Mealworms

[Hardemans]

Hello,

There are thousands of posts on this subject. Rather than go through all of them I thought I would throw this out to the community.

I bought mealworms from PETsMART a couple of months ago. They went from worm to pupa to beetle but it stopped there. No new worms. And now the beetles are slowly dying off. Feeding them to the new chicks.

I heard that the mealworms from PETsMART are treated to prevent reproduction. Is that a fact

Thanks

The Hardemans

 

[jdduck]

It will depend on where that store gets there shipments from pet smart has different vendors in different parts of the country. Go to the fish bait shop theirs are cheaper and just as good if not better.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

First of all,

I don't think you should give up on your mealworms just yet. Sometimes mealworms are treated with Juvenile Hormone, an insect hormone that delays or eliminates maturation. What this generally means is they typically do not pupate or transform to adult beetles. These treated mealworms are much larger than untreated mealworms and are sometimes sold as giant mealworms. I don't think that's what you have given that they pupated and then transformed to beetles. The elapsed time between beetles and first worms in the initial generation can take a couple months, especially if the temperatures around the colony are cooler. Take a couple spoonfuls of substrate off the top and spread it out on a piece of paper. You should see lots of very tiny worms at this point.