Mealworm farming

[Chicks Galore3]

Quote: Does anyone know how to get rid of them? I REALLY don't want to loose my colony!

Do they look like the larvae on this page and seem to move fast and constantly?
There is some fast moving beetles, but the worms are fuzzy, like caterpillers almost.

 

[onafixedincome]

About the only way is going to be sorting through the bedding handful by handful and sifting out the undesirables. Me, I'd chuck 'em to the chickens as I went, but others might not. I would suggest that you put them in a cup or dish and take some pictures of not only the 'caterpillars' but also any beetles that don't look like Tenebrio molitor (mealie beetles). THEN toss 'em for the chickens.

Wear surgical gloves or use tweezers or a spoon to handle the furry things--some hairy bugs pack a set of stinging hairs you don't want to meet! Good luck...!

 

[Chicks Galore3]

I don't see any unusual beetles, only worms. I'll get some pictures. Maybe I'll sift through and see if the different beetles are below, even though I think the beetles just started laying eggs, I don't want to do anything to them. Ah well.

 

[ChickenPrnces]

Hi there! I am new to this forum and had a question! I have had mealworms since November 8th 2012! I had beetles hatching out by the second week! 7 weeks since the first beetle and I have still not seen any new worms. I have a few hundred beetles in there just no new wormies! Does this seem to long for nothing new?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hi there! I am new to this forum and had a question! I have had mealworms since November 8th 2012! I had beetles hatching out by the second week! 7 weeks since the first beetle and I have still not seen any new worms. I have a few hundred beetles in there just no new wormies! Does this seem to long for nothing new?

Hi! Glad you joined in!

wash a potato, slice it and lay 1 slice directly on your substrate. Walk away, and come back 20 minutes later. pick it up and look at the underside fast.. I bet you see them!

 

[ChickenPrnces]

Ok! I am gonna try that! If they are there then how do I get them out! Dig them out?? I have some 3 week old chicks I wanna give some to and need the little ones!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Ok! I am gonna try that! If they are there then how do I get them out! Dig them out?? I have some 3 week old chicks I wanna give some to and need the little ones!

when i want to harvest some, I do it the same way. lay some slices down, come back 20 minutes later. I tap them off into a container. Loose folded newspaper makes a good trap too, they climb up into it. once your wee wormies get bigger it gets easier. If you don;t see any on the first try, use a magnifying glass. (I had to, LOL

)

 

[ChickenPrnces]

Awesome! Thank you a ton!

 

[Bmmjz Chicks]

It has been 7 weeks since I my first pupa turned into a beetle and I saw my first meal worms this morning after adding a small slice of apple into their bin. I have a screen as the floor of the beetle bin with a fresh worm bin underneath. I was skeptical that the eggs would fall through, but it works! Thanks for all the help and great information in this thread.

 

[onafixedincome]

Patience, folks!! If you trail your fingers through the top of the bedding and don't see 'the ground move', don't bother looking yet. They're still WAAAYYY too small to be worth feeding (and the chicks just look at your fingertip and go, Huh? Nothing there!). Wait another week to two weeks and you'll start actually seeing mealies without a microscope.

(As for sorting out the fuzzies, don't worry so much about handling your beetles and mealies and even your pupa--I spent the summer hand-sorting the dratted things to get grey fuzzy webspinning things out of the substrate and it didn't hurt the mealies a bit! I do minimize pupa handling though--just pull them out, feed the smallest to the chicklets, and put the rest in a separate small dish to incubate/hatch. A small chunk of carrot does the trick of collecting newly hatched beetles, and I just pick off the malformed, toss them to the VERY friendly, seemingly-STAAARRRRVING hens, and the carrot chunk along with the tender light colored beetles goes into the beetle bin. As it got colder, saw more malformed beetle hatches but just fed 'em out and no worries.)