Mealworm farming

[wolftracks]

First start growing some tomatoes

then HARVEST

I never saw these things in my garden till last summer.... HUGE worms. I would think only a hand full would fill up a few birds.

So far none om my plants. I've only ever found one, but I used to have a friend that always got them. The birds get the tomatoes though, so it works out.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote: First start growing some tomatoes

then HARVEST

I never saw these things in my garden till last summer.... HUGE worms. I would think only a hand full would fill up a few birds.

In the span of a couple seconds I thought, "cool picture of hornworms. Wait, that looks familiar. Hey, that's my pic!" What a blast from the past. Unfortunately, they are the easiest things to grow. Like DMRippy said, grow lots of tomatoes. I would add lots of pepper plants to that too. Before I began using Bt, that was a small fraction of the daily take for much of the summer. The bad thing is, if you're not there to harvest them every day, you quickly run out of plants to attract them. Or to eat for yourself.

 

[NCGrammie]

LOL, I came home to a moldy mess, green as grass!  He put a lot of stuff in there, and I did have a cup of water in the center that may have spilled?  Lots of bread left to mold.  We pulled out what we could and put them in new material but a lot died anyway.  Now I have some that survived and have pupated and I'm hoping for a new batch of healthy worms again,

LOL Oh no!!! I would have been mortified!!

 

[griffinkid02]

First start growing some tomatoes

then HARVEST

I never saw these things in my garden till last summer.... HUGE worms. I would think only a hand full would fill up a few birds.

See, I live in Alabama, and we have never had a problem with those....

I can't recall ever seeing two at a time, let alone a chicken meal. And THAT healthy, lol

 

[bobbieschicks]

Sorry for referencing an ancient post, but I want to raise THESE! lol. So much prettier than the mealies. Anyone got an idea how to start

Put tomato plants in your gardent - that's how I got them! LOL!

 

[bobbieschicks]

First start growing some tomatoes

then HARVEST

I never saw these things in my garden till last summer.... HUGE worms. I would think only a hand full would fill up a few birds.

Hahaha! Great minds think alike! Or maybe we just have similar growing conditions. At least the chickens had fun in my garden eating the worms and the cherry tomatoes.

 

[onafixedincome]

If you want to have LOTS of worms and moths to feed your chickens, try silkworms instead--if you have fruitless mulberries, you can raise a HUGE number very quickly. It's not super simple (it's twice daily maintenance no matter what) but it is very effective.

The 'tomato hornworm' is actually the larvae of (I think) a type of Sphinx moth. The GardenWeb forum on Butterflies is a great place to ask all your moth/butterfly questions, since there are people there who have deliberately raised them, and some plant tomatoes specifically for moth food! The moths are pretty and large, as well as being pollinators of several species.

 

[RainbowMealworm]

It depends on how much you want to feed your chickens. For growing the mealworms, you need to let them pupate and turn into beetles for the first cycle to maximize your feeders and worms to reset for laying eggs. For each beetle you should get 15 to 20 adult mealworms in about 6 months.[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] You must keep them above 72 degrees (they complete the life cycle more rapidly in warm/humid conditions); the optimum is 77 to 82 degrees. [/FONT]

I hope this helps!!

 

[RainbowMealworm]

Hi Chrissy! I hail from CSUF majoring in Biology myself. Some topics that we've found have issues you might be able to use:

1. The mealworm castings (manure) are used for fertilizer; some farmers are concerned with E. coli in the gut of the mealworm. It would be interesting to know if this is true, and if so is the strain harmful to humans. Mealworms produce organic fertilizer that is dry, odorless, and don't have the environmental concerns that cattle raising bring.

2. There is also a cricket virus that has nearly wiped out the nation (if not the planet) supply of Acheta domesticus. Any work in that arena would be greatly appreciated by the entemological society, insect farmers, and the reptile/birding community.

 

[RainbowMealworm]

Fall is upon us and I can already see that winter will be here before I want it to be. I've noticed that my larva are turning into pupae at an alarming rate. So while I still have many many thick large worms, I also have a bunch of tiny skinny babies as well. I've spotted a few beetles - but not too many. Of course with all those pupae I should I have beetles within a few weeks. Seems like they are changing fast. I'm worried that I will soon have all beetles and no mealies to feed out.

How to I keep this going all winter so that the chickens can eat them during the colder months? Do I freeze a bunch of worms to feed them out later? Do I have to preserve them somehow? Do I just purchase a new crop of larva once these go to pupa so that they are growing at different stages in different bins?

My recent thing was to separate the pupae into the top bin and let those turn to beetles so I can clearly see how many mealies I have left. I've also cleaned out most of the larva from the bottom drawer and am waiting for some time to see if anything still exists in that drawer. How long do I need to wait before I can dump that drawer and start it fresh without worry that I've dumped the tiny babies?

Thanks!
Bobbie

I hope this makes sense - I'm operating on lack of caffiene and 3 hours of sleep - lol!

Hi Bobbie

You can either store your mealworms in the refrigerator (they'll keep a couple of months); or you can keep them in a heated room so the life cycle continues.

For the eggs that might remain in the drawer; you can keep it for about 2 weeks (the average incubation time is 4-7 days).