Raising mealworms?? Tips ?

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I was trying to raise some as a fun project because I’m bored . And I have a few smaller Ts that might eat them . I can’t tell when they’re dying Or pupae -inng . I should had went to the better pet shop so many were doa and lots are dying . Might be a lost cause … but worth a shot . 100 count should be enough to start a colony.

Put them in here clear lid .

 

[viper69]

They aren’t that exciting - I did it once- boring

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

They aren’t that exciting - I did it once- boring

Go figure didn’t help the pet shop sucks so many die before I got it . I don’t understand why these aren’t used as clean up crews do they attack roaches,??? Roaches are probably more exciting but they take forever to grow. Trying to start orange colony .. zzz

 

[ladyratri]

I had some lesser mealworms hitchhiked in on my feeder crickets and, uh, well... My feeder bin used to be where I kept crickets to feed to my spiders. It sort of turned into a bin where I feed crickets to my mealworms.

I can't imagine them dying off, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the quantity I have burrowed in the like maaaaybe 3/4 inch of dirt in there.

Too bad I don't have room for the army of slings I could probably feed out of that one critter keeper of tiny mealworms

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I had some lesser mealworms hitchhiked in on my feeder crickets and, uh, well... My feeder bin used to be where I kept crickets to feed to my spiders. It sort of turned into a bin where I feed crickets to my mealworms.

I can't imagine them dying off, I'm trying to figure out what to do with the quantity I have burrowed in the like maaaaybe 3/4 inch of dirt in there.

Too bad I don't have room for the army of slings I could probably feed out of that one critter keeper of tiny mealworms

Those are the ones I wanted for my Dubias . I wonder if regular mealworms are just as good ???

 

[ladyratri]

Those are the ones I wanted for my Dubias . I wonder if regular mealworms are just as good ???

No idea, unfortunately...

Clearly the solution to my problem here is to dump like 3/4 of the dirt in a small enclosure and ship it out

 

[Liquifin]

The only real downside as to why I don't breed mealworms anymore is because it can attract grain mites. If you get one small grain mite into that colony, they'll explode into millions within a couple of days. I've dealt with too many grain mite infestations to the point I told myself to never try to start a colony again with mealworms.

 

[MariaLewisia]

I started my colony in 2013 when I got my leopard geckos and I have to say, not the most exciting thing to be breeding for fun lol. All they do is dig around and eat. Cleaning the frass is also a hassle. But they are useful feeders, especially as prekilled or maimed for tiny slings, and they can survive basically anything so I like them.

Here's what I've learned during my decade of breeding mealies:

They require only the very basic:
- a plastic tub they can't climb out of
- substrate deep enough to burrow into
- some fruit and/or veggie
I use oat bran as substrate more often than rolled oats for two reasons, 1. I've the found that the worms grow faster eating bran and 2. it's small enough to go through a sieve and separate from worms/pupae/beetles. They do seem to enjoy getting rolled oats now and again but I only sprinkle enough for them to eat in a day or two.

This is one of the tubs of worms I have going now. Super basic but it works.



The worms are allowed to grow in this until they pupate. I move the pupae to another tub where they can turn to beetles. This is what they look like when they are ready to either moult or turn into pupae:



Their exoskeleton gets less shiny and the worm gets slow and doesn't burrow. It can still move (slowly) if provoked but mostly lays motionless on its side. After a few days it moults to either a bigger worm or it pupates. Dead worms get rock solid and/or dark brown to black in colour.



This is one of my tubs of (good) beetles. Same bran and depth but also a piece of egg carton for them to hide under or climb on. As long as they are given food you can keep pupae in the same tub, otherwise they will cannibalise the pupae. Same goes for the worms.
The beetles will breed and lay eggs in the substrate and on the carton. When the first beetles start to die off I use a sieve to separate the bran with all the eggs and the beetles. The beetles go in a new tub to continue doing what they do until they die and the bran goes back in the tub. In a few weeks there will be thousands of little worms in there and the cycle starts over.

However my current worms aren't high quality and this can be seen in the (few) beetles I've been able to produce. Mose of the pupae die before developing. This is the bad colony:



The beetles are slow moving, not very interested in food, and many of them have deformities. Most of them never turn completely black either and stay a brown colour. I think this is due to inbreeding as similar things have happened before when I went years and years without adding new blood. Oh well, I'll get some new ones in a month or so.

