Mealworm farming

[azygous]

I just wanted to update information on a container of meal worms that I started back in February of this year in a container of wheat mill run, which is different from wheat bran.

I discovered, much to my surprise, that these meal worms wouldn't pupate on this substrate. They just kept growing to enormous sizes, reaching a length of an inch and three-quarters.

Well, I'm now reporting that, after five months of being in the larvae stage, some are finally going into the pupae stage and one has even reached the beetle adult stage! The pupae are enormous, twice the size of normal meal worm pupae.

The chickens of course have been thrilled with the enormous size of their snacks as I feed out some of these monsters, keeping back enough to continue my experiment.

Normally my larvae begin to pupate at around three months. I'm not sure what to expect with these pupae. They could as easily sputter out at this stage and not reach the adult stage. I will continue to update.

If you desire huge meal worms without going the super worm route, try getting hold of some of this wheat mill run to use as substrate.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I just wanted to update information on a container of meal worms that I started back in February of this year in a container of wheat mill run, which is different from wheat bran.

I discovered, much to my surprise, that these meal worms wouldn't pupate on this substrate. They just kept growing to enormous sizes, reaching a length of an inch and three-quarters.

Well, I'm now reporting that, after five months of being in the larvae stage, some are finally going into the pupae stage and one has even reached the beetle adult stage! The pupae are enormous, twice the size of normal meal worm pupae.

The chickens of course have been thrilled with the enormous size of their snacks as I feed out some of these monsters, keeping back enough to continue my experiment.

Normally my larvae begin to pupate at around three months. I'm not sure what to expect with these pupae. They could as easily sputter out at this stage and not reach the adult stage. I will continue to update.

If you desire huge meal worms without going the super worm route, try getting hold of some of this wheat mill run to use as substrate.

Because of my anxiety, I have already practiced the conversation I will have with my LFS owner when I call to ask if she has or can get this product.. at least 20 times!

Look forward to your next update.

 

[azygous]

Here's a good explanation of what wheat mill run is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_middlings Basically, it's all the good stuff left over after they process wheat to produce white flour.

Interesting tidbit: this is where couscous and semolina come from.

 

[Kusanar]

Here's a good explanation of what wheat mill run is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_middlings Basically, it's all the good stuff left over after they process wheat to produce white flour.

Interesting tidbit: this is where couscous and semolina come from.

So that stands to reason that if you want that in small batches and can't find it anywhere, you could give them a container of couscous... interesting. I may have to try that next time around.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Here's a good explanation of what wheat mill run is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_middlings Basically, it's all the good stuff left over after they process wheat to produce white flour.

Interesting tidbit: this is where couscous and semolina come from.

I love interesting tidbits.

I have seen wheat mill run as an ingredient on some feed labels. Now I know what it is!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I also see the wheat middlings on some.

 

[jigfishnut]

How hot is to hot for my mealworms? I keep them in my garage and the daytime temp. has been getting up to 95 or so and I have been having a lot of the mealworms dying and the beetles also. I've only had them about a month, feeding carrots every other day and no mold that I can tell. Have them all in one container with wheat bran and plenty of ventilation. Any Ideas!

 

[aart]

How hot is to hot for my mealworms? I keep them in my garage and the daytime temp. has been getting up to 95 or so and I have been having a lot of the mealworms dying and the beetles also. I've only had them about a month, feeding carrots every other day and no mold that I can tell. Have them all in one container with wheat bran and plenty of ventilation. Any Ideas!

IIRC ....that's close to the high end of what they can tolerate.
Can you put them somewhere cooler?

 

[Kusanar]

My mealies have gone nuts... I have them in a small container, likely too small, but they seem fine and they're hidden... The container has a good half inch of mealies just crawling on each other... I toss them a handful of cheerios (they also have grape nuts, pelleted horse feed, sunflowers, and oats in there but those are tougher to eat so they last longer) every other day or so and give them 5-6 eyedroppers of water when I feed them, they are turning it into frass at an alarming rate... I'm going to get some window screen and some 2 small bins (slightly bigger than what they're in now) and mesh the top one and put the worms on mesh so the frass can fall through and not build up so bad. They won't tunnel into the frass, they just sit on top of it in this massive pile... It's actually pretty neat. I may keep them in something like that after I get it set up, they seem happy in their pile and they certainly aren't wasting any food....

 

[mobius]

Kusanar why do you have mealworms and NO chickens? I thought chickens were a pre-requisite! or are you just practicing?