again! A mistake that turned fun that I thought you might enjoy...

I went to Petco and bought the mealworms they had there... yes, they were more expensive than ordering online but I really wanted to get started. Then I got home and realized that I had bought "SuperWorms" - and they were indeed Super-sized! Oh well, I thought, no big deal. Except 3 weeks later and they are definitely not pupating, and in fact are dying off... less and less active even though they have the right moisture and environment. Then I read that these "super-worms" don't actually breed - okay then. That was a waste of money, but I had a chance to practice, right? I'm getting ready to leave the country for a couple of weeks and my son is in charge of everything chicken so I decided to take this off his plate and put it onto the hens' plate instead (ha!).

My baby chicks (10-12 weeks old now) have had NO interest in dried mealworms whatsoever. My hens LOVE them. Well, today they were introduced to live (super) mealworms with some oats thrown in for good measure and man have they changed their minds! Running around bragging and getting chased by the other chicks... while the hens just gorged on the ones in the pile in the middle of the run and completely ignored the chick chaos. Those babies KILL me! And now I know that it's DEFINITELY worth my time. For the entertainment factor at least.

So, I'm ordering from Rainbow as soon as I return from Central America - I'm thinking 3000 - and I'm going to go with the 1-bin method. I can't find anywhere how often to clean the bins if you're using only one bin. If anyone else uses only 1 bin, can you tell me how often you clean your bin?

 

[Chickassan]

You got to keep superworms individual for them to pupate. If they are touching another worm they won't do it.They do actually breed you just got to put one worm in a container and don't feed it.It takes about two weeks to pupate. Then like mealies put pupas in a bin with food, moisture, and some paper for your beetles to meet up on.This is if you actually got superworms and not super sized mealworms that are beefed up with a growth hormone those don't do squat when it comes to making more.The bin cleaning question, im a one binner my setup is new I've got 2000 worms in there and I'm going to be cleaning weekly it seems. Those worms poop a whole lot it doesn't stink but it's alot of frass.