That's basically all there is to breeding these. Cleaning is very easy. You will get a lot of fine, dry poop ("frass") from the worms. Use a sieve to separate the worms from the frass and use a mask when working with it. Breathing in frass is the number one reason people become allergic to mealworms. Throw that away and fill up with more bran. Done!

A lot of sieving and waiting goes into mealworm breeding lol. But it's easy.

 

[MariaLewisia]

The only real downside as to why I don't breed mealworms anymore is because it can attract grain mites. If you get one small grain mite into that colony, they'll explode into millions within a couple of days. I've dealt with too many grain mite infestations to the point I told myself to never try to start a colony again with mealworms.

That's exactly what is happening in mine right now. Haven't had a problem in years and then boom, mites everywhere. A real time consuming pain.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

The only real downside as to why I don't breed mealworms anymore is because it can attract grain mites. If you get one small grain mite into that colony, they'll explode into millions within a couple of days. I've dealt with too many grain mite infestations to the point I told myself to never try to start a colony again with mealworms.

Can you raise them on oats?

That's exactly what is happening in mine right now. Haven't had a problem in years and then boom, mites everywhere. A real time consuming pain.

how do you avoid mites ?

 

[Liquifin]

Can you raise them on oats?

how do you avoid mites ?

Yes, you can raise meal worms on oats. But just know that it is a huge attraction to grain mites as it has everything they love which are dry edible grain. And leaving anything moist or wet like fruits or vegetables for too long and it'll attract the grain mites even more. Avoiding grain mites is something I can't figure out, which is why I gave up on them as a feeder colony. It only takes ONE little grain mite to cause mayhem, and once it spreads, it spreads extremely fast and wide.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Yes, you can raise meal worms on oats. But just know that it is a huge attraction to grain mites as it has everything they love which are dry edible grain. And leaving anything moist or wet like fruits or vegetables for too long and it'll attract the grain mites even more. Avoiding grain mites is something I can't figure out, which is why I gave up on them as a feeder colony. It only takes ONE little grain mite to cause mayhem, and once it spreads, it spreads extremely fast and wide.

Really feels like a lost cause then you saying I got to go buy bran flakes to avoid mites ? How do commercial breeders raise these things . O well if it fails it fails … should I just feed them off ? Why don’t they work as clean up crews for dubia??do dubia eat them ?

 

[MariaLewisia]

how do you avoid mites ?

I think I got mites now by leaving the bran uneaten in the beetle colonies for too long. The beetles don't eat the bran, they just lay their eggs in it, and if you leave the beetles in the bran with eggs for too long they will eat the eggs. So no babies = no one to eat the bran = mites get their feast.

That, or they came from the roach chow I got recently. That's what caused the infestation last time when it spread from the dubia colony to the mealworms.

So basically don't leave any food uneaten for too long. Not even bran or oats. Allow the worms to eat everything and only then do you fill up more grain.

 

[WhiteMoss]

Separate the pupae because if they're in with the worms or beetles they'll get eaten if the worms or beetles get hungry.

I use no sub for beetles and regular top soil with coco fiber for worms. Never had any issues.

Oats, mites, and mold all go hand and hand. Avoid oats.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Separate the pupae because if they're in with the worms or beetles they'll get eaten if the worms or beetles get hungry.

I use no sub for beetles and regular top soil with coco fiber for worms. Never had any issues.

Oats, mites, and mold all go hand and hand. Avoid oats.

So care for them like super worms what type of bran do you buy at the store for them ???

 

[WhiteMoss]

I don't use bran either. Simple topsoil and coco fiber. I found that over time they were basically living in frass (which started to have a not so pleasant smell) so I switched to soil and have had 0 issues.

Meal or super, worms are fairly prolific and as long as you keep them fed and hydrated (I do this by feeding carrots and lettuce), then they should have no troubles reproducing.

I also keep everything separate to avoid them feeding off eachother. Worms in one, beetles in another, and I scoop out any pupae from the worm container and keep them in a Tupperware container until they turn into beetles.
Every now and then I'll grab all the beetles out, dump they're old sub in with the worms (it'll be full of tiny worms and eggs) and give the beetles fresh sub, but only enough to cover the bottom... otherwise you end up with an excessive amount of sub in with the worms.

I should clarify; with superworms I use no sub for the beetles. With mealworms I use a small amount because I keep my mealworm farm in Tupperware containers and my supers in a plastic filing drawer/cabinet thingy

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I don't use bran either. Simple topsoil and coco fiber. I found that over time they were basically living in frass (which started to have a not so pleasant smell) so I switched to soil and have had 0 issues.

