Questions about raising Meal Worms

[ferguson63901]

Thank you all for the help! I don't close the lid. It has about a 2 inch gap on top. I can cut a hole in the top easily. Will do that this evening. I am using a single bin due to time. We have 6 children, so time is not to my advantage most days I may decide to do the drawer system if mine get out of hand! It's stangely exciting watching them grow and change.

 

[ferguson63901]

Oh, I did read on a thread that its best to keep them in the dark. Someone correct me if this is wrong. Thanks again

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

Oh, I did read on a thread that its best to keep them in the dark. Someone correct me if this is wrong. Thanks again

A dark room is usually recommended but I don't keep mine in a totally dark room and they are doing just fine. Mine are in my pantry were the light goes on only a few minutes at a time, however it is not totally blacked out.

 

[gmendoza]

DW had bought me a plastic utility drawer tower at wallyworld when I was raising mealies. It became a 20 tier shelf! the shelves were 4" deep and kept them buggers inside. I had certain drawers for larvae, for pupae, for adults, and for eggs.

Potato was the choice of food, along with oatmeal/cornstarch combo for bedding. My buggers would lay eggs on the bottom of the plastic drawer, so transferring eggs was a sinch. Just remove live into a drawer to keep producing and dead adults to the jettison pile ( bowl for chickens) from the drawer after a week and move into the "eggs" portion of the shelf.

Larvae get moved when they become pupae

Dead larvae go to the Jettison bowl

Pupae get moved once they become adults. Remaining unhatched pupae get moved to another pupae drawer.

Dead pupae go to the Jettison bowl

Adults go into the adult drawers.

Dead Adults go into the jettison bowl.

We keep a moist paper towel on top. It did two things:

Kept moisture in the drawer
Wicked excess moisture out of bedding

We had zero mold.

Leftover potatoes and veggies go into the jettison bowl.

 

[alicemarie]

Someone had pictures and great directions for raising mealworms...who was that please?

 

[DHinton]

DW had bought me a plastic utility drawer tower at wallyworld when I was raising mealies. It became a 20 tier shelf! the shelves were 4" deep and kept them buggers inside. I had certain drawers for larvae, for pupae, for adults, and for eggs.

Potato was the choice of food, along with oatmeal/cornstarch combo for bedding. My buggers would lay eggs on the bottom of the plastic drawer, so transferring eggs was a sinch. Just remove live into a drawer to keep producing and dead adults to the jettison pile ( bowl for chickens) from the drawer after a week and move into the "eggs" portion of the shelf.

Larvae get moved when they become pupae

Dead larvae go to the Jettison bowl

Pupae get moved once they become adults. Remaining unhatched pupae get moved to another pupae drawer.

Dead pupae go to the Jettison bowl

Adults go into the adult drawers.

Dead Adults go into the jettison bowl.

We keep a moist paper towel on top. It did two things:

Kept moisture in the drawer
Wicked excess moisture out of bedding

We had zero mold.

Leftover potatoes and veggies go into the jettison bowl.

a 20 tier shelf sounds like a LOT of mealworms.

how long did it take you to rotate all of them around? or did you have a system, instead of just reaching in and handling each and every one of them individually?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Someone had pictures and great directions for raising mealworms...who was that please?

Check out the links in the first page of the mealworm farming thread. You can learn everything you need to know to get started there.

 

[SD fun feathers]

Does anyone have meal worms to sell, as I am wanting to start farming them for my chickens and ducks? If anyone does or can provide me with the type of meal worm I need to purchase, please private message me.
Thank you, SD

 

[jenneverett]

my first shipment of meal worms has arrived! i have put them in an under bed storage tote and have started their lives in my house with oats, corn meal, and bread crumbs. for moisture i have used some lettuce that was not getting eaten by the boys.




you can see some of them have shed their skins.

 

[stelladvm]

So, my bins have lots of now deceased beetles and deceased worms in lots of strata (about 4-5" deep) There are still some live beetles left. How long until I will see baby worms?? Seems like it has been a while now with nothing!!!