Mealworm farming

[kendles]

Who are you referring to? You are welcome to message me privately. If someone is marketing raised in the USA and shipped from someplace else, I would like to know.

http://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=live+mealworms

Not to badmouth anybody, but PLEASE check out the above website: There is bulk for everything and everyone. This is were a company mentioned on here a lot , receives their supplies from what I have been told by one of their former employees at our last poultry meet-up. Breeding the worms here in the USA would be so much more costly and labor intensive. Shipments in big containers from China to Long Beach, California to their facility. All they do is unpack, refresh bran and moisture source, repack and ship straight to your door. Yes, mealworms DO get shipped alive from China to the US market.
As always, you get what you pay for....

 

[kubotafoot]

Originally Posted by jenneverett

OK so i took a look with a higher magnification and have circled the real eggs in my paint program



i was so excited that my "farm" was doing so well! in most of the videos i watched nobody showed pics of the eggs but i did watch one where the gal put cut up squares of cloth into the beetle bin and they laid the eggs into the channels created by the fabric when made. so i knew the approximate size of what i was looking for. but nobody ever shows frass other than to show it as a fine substrate at the bottom of the bin. i know in my main bin i have a more powdery buildup with granules on the bottom. in this photo i did circle the eggs... not all of them but a good many.
so again in my excitement i assumed erroneously that all the itty bitty specs were eggs..but i diligently did as asked and magnified them using my macro feature and was able to see the error of my ways. i apologize profusely for my assumption.

"so again in my excitement i assumed erroneously that all the itty bitty specs were eggs..but i diligently did as asked and magnified them using my macro feature and was able to see the error of my ways. i apologize profusely for my assumption." and was able to see the error of my ways means what? The circled things are eggs or just frass? Or the eggs are circled (many of them as you said) and the other stuff is just broken bedding/feed and manure? I wish an old hand at this farming would chime in and tell us from your great macro photos (Thanks so much!!!) just what we are looking at. I still can only remember reading the eggs are microscopic and not visible to the human eye, but what you've shown on the plates indeed are visible. So much to learn about manure.....so little time......

 

[kendles]

Beetle substrate depth
I received some beetles in the mail today and was curious. How deep does the substrate need to be?

 

[Latestarter]

Beetle substrate depth
I received some beetles in the mail today and was curious. How deep does the substrate need to be?

Same as with the rest of the farm... couple of inches will do

They'll spend most of there time chasing lady beetles, laying eggs, and hiding from the light.

 

[kendles]

Same as with the rest of the farm... couple of inches will do

They'll spend most of there time chasing lady beetles, laying eggs, and hiding from the light.

I have the larvae in 3" substrate - do they really need to be that deep? The Beetles that is...

Beetle Boogie

 

[jenneverett]

and was able to see the error of my ways means what? The circled things are eggs or just frass?

the error was to assume everything on the plate was eggs... the circled things are eggs at the best magnification my camera can manage and still be somewhat in focus. all the other odd shaped items are indeed frass. i can say that because the food they have is of a different color. but just guessing the red-ish ones are from eating the carrots.

 

[kendles]

Do mealworm Beetles need exercise/entertainment? I mean. I want to use the same type container I am using for my larvae. 20" x 16" x 6" I will use another for my egg/ nursery under the beetle box. So this has a large surface areas, and I only have about 100 beetles - how deep for the bedding?

 

[kubotafoot]

I have the larvae in 3" substrate - do they really need to be that deep? The Beetles that is...

Beetle Boogie

I have 4 bins, each a different depth, from 1"......1 1/2".....2" and 3"...
1"has beetle, pupa and meal worms in it and they are so fine, digging down a little, but not real far.
1 1/2" had just pupa put in and now has beetles and pupa. Beetles mostly on the top chasing the girls.....
2" has just beetles in it and I see none deep down into the food/bedding and 3" has just beetles and they do not use any where near the 3".
I'd venture to say square footage is much more important that depth, since no one has used the full depth on my 2" or 3", but love to borrow on the more shallow.

 

[crazy huhn]

X

 

[countrygirl86]

The past few days have been very humid. I removed the lid from my mealworm tank. The bedding seems dry but I don't want it to be too moist. I was curious if I could put some dry rice in to absorb any moisture out of the bedding.