Mealworm farming

[Mwilliams32931]

Thanks!

 

[gaitngirl]

Since today was too cold and windy to work outside as I had planned, I sat down and sorted out pupa in the mealie bin. I counted approx. 180! I think I may have almost as many pupa as worms, lol. I think I'm going to do 2 bins - 1 3 drawer system and one non- separated bin.

 

[gaitngirl]

Oops - didn't mean to submit that yet. I wanted to attach this . . .

It sure doesn't look like that many, does it?

 

[gaitngirl]

I had about 10 pupa turn into beetles today. I have white to light brown beetles skittering around. About 30 or 40 of the pupa are much drier than the rest - they may not complete the process. I will need to add more lettuce and greens (someone mentioned dandelion greens also, I believe?) so the larva and/or beetles don't need to feed on the pupa. But . . . if even half of the pupa become beetles, I will be well on my way to having enough larva for this winter!

 

[MalMom]

I had about 10 pupa turn into beetles today. I have white to light brown beetles skittering around. About 30 or 40 of the pupa are much drier than the rest - they may not complete the process. I will need to add more lettuce and greens (someone mentioned dandelion greens also, I believe?) so the larva and/or beetles don't need to feed on the pupa. But . . . if even half of the pupa become beetles, I will be well on my way to having enough larva for this winter!

That's awesome! I'm still waiting for mine to turn into beetles. I'm afraid I've lost a couple but I'm still holding out hope. I only started with 200 worms to begin with so I need them all to take. I've been thinking about ordering 1000 more. How long were your's pupa? I've read everything form 4 days to 6 weeks!

 

[BScott03]

I ordered 3,000 mealworms. How big of a space/ container should I put them in?

 

[StephieSky]

I ordered 3,000 mealworms. How big of a space/ container should I put them in?

Its the bottom surface you need to consider. No shallower than 3" with plastic sides they can not crawl up. I use an 8" high bin without a lid so I can pile it up with fresh bedding and greens w/o any escapees.

For 3000 growing worms I would go with at least 3" deep of bedding: I use ground oatmeal. Its super cheap in the big bag at Cosco. Old fashioned oats as quick oats wick up too much of the moisture from the water sources, while old fashioned oats are more resistant to hydration.
Anything with abt. 2 square feet of floor space will work. 12x24: 16x20 - something along those lines. Once you feed off some of the mature worms and get cycling you'll be able to support many, many more worms. Micro worms take up much less space and fewer resources than a mature one.
Remember when starting a new bin you have ZERO moisture in the oatmeal to start off. It will be like desert conditions for the mealworms. Be sure to keep plenty of moisture foods available the first month until the bedding itself begins to retain enough traces of moisture to raise the humidity level in the bin.
Have fun

 

[MossyoakLane]

Ok.....I took the plunge last week and started a mealie farm. I started with 100 worms....but no where near what I will need. I am thinking of ordering some adult beetles off of ebay. Is there another (better) source for adult beetles? Trying to speed up the process a bit......
I went for the drawer system. I figured it is the least noticeable......so my mom doesn't freak when she comes to visit. She hates bugs!

 

[StephieSky]

I just fed all my beetles to Gracie and Liza or I'd send you mine. Beetles are easy to ship. You just take a small box, cut a square hole about 3" x 3" in one side: cover the hole with window screen material and fasten in place. Stuff the box loosely with newspaper: add 50 beetles and 1 carrot and ship it USPS.

The easiest way I know to get live beetles is to find someone who has an established mealworm farm and way toooooo many beetles! Each beetle lays abt. 500 eggs. Thats a lot of worms that are going to hatch all at once if you've recently bought sorted and sized worms that are all of a similar age. I occasionally cull ALL of my beetles to stop from getting so many worms I can't manage them all in the setup I already have.

Put an want ad on CL or freecycle.org. I occasionaly give away my excess on both of those places. Especially if I'm due for my vacation. I clean out everything but the small worms and get rid of it so my bin can sustain itself for up to a month unattended.

 

[onafixedincome]

Make your chickens very, very happy and feed them the roaches! And the worms, if you can afford to...I'd probably pull out as many worms as possible, rinse in warm (not hot!) water and then spread on paper towels over clean substrate to dry out and dig in . Toss the remnants into the chicken pen and watch the fun (yuch!).