Mealworm farming

[TheSpiceGirls]

Quote:
I put a few pieces of beet in there but it didn't look like they ate any of it and I took it out when it looked pretty dried up.

Hmmm, maybe it's too hard to be interesting.
I think I'll give it a try. Sounds like it won't hurt them.

 

[Klwright1122]

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Try it and let us know.... I'm finding that mine are picky eaters...they like carrots and potatoes just so-so..they really like banana peels and some green leaf lettuce that I had...now I am going to try some celery... They didn't care for crooked neck squash...

 

[LibertyChick]

Quote:
Try it and let us know.... I'm finding that mine are picky eaters...they like carrots and potatoes just so-so..they really like banana peels and some green leaf lettuce that I had...now I am going to try some celery... They didn't care for crooked neck squash...

I use organic for everything...

Mine seem to like celery, banana peels, carrots, and they seem to absolutely LOVE the ruffly kind of Kale (they cover the Kale).

The potatoes, beets and apples are hit and miss. I put some potato pieces in there and it looks like nothing has eaten on it at all, whereas there is another piece of potatoe that they have made total tunnels in. I had to pull the apple slices out because they started getting moldy.

I will be trying swiss chard today.

 

[HenCrazyMom]

I found a couple beetles and a few pupa in the mealworm bin today. It is so much fun to check on the progress.

 

[Klwright1122]

Quote:
Those beetles were in the bin for about 3 weeks now. I received them as part of an order ...so they could have mated before they got here...but I put them in their own bin...and I noticed the babies along the corners of the bin...about a half dozen so far... I also noticed on the bottom of the bin ( looking underneath while holding it above my head)

some " skinny trails" in the dust on the bottom
...so I was sure there were worms in there--just couldn't see em. But I finally noticed them this morning along the edges of he substrate in the corners of the box. No bigger then ? --no kidding...
I put all my beetles in one bin, they mate, lay their eggs and hatch worms in one bin. They are roughly all the same age...as the bin matures (3-4 MOS fm now) I will remove a couple hundred worms and put them in another bin to start the process over again...
I have 2 bins with beetles right now....one bin is about a month further ahead of the other. I have another bin with younger worms...as they mature I will start another...so I am hoping to start a new bin every other month or so...all at various stages so I'll have a constant supply. As I harvest the bin I will refrigerate the worms...

How do I choose a younger worm to feed to my chickies as opposed to older worms that are getting ready to change into a pupa?

I replied to this earlier---but don't know what happened to it. Anyhow, right now I am separating my worms by size. The most mature ones seem to be about an inch and a half. A few weeks ago I rcvd 5000 worms of various ages.... Within a few days many started to pupate...so as I dug thru the substrate I removed all the pupa everyday until I had about 100 or more--about a week. I put them in a separate box. The bigger worms I harvested and put in my frig...the smaller of the worms are still eating and growing. As Those pupa turned into beetles, I put them in a new bin so they could mate, lay eggs, and hatch. As those medium worms continuento grow, and
once they begin to pupate, I will gather another hundred and do the same thing. This way everything in the new bin is relatively the same age, give or take a few days.

 

[kizanne]

Okay I've read about 65 pages of the 104 so forgive me if this is a repeat (but I think it is new).

Can anyone give me an estimate as to how many babies one female beetle makes? (assuming that there is a male beetle to make babies).

I'm a teacher and I got my mealworms about weeks ago after reading this forum. I love them and want to use them for my class this fall.

I am designing a learning lesson based on their reproductive cycle and numbers. Each group would get 3 pupae. I am trying to figure out the smallest box for a group assuming I let the babies grow to small / medium size worms before feeding to my chickens. I can get these wonderful little boxes with a locking lid for 25 cents right now that are about 2x3 " and about 2 1/2 " tall. I think they are perfect but don't want to try to have 1000 babies in it. I would fill 1 1/2" with wheat bran maybe even 2" tall. While not spacious for 3 beetles think it would be fine and just trying to decide if it is enough for the babies those guys would produce. I can also cut down on the breeding by removing the beetles before they die but after they would have had a chance to lay eggs. Give me any opinions or advice. Keep in mind though that oh just to be safe I'd get a bigger box isn't as easy as it sounds (or cheap) which is why I'm trying to make the small box work for money and classroom space.