Meal or super, worms are fairly prolific and as long as you keep them fed and hydrated (I do this by feeding carrots and lettuce), then they should have no troubles reproducing.

I also keep everything separate to avoid them feeding off eachother. Worms in one, beetles in another, and I scoop out any pupae from the worm container and keep them in a Tupperware container until they turn into beetles.
Every now and then I'll grab all the beetles out, dump they're old sub in with the worms (it'll be full of tiny worms and eggs) and give the beetles fresh sub, but only enough to cover the bottom... otherwise you end up with an excessive amount of sub in with the worms.

I should clarify; with superworms I use no sub for the beetles. With mealworms I use a small amount because I keep my mealworm farm in Tupperware containers and my supers in a plastic filing drawer/cabinet thingy

Do you house each mealworms pupae separately which type of container can you buy to do this ? Or do you just house them together and remove hatched beetles ?

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I started my colony in 2013 when I got my leopard geckos and I have to say, not the most exciting thing to be breeding for fun lol. All they do is dig around and eat. Cleaning the frass is also a hassle. But they are useful feeders, especially as prekilled or maimed for tiny slings, and they can survive basically anything so I like them.

Here's what I've learned during my decade of breeding mealies:

They require only the very basic:
- a plastic tub they can't climb out of
- substrate deep enough to burrow into
- some fruit and/or veggie
I use oat bran as substrate more often than rolled oats for two reasons, 1. I've the found that the worms grow faster eating bran and 2. it's small enough to go through a sieve and separate from worms/pupae/beetles. They do seem to enjoy getting rolled oats now and again but I only sprinkle enough for them to eat in a day or two.

This is one of the tubs of worms I have going now. Super basic but it works.

View attachment 451569

The worms are allowed to grow in this until they pupate. I move the pupae to another tub where they can turn to beetles. This is what they look like when they are ready to either moult or turn into pupae:

View attachment 451570

Their exoskeleton gets less shiny and the worm gets slow and doesn't burrow. It can still move (slowly) if provoked but mostly lays motionless on its side. After a few days it moults to either a bigger worm or it pupates. Dead worms get rock solid and/or dark brown to black in colour.

View attachment 451571

This is one of my tubs of (good) beetles. Same bran and depth but also a piece of egg carton for them to hide under or climb on. As long as they are given food you can keep pupae in the same tub, otherwise they will cannibalise the pupae. Same goes for the worms.
The beetles will breed and lay eggs in the substrate and on the carton. When the first beetles start to die off I use a sieve to separate the bran with all the eggs and the beetles. The beetles go in a new tub to continue doing what they do until they die and the bran goes back in the tub. In a few weeks there will be thousands of little worms in there and the cycle starts over.

However my current worms aren't high quality and this can be seen in the (few) beetles I've been able to produce. Mose of the pupae die before developing. This is the bad colony:

View attachment 451572

The beetles are slow moving, not very interested in food, and many of them have deformities. Most of them never turn completely black either and stay a brown colour. I think this is due to inbreeding as similar things have happened before when I went years and years without adding new blood. Oh well, I'll get some new ones in a month or so.

That's basically all there is to breeding these. Cleaning is very easy. You will get a lot of fine, dry poop ("frass") from the worms. Use a sieve to separate the worms from the frass and use a mask when working with it. Breathing in frass is the number one reason people become allergic to mealworms. Throw that away and fill up with more bran. Done!

A lot of sieving and waiting goes into mealworm breeding lol. But it's easy.

How can you tell if they’re dying or pupating?? Is it even worth trying to start a colony with a 100 count feels like 30-50 after removing the dead o well I’ll give it a Shot.

 

[MariaLewisia]

How can you tell if they’re dying or pupating?? Is it even worth trying to start a colony with a 100 count feels like 30-50 after removing the dead o well I’ll give it a Shot.

Those are not dead. They're either going to moult or pupate. The dead ones are black and/or rock solid.

 

[WhiteMoss]

How can you tell if they’re dying or pupating?? Is it even worth trying to start a colony with a 100 count feels like 30-50 after removing the dead o well I’ll give it a Shot.

I keep all pupae in one container and yes once turn into beetles I move them to the beetle container.

You can anything as long as they can't climb out once they become beetles. Deli cup, old Tupperware (that your probably missing the lid to ), etc.

I started a colony (now in the 100s) with 3 worms that I found in with my the superwoman I bought when I started that colony. Lucky there was at least 1 male and 1 female, but nevertheless, you can start a colony 50. The less you start with the longer it'll take to get high numbers is all.