Mealworm farming

[Bugseye]

Congrats, dad!

 

[Sidhe13]

Congrats, dad!

Erm...mum...

 

[Bugseye]

Oops! Congratulations still coming.

 

[dstinett]

Please delete if not allowed. I started a mealworm farm support group on FB. I have learned so much from this forum. It is just hard to keep up with. I don't know how to share group but here is pic. I would love everyone to come share their experiences

 

[aart]

Please delete if not allowed. I started a mealworm farm support group on FB. I have learned so much from this forum. It is just hard to keep up with. I don't know how to share group but here is pic. I would love everyone to come share their experiences

 

[Sidhe13]

I am working on a very similar design to @velacreations 's tower. I need something streamlined and open to expansion.

Thanks for sharing your design and links!

 

[Massey]

Hi all,

I started a mealworm farm about 3 weeks ago, set up 3 containers with about 100-200 mealworms in each, they have started turning into beetles the last couple of days, i have been separating out the beetles to a new container,

my plan was in the bottom of the beetle container i was going to drill 100s of holes in the bottom of the container and sit it into another container and shake the eggs out through the drill holes - a few questions about this,

1. will this work?
2. do the eggs stick to the oats or are they dry and free in the container?
3. will a lite shake damage the eggs?


Also my plan was to change the worm boxes once all the current worms turn to beetles, and change the beetles boxes to have 4 beetle boxes on the go at once and load the beetles into each start with the first one for the first 3 weeks second one for the next 3 weeks and so on, the beetles in the first box will die and i'll make a new box 1 once the 12 weeks are up,

once the new worms start to hatch i'll be separating them into two sections, one to keep as worms keeping in the fridge and out for 1 day a week to feed, the other half to continue the cycle to mature to beetles to lay new eggs, etc,.


Just wondering if anyone know about the egg questions above and if there is any obvious issues with my plan,

Thanks all

 

[velacreations]

Don't drill holes, find a tray that has bigger holes already (or drill bigger holes) and cover the bottom with window screen. Yes, eggs and newly hatched mealworms will fall through. The beetle movement will shake things enough. Add a little wheat bran or fine material every once in a while to help pass things through.

For your growing trays, have a finer screen, like nylon mesh/mosquito netting) and the worms will sift the frass themselves.

Check out the trays on our how to: http://velacreations.com/howto/mealworm-farm/

 

[Sahwithchicks]

I have a quick question, hopefully you guys can answer it!
I received my order of 5k mealworms today from rainbow worms... I am really happy with the order. I found 2 beetles, one promptly flew off so I guess if wasn't the right kind. I also have found 5 of these guys. Does anyone know what they are? They have hair, 6 legs, light colored bellies, dark brown backs with a light colored broken strip.

 

[Sahwithchicks]