Mealworm farming

[Chicks Galore3]

Okchickens, you have been a great help! Thanks!

 

[In2Ice]

So just for clarification...you leave the worms, eggs, and pupae together in the middle and bottom drawers and just separate out the beetles to the top drawer? The worms won't dine on the pupae? Will the beetles eat the pupae if I separated the pupae in with the beetles and just left the eggs and worms together?

 

[OkChickens]

Okchickens, you have been a great help! Thanks!

Thanks! When I started a few months ago I asked many questions as well!

In2Ice
So just for clarification...you leave the worms, eggs, and pupae together in the middle and bottom drawers and just separate out the beetles to the top drawer? The worms won't dine on the pupae? Will the beetles eat the pupae if I separated the pupae in with the beetles and just left the eggs and worms together?

I separate them out for this reason. I have been finding pieces of Pupa before and the worms will not eat them. The beetles even eat there own sometimes. I havent had to clean out the Beetle Drawers yet.

Nate

 

[hannakat]

Chicks Galore3 ~If you follow the 3 links on the first post of this thread, you will learn almost everything you need to know to get started. Gallo and I have BYC pages devoted to the mealies and Amy has a website. Glad you're joining in!

G-Man
How long do you recommend heating up the wheat bran to ensure all the little critters are dead?
Do I only have to do this once as long as I store it in a sealed container?

I'm not sure that we've had a good answer to this. I keep a careful watch on it when I nuke it ... stirring it frequently. It can quickly get too hot so be careful. I've not written down the time and don't remember off hand

I've also roasted it in the oven for about 15 minutes at 300 degrees.

Zookeeper
I've had beetles for at least 2 months now, no meal worms! They are in a large black tote with 2 pans inside, one with a screen bottom sits on top of the other. They are in wheat bran. I give them potatoes, although I just switched to carrots. I keep my thermostat at 67, but it may be slightly cooler where they are. Is it just to cool for them?
Any help would be appriciated. I'm sure the answer is in this post somewhere, but with over 300 pages, I can't find it!

They're in there....just tiny. 67 degrees is on the cool side. Carrot is a good choice....don't feed them for a day then put some carrot in, wait 5 minutes then quickly lift the carrot up. Bet you find some babies! Beetle to beetle will probably take almost 6 months at 67 degrees. I say this because it takes over 5 months at 70 degrees. Hope this helps!

I have a question for you..... do you have anything between the 2 pans? You'll want some space for ventilation.

Beccasmith ~ Doing the happy dance!!!


In2Ice
Just a couple quick questions about the 3-drawer system. I put screen on the top drawer with oats for the beetles. The worms and eggs fall through into the middle drawer. I house the worms in the middle drawer until they pupate. When they pupate I move them to the bottom drawer until they turn into beetles. Then I move the beetles to the top drawer. Is this how the rest of you do it? Do the pupate and worms really need to be separated or can you house the worms, eggs and pupate together in 2 drawers and just put the beetles in the top drawer? Also, has anyone figured out a good way to separate the pupae from the worms besides just picking through them and removing them by hand? Any tips or tricks would be appreciated. I have 1200 worms in a 3-drawer system and they are starting to turn to pupae.
Thanks!

I actually keep the pupae in a small container in the bottom drawer. I pick them out one by one using a plastic spoon. I check it every day and move any morphed beetle to the top drawer. The beetles will munch the pupae and anything else that doesn't move. Live, moving worms seem not to be bothered by the beetles. A couple months ago, I put 2 dead beetles in my worm bin just to see what would happen and they are still there. The worms are not interested in them.

Every once in a while I switch the second and third drawers. It's like starting a new colony. I figure one drawer can only hold so many adult wormies. When I 'house clean', I strain out the adults, strain out the frass, and put the rest back in.

Although, since winter settled in, I have been growing out the worms in my oven. I keep the light on 24/7 and it stays at 79 degrees compared to our house temperature of 70 degrees. Hope this helps!

 

[hannakat]

how long do they live? As adults. Do they die soon or would you be like: "die already! my chickens are hungry!" as your shaking the bin? How do you preserve them?

Life cycle stages... this is relative to conditions such as temperature, food source, etc:
Egg Incubation: 4-19 days (usually 4-7). Another source says 20-40 days
Larva: 10 weeks. Visible after about a week
Pupa: 6-18 (18-24?) days
Beetle and Egg Laying: 8-12 weeks (followed by death). Egg laying starts 4-19 days (average 12) after emergence

Hope this helps!

When I got to the second generation I started freezing the mealies in containers to have available in the winter. I free range the girls in the summer so they find their own bugs so I just need them in the winter. I thaw them out for about 15-20 minutes and they are back to 'live' consistency. I didn't try drying them since from everything I've read, it's better to slow roast them on a grill outside cause it's a smelly job. They freeze very well though.

 

[gale65]

If I'm going to transition to drawers I need to get it done. Maybe I'll get some drawers this weekend or maybe try to find some that I don't need around the house. I have very few live beetles left so there are a lot of wormies and before long, they'll probably be pupating again. This will be my 2nd generation. YAY!

eta: we really like looking at the worms/beetles so I think I might try some kind of open top system. Or maybe cut a square in the top of the drawer thing.

 

[onafixedincome]

Trying something new to water the beetles. They just weren't doing well with carrots/moist bread/anything else I'd tried, so I picked up a jar of the cricket water stuff yesterday and gave each bin a good 'glop' of it. Once back in the dark, they glommed onto the stuff and seemed quite content, so we'll have to see how it goes....Anybody know what happens to that stuff when the water is gone? How do I tell?

 

[galanie]

I've no experience with cricket water but here's what I do for moisture: They have a few layers of newspaper on top of the stuff in their bins. Every once in a while I splash a bit of water, about a tablespoon, on that newspaper. They love it.

 

[galanie]

So just for clarification...you leave the worms, eggs, and pupae together in the middle and bottom drawers and just separate out the beetles to the top drawer? The worms won't dine on the pupae? Will the beetles eat the pupae if I separated the pupae in with the beetles and just left the eggs and worms together?

The way I did it, I never had pupae or beetles in the second and bottom drawers. I harvested all those, only allowing the ones in the top drawer to pupate. Because like I said, they won't all fall through the screen. You'll still have some worms in the top.

As soon as I'm sure there's no more moths around here, I plan to go back to that system, I loved it. But if any moths ever get in there, you're done for. Trust me, I've been fighting them for months now. Can't use poison because of birds in the house but I think my traps and removing all other food sources is finally doing the job.

 

[Kassaundra]

By "cricket water stuff" do you mean the water crystals that expand by 1000% when you add water?

If so it just disapears or they eat it

I use it all the time in the dubias, and sometimes in the mealworms (as an experiment) I put it in a jar lid trying to keep it out of the substrate but they just bury the lid and get it all messy, but so far just a few days and it is all full of dry substrate and meal poo and skins.