Mealworm farming

[LaBella]

Here is the problem.. I have the pickiest dogs in the world. I'm not sure how that happened. Neither of my dogs are really great when it comes to food. The youngest one was in the hospital twice for juvenile hypoglycemia.. NOT because there wasn't food, but because she wasn't eating the food. I actually had to force feed her to make her eat after the second visit.
The older puppy... The only thing he really really likes is his bully stick. He shrugs over dry food, doesn't care for canned food, and neither of them are that gung ho about people food.
I tell you, I'm just not used to that. Until now, my dogs were the kind that would eat any and everything. This is why feeding mealies to the puppies might be a bit tricky.

Back on 220 something, someone said they gave mealies to their hamster.. I wish my hammie was still alive, she would have eaten them. Otherwise, I'm thinking the only way the dogs will eat mealies is with gravy.. and knowing my picky mutts, they'll lick the gravy and leave the worms, lolol.

 

[onafixedincome]

I lost a lot of mealies using celery...washed it and everything, but the mortality rate went way up despite that they obviously liked it.

 

[nxb161]

Here are my 3 mealie farms. Hard to tell, but it is 4" H & 6" x 6" I figure I'm going to try to use those lids for veggies to keep getting the substrate wet. I heated it all up for 30minutes @ 200F




When I went to pickup some wheat bran I saw they sold Oat bran as well, so I'm going to do a test and use that in one of the farms



I messed up this lid and glued the screen on the top instead of the bottom. Not that it should matter too much, they're is still a hot glue barrier all the way around, just doesn't look as nice


I hope to get my shipment of 1000 mealies this week.

 

[bobbieschicks]

I put some fresh carrots, fresh top layer of wheat bran, and half of a paper egg carton in each of my three drawers. I moved the top one's substrate around with a spoon before putting that stuff in and saw a ton of the teensiest larva moving around. They were maybe 1/2" long. So cute. I didn't see any in the other drawers. It could be because I had dumped all the beetles up top first and later spread them to the other drawers. That would make the other two drawers be behind in development. Or it could be that the top drawer gets more heat due to forced air coming from the ceiling and more sunlight since its at the top of the stack? Or maybe combination of both. I'm just glad my mealies are returning. I can't wait for a warm day so I can sort the drawers outside.

 

[Mavrk]

I put some fresh carrots, fresh top layer of wheat bran, and half of a paper egg carton in each of my three drawers. I moved the top one's substrate around with a spoon before putting that stuff in and saw a ton of the teensiest larva moving around. They were maybe 1/2" long. So cute. I didn't see any in the other drawers. It could be because I had dumped all the beetles up top first and later spread them to the other drawers. That would make the other two drawers be behind in development. Or it could be that the top drawer gets more heat due to forced air coming from the ceiling and more sunlight since its at the top of the stack? Or maybe combination of both. I'm just glad my mealies are returning. I can't wait for a warm day so I can sort the drawers outside.

Probably just a little behind like you said.

 

[LaBella]

I have made the greatest sacrifice imaginable.. I have moved the budding worm farm to my brothers room, which is the warmest room in the house. My room, sadly, is the coldest.. I am sure the worms appreciate my sacrifice, lol.

 

[Mavrk]

I have made the greatest sacrifice imaginable.. I have moved the budding worm farm to my brothers room, which is the warmest room in the house. My room, sadly, is the coldest.. I am sure the worms appreciate my sacrifice, lol.

Haha... Not sure if that is a sacrifice once you have 1000 beetles scurrying around making noise. Of course that might just be because I have newspaper in there.

 

[bobbieschicks]

Haha... Not sure if that is a sacrifice once you have 1000 beetles scurrying around making noise. Of course that might just be because I have newspaper in there.

And the chomping noises they make as they eat thru the paper.

 

[kvmommy]

I have a question. I am growing mealworms for the first time. Mine finally have turned into beetles and I'm super stoked. But I left a potato in there for about 6 days. It didn't look moldy...just brown and shriveled. I'm worried about Aflatoxin affecting my chickens and hedgehog. If it were just a bit moldy (the bedding was dry and fine) would that be ok? It wasn't visually moldy but I did forget about it for almost a week!!!

 

[LaBella]

I don't know why I forgot about this... And since I'm only on page 247, I don't know if it's been mentioned.
If anyone is looking for a supply of fish tanks, or bins, smaller containers, or even screening, a GREAT resource to use is freecycle. Many places have a local freecycle, and it could well be worth the time to sign up to the local list to see if you can get these things, and also to get rid of stuff you don't want, but don't want to throw away because it's still in good shape.

Also, bugs chomping don't bother me. I had a nice sized superworm farm going up until about a year ago.. Now THEY make plenty of noise, scary horror movie noise. And I swear they hiss. That could be my over active imagination, but the ones I was raising, I would swear on anything you want me to that they hissed when you poked them.
Those guys were right next to me most of the day so I could poke at them (and they could hiss at me). So munching mealies shouldn't be a problem, lol.