Mealworm farming

[MrsMoonCat]

I will definitely have to pass on the roaches too. I don't think there is anything that could contain them enough for me.. Of course, the hubby would probably love it.

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

Trying to figure out how much room I need for my 1,000 worms that arrived today. They were due to arrive Friday-Tuesday, so I wasn't prepared. I only had a 9" by 10" container with frozen wheat bran, to insure no pest were in there.

I now need to figure out how many containers I need, and how large they each need to be.

Here are my current containers I have found suitable - I can find more if necessary.
* 10" by 9" (in use) - has holes
* 8" by 5" - has holes
* A mini three drawer type thing. Each draw is 7" by 5 1/2". They are only 1 1/2" tall though. - holes cannot be put in, nor can the drawers be left slightly
* 12" by 6" - holes cannot be put in it

My mom doesn't want me to put holes in a lot of the containers, and won't let me leave a lid off. She wants a tightly fitting lid so there won't be any spills. I might just have to go to a store and buy a few containers - does that sound good?

I was thinking of keeping worms in one container and pupa w/ beetles in another. I've head that the worms will eat the pupa - or was it the beetles that will? Once the eggs are laid (unsure how I will know this) I might more the beetles into an other container so they won't eat the eggs. Or I could keep it simple, and just leave them all together.

What do you guys think?

 

[Ivywoods]

Roaches? NO WAY! Actually, folks, I am not squeamish about hardly anything. I think I have made myself sound like more of a wimp than I really am. But I, too, draw the line at roaches.

I grew up on the farm and we had to deal with some pretty nasty, dirty, gross situations once in a while. I started driving a combine on a custom crew for my dad when I was 13 years old and I did that every summer until I went off to college. I've had numerous bugs crawl down my shirt. (We had no cabs at that time!) June bugs, grasshoppers, numerous flying bugs that I couldn't identify. I didn't like it, but I didn't freak out either. One year in eastern Colorado there were swarms of flying ants. They seemed to be swarming and eating the green bugs in the wheat, but they all would fly to the highest point in the field. Well, that was us on the combine. We had umbrellas over our heads to keep the sun off (sometimes us girls would push them to the side so we could work on our suntans) and the ants totally covered the tops of our red umbrellas. The umbrellas were totally brown with ants, and the ants would roll off the edges and fall down in a clump on the platform on the combine. It was pretty incredible. My oldest sister drove trucks, and she couldn't even climb up to put the tarps on the truck. They were totally covered with ants. She would climb in the truck, drive down the road a few miles as fast as she could so the ants would blow off, then climb up and tarp the load. I'll never forget that experience.

Through all that, NOTHING creeps me out worse than ROACHES! When I was a junior in high school I was getting ready for school one morning. I had on a one piece dress that was short as was the style at that time. My little brother caught a cockroach and snuck up behind me and set it on my collar. I looked down, saw it,

screamed, and absolutely threw my dress off in one sweep of my arms and stood there in my slip right there in front of everyone!

My little brother was laughing his fool head off, that is until I proceeded to try to kill him.

Actually, I still love my little brother and he survived. I still hate roaches, though!

 

[In2Ice]

FYI...I read here that Sprouts didn't carry wheat bran in bulk. I was at a Sprouts today and they had it in bulk for .69 cents/lb

 

[MrsMoonCat]

I grew up on a ranch dealing with all sorts of critters, injuries and nasties. The cockroaches have always done me in. It seems to get worse as I get older.

As for the mealworm housing: the three drawer method is definitely my favorite. I start with the worms in the top drawer. When I start getting pupae, I move them into the second drawer. When the beetles emerge, they are moved into the bottom drawer. They lay their eggs in that drawer. The worms will start hatching and the while process repeats. I will usually feed my birds or freeze about 2/3s of the worms once they are a good size. The remaining 1/3 is moved to that top drawer to be the start of the next generation.

I am planning on getting a second set of drawers to get another batch of worms started. It is a riot to watch the birds flip out when they get their goodies.

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

I grew up on a ranch dealing with all sorts of critters, injuries and nasties. The cockroaches have always done me in. It seems to get worse as I get older.
As for the mealworm housing: the three drawer method is definitely my favorite. I start with the worms in the top drawer. When I start getting pupae, I move them into the second drawer. When the beetles emerge, they are moved into the bottom drawer. They lay their eggs in that drawer. The worms will start hatching and the while process repeats. I will usually feed my birds or freeze about 2/3s of the worms once they are a good size. The remaining 1/3 is moved to that top drawer to be the start of the next generation.
I am planning on getting a second set of drawers to get another batch of worms started. It is a riot to watch the birds flip out when they get their goodies.

I think I will buy a container for that, possibly...

 

[Scooter&Suzie]

So about how much room would you reccomend for 1,000 mealworms? Minimum? (I'll try to add a little extra, I just wanna know the minimum)

 

[Kassaundra]

I'm got my Dubia cockroaches a few days ago. Mealworms and darkling beetles have nothing on these guys in the creep-out department!

Just don't think of them as roaches, more like exotic south american beetles, or really big rolly polly's.

I raise dubias too.

 

[AliciaM]

On the darkling beetles.. how can you tell the males from the females??? I have read that with the roaches, you can remove excess males and leave just enough in there for breeding.. I was wondering if the same can be done with the beetles??? Make some room in there and feed the chickens at the same time....

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

For roaches, eliminating excess males might make great sense, since one male can fertilize many females. Female T. molitor are somewhat different though--they require multiple matings, from multiple males, to maximize reproductive output. Males transfer materials in the spermatophore that females incorporate into egg development. Females that mate with multiple males get more of this material and are therefore able to produce more eggs. Those materials are energetically expensive for males to make and they can become depleted with repeated mating. It takes time to replace these materials. Without extra males, females will lay only a fraction of the eggs they might otherwise lay. However, I would point out that it's relatively easy to tell males and females apart with proper magnification.