Mealworm farming

[CrazyChookLady5]

Welcome! I'm in Southern California, also a dry, hot climate, and my worms are doing well. I keep them in a plastic bin under a tree outside, so they're in shade all day. Every few days, I leave the lid open so it doesn't get too humid in there. Beware, though - one day I found my chicken inside the bin! She had knocked the lid completely off and was helping herself to a snack.

Once you get a colony started, it will keep giving you worms, so the initial expense is worth it, I reckon.

thanks my worms didnt get too far only about 3 or 4 actually turned into the pupa, i think thats what its called, so they didnt get very far! but i think ill give these aother go

 

[dstinett]

I'm in Texas and keep my worms in plastic bins in the laundry room. They do great. You don't even notice they are there. I tried outside but it was too hot n humid

 

[aart]

Sheddings, Frass and fresh Bran Pic.

I've seen lots of folks ask about what the frass(poops) looks like, was tending my bins today and in one of the higher populated ones found a resounding separation of shed larvae 'skins' and abundant frass underneath it.
So I laid down a bit of fresh bran and took this pic, just for curiosities sake and thought it might be helpful to some folks who are new to the game.

 

[zarafa121]

I thought my worms were dead - not moving around much - they were in chicken scratch. So . . . I bought another batch, another bin, and some bran. As soon as I dumped them into the bran, they disappeared, and it was the darnest thing to try to find them. I thought keeping them in sunlight was good because it was warm. Wrong! I moved them into the bathroom with very little light, and when I check on them, most of them are on the top until I take the covering off, then they go for a dive. I even found some wiggling in the bin I thought had just dead ones in it. So far about half of the first batch are now pupae. It's a trial and error thing, and I sure do appreciate all the tips and experiences on this thread.

A thought about the grain beetles: I think if you put your medium (bran, oats, etc.) in the freezer for 24 hours, it will kill the larvae and eggs of the grain beetle. That works in the kitchen with flour and other grains, so it should work for the mealworm farms, too.

 

[RenaG]

I can't seem to keep enough moisture. I put potatoes and carrots in and they are dried out within a day. They are in a 10 gallon fish tank on our back porch. No direct sunlight.

 

[dstinett]

I can't seem to keep enough moisture. I put potatoes and carrots in and they are dried out within a day. They are in a 10 gallon fish tank on our back porch. No direct sunlight.

I have to keep mine indoors

 

[gpage4118]

Hi everyone. I am fairly new at Mealworm farming. I have read most of this post now and have learned so much. I just made a short description about how I set up my mealworms...

There are six drawers-
1 Beetles w/screen
2 Eggs (Month 1)
3 Small Mealies (Month 2)
4 Medium Mealies (Month 3)
5 Large Mealies w/screen (Month 4)
6 Frass Collection

Let me know what you think?

 

[CrazyChookLady5]

I can't seem to keep enough moisture. I put potatoes and carrots in and they are dried out within a day. They are in a 10 gallon fish tank on our back porch. No direct sunlight.

this is another reason mine all died to. the potatoe and carrot would dry out really fast and i coldnt keep the moisture in :/

 

[Latestarter]

Quote:

I can't seem to keep enough moisture. I put potatoes and carrots in and they are dried out within a day. They are in a 10 gallon fish tank on our back porch. No direct sunlight.

this is another reason mine all died to. the potatoe and carrot would dry out really fast and i coldnt keep the moisture in :/

There was another woman on here who was about to give up for these same reasons. She lives I believe in Arizona. She didn't have air conditioning indoors, couldn't use a swamp cooler due to the humidity it caused, and couldn't keep her worm veggies from drying out rapidly. She though they had all died. Wasn't too long ago she came back on all happy because she had thousands of new baby worms here's what she did:

First, I know a LOT of folks leave their worms outdoors. If you live where there are extreme temp differences, I recommend against this. You should keep them inside in a more controlled environment. They like the same temperatures and humidity that we do. They do best in the low to mid eighties. As you approach the upper nineties, they get stressed and you can kill them. If you get much below 65-70, the same goes.

They do NOT like light. They like it DARK and do best if you can keep them away from any bright light. If you lay newspaper in the container they will pile up under it and between the pages to get to darkness.

Even when not in direct sunlight, the dry heat of desert areas will suck the moisture right out of the substrate/medium as well as any veggies you put in there. If there is the slightest breeze, it can quadruple the drying effect. Think of mummys and cattle skeletons all bleached out white. Or if you are a canner/prepper, think of dehydrating fruits and veggies... the dehydrating machines apply two things... dry heat and a fan to move the air.

Since the heat causes evaporation, what I've found is the best solution is to place an open bowl of water inside the loosely COVERED container or a wet sponge on a plastic container lid to keep it from coming into direct contact with the substrate. As the water evaporates from this, it will add sufficient humidity to the inside of the container to keep the veggies from drying out too rapidly. The worms/beetles will not be able to get into the bowl so no drowning issue. They WILL crawl up onto the sponge and "bathe" in the water there You will NOT want to use the sponge for anything else after this, believe me. In fact. they ate mine.... I used to wonder how many eggs I washed down the drain when I rinsed it out to put back in the containers. Keep an eye on the sponge. It too will dry out and you'll need to keep it wet to allow the veggies to stay moist.

Good luck!

 

[aart]

Quote: Latestarter makes very good points in his post above! Tho I found that the smaller larvae will burrow deeply right into the sponge, so put it in a little cup of some sort, take out condiment containers work well keeping the top edge well away form the surface of the bedding.




Another option might be if your environment is very dry and potatoes and carrots dry out too fast then use 'wetter' vegetables but put them on something water proof on top of the bedding. I use a plastic can lid and nestle it down so the top surface of the lid is almost even with the surface of the bedding, they'll find it.
Keep an eye on it as they can actually carry the veggie right off the lid and bury it, so I adjust it so the bedding doesn't become saturated and possibly grow mold.
Here's a pic with a small chunk of watermelon rind I am experimenting with, they'll chew it right down so only the very outer skin is left.