Mealworm farming

[bobbyc1970]

thank you one is brown and the others are whitish and brown. this is so cool.
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[CluckyJay]

What is a normal death rate of the larvae? I am losing quite a few and was curious if its normal for them to die like that. I have 1,000 mealworms in three of those six quart sterlite containers. They are in whole wheat flour. I had potato pieces as a moisture source and I change it before its gets moldy. No condensation that I can see. I don't know how many are dying, but it is several a week. Lots are starting to pupate too. The ones that are changing are in their own 6 quart container. I didn't add air holes but I take the lids off every day. I am gonna go ahead and poke some holes just in case that is the cause.

Thanks!

 

[homesteadinmama]

I bought my 3 large drawer set up, and the worms will be here by Thursday. Now I saw that some people use wheat bran or oats? I have instant oats, would that be okay? Also I have unmedicated chick starter and grower pellets, would those be okay for the top drawer? Worried that the chick starter would still fall through the screen to the second drawer. Then what do I put in the second drawer, same as the top? Thank you.

 

[Mystic Farms]

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and they'll all be black tomorrow

 

[Mystic Farms]

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instant are usually not recommended - the regular old fashioned rolled oats are recommended, but if it's just to use some up or a quick fix it won't hurt them

 

[JSLKelly]

I live in Monroe, La. and get my mealies local from Armstrong Crickets. Until this summer I could go downtown to the warehouse and pick them up, now they only sell out of the warehouse to wholesellers. UGGG, but a local feed and seed very close to the house sells them. You guys could order them online. You'll pay the same amount I would by picking them up from the warehouse....they didn't offer discounts hence the reason I ordered crickets from Canton, MS. -- nicer people. But back to mealies, the ones I've gotten have been nice. If you are still having trouble getting orders, you might want to check them out. www.armstrongcrickets.com -- my dragons and my gliders like the wax worms too! If anyone orders, let me know how they ship.

BTW, back to half morphs. No idea what the problem is. Still have a TON of beetles just no new ones since last week and then only 1/3 of the pupa went beetle. However, it isn't all a loss, the dragons like them in any form!

~Jenn

 

[LibertyChick]

Update on mine. I now have 2 buckets within my very large bin...one for pupa and the other for the beetles. I have at least a couple hundred pupa in the bucket and adding more and more every day and only taking out maybe 10 beetles every day. I counted about 45 beetles in the bucket. I put the beetles in the bucket so that they have no trouble finding each other to mate.

Is there a way for us to tell if a beetle is male or female?

How do you know if a worm is about ready to change into a pupa or if they are a young worm? I'm going to stop giving my chickies wormies (only gave them about 10-15 worms each day since I got them) until I get worms from my 45+ beetles because I don't want to run out of worms and reduce my mealie population.

 

[Hunterlauren93]

I had my mealworms going on the 14th of july. My mealies have turned into pupa and beetles already i didnt expect it to happen that fast...

 

[Klwright1122]

Ahhhhh....found my first babies!!! Soooo tiny--like the size of this exclamation point ! Well maybe a bit fatter, but not by much...
So excited...

 

[CluckyJay]

I got one beetle, lol. Lots of pupae. I almost squished it thinking it was a freaky-looking bed bug, LOL.