Thanks
Kiz

 

[galanie]

Quote:
I think I read anywhere from 200 to 600 each. It is in this thread somewhere but I couldn't find it either.

 

[Klwright1122]

Quote:
I think I read anywhere from 200 to 600 each. It is in this thread somewhere but I couldn't find it either.

Kiz: you might like this web page since you are a teacher. http://lhsfoss.org/fossweb/teachers/materials/plantanimal/tenebriobeetles.html

 

[hannakat]

kizanne ~ Welcome!!!

Sounds like a wonderful project. How old are the students?

The box size would be fine for a while but please be aware that if it's made of cardboard or wood, the beetles and worms can crawl out. It takes a smooth-sided container to keep them 'in their place' heheheeee. eta: Butter or cottage cheese containers make great wormies homes and can easily accommodate 200-600.

With 3 pupa per box, there are many variables that can occur....maybe all three will be the same sex. Some might not morph. You're students will be able to tell if reproduction is happening cause beetle can be observed mating.


When researching them, please use many different sites since they all seem to contain information that is questionable. Don't forget our own mealworm expert, Gallo del Cielo, who has a wonderful information page. https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=56638-how-to-raise-mealworms

Aside from some very questionable moisture/humidity recommendations, I really like this site as well. http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm

Some sites state that they only live 1 month and the eggs cannot be seen by the naked eye. I have photos of the eggs on this thread and have collected them to find out for myself how long it takes to hatch in my home conditions. The beetles in my 3-drawer colony are now OVER 3 months old, still laying eggs and there's only been 4 dead so far.

Please let us know what you do and how it turns out! I'm very interested in your findings!!!

 

[kizanne]

Thanks for the support and answers! Sorry if this is too long.

I teach math not science so we will be mostly collecting data and using logic to conclude answers. We will also be graphing and using math to support our observations.

Slightly OT but here is the whole plan for now that I may modify as school approaches. I'll give as much detail as possible so anyone who wants can give me feedback.

These are 6th grade students so that is about 11 years old.

Students will receive a plastic box with locking lid that is 2x3 x 2 1/2 inches deep with holes drilled in the top.
Students will measure most likely using tablespoons a given amount of wheat bran (I have to measure to find out how much will fill the box with about an inch left at top) Measurement is a math skill (see how sneaky I am wish I could tell you about my cookie project but it is way off topic).
The students will be given 3 pupae.
We will make observations on how long it takes the pupae to hatch out into beetles. At which time small about 1/2" cubes of potato will be placed in boxes and changed every Tuesday and Friday. Students will learn about the life cycle of beetles/mealworms and will make guesses as to how long before we see worms. Two weeks after all beetles pupate then they will be removed.

We may or may not (haven't decided and depends on many other timing/school issues) take a day and get a white paper plate and dump our box looking for eggs/tiniest worms.

Either way students will continue changing the potato every T and F looking for small worms, first day seen will be recorded.

Once the worms get large enough to actually see good in most boxes, we will definately have a dump day and count your worms.

At this point, my chickens will come to school in a large refridgerator box to collect their worms in person for any child wanting to feed a chicken.

We will follow up with food chain lesson and maybe deviled eggs.

We will mean, median, mode, and range both days to hatch and number of worms.

We will then take our number of worms data and graph it all on one giant scatter plot. Where I'm hoping we will have 3 distinct groups. Those with 0 babies, those with say 200 worms (number itself doesn't matter), and a group of roughly double the babies say 400. We will discuss why do we have 3 groups, what controls the babies? A little sex ed, very little like take a boy and a girl little. We can surmise that some groups got 3 female or 3 males hence no babies. some groups got 1 female, and some got 2 females. This will lead us to a probability lesson where we compare experimental (observed) probability of 3 females to theoretical (math) probability of 3 females. Where they similar? different?

We might if we have time do a cost analysis as well. Our cost versus Petco.

6th grade in Florida has specific standards which include mean, median, mode, range, and graphing. My advanced student always do probability. I love this plan, we will see how it goes. Any problems you see let me know.

Now thanks to that dang target commercial I have to figure out how I'm using glitter in this project, SO MUCH GLITTER.