mealworm havesting / picture added...

B CAMP · Post by **B CAMP** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:01 pm

The white thing will be a beetle

CandoAviary · Post by **CandoAviary** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:07 pm

Oh Donna, LOL
The beetles lay eggs and then die

or

depending on if you like bugs.
The white things look to me to be the beginning of the pupae stage. You start with mealworms, they grow then they turn into white things...and no, the birds do not like the tough ones but usually devour the soft white ones. They continue to turn from soft and white to hard and tan or brown.(pupa stage) Then they emerge as beetles. The beetles breed and lay tons of eggs (too tiny to see). Then if you look in the bottom of the bran you will probably see micro tiny worms. These will grow into mini worms and then into regular meal worms. Then Pupae again, emerge as beetles and so on. Again and again.
Looks like you have the same thing going on that I have. HEAT EXTREME! The higher the temperature the faster the worms will turn to pupa and beetles. That is why people keep them stored in a cool refrigerator. It slows the developement of the worm. But you must have heat to continue the process..
Seems like you will just have to wait for the eggs to hatch and grow big enough to feed. I am out of mealworms of feeding size at the moment....good thing my guys eat boiled egg and I have been feeding the goldbreast termites about every 3 days besides the egg.
I have tons of pupa and beetles. Keep moisture to them and they will grow.
Think of it like butterflies. An ugly catterpillar grubs around eating leaves then it make a cocoon and pupates. Then it emerges into an adult butterfly and breeds, then lays eggs and then dies. Their eggs hatch into little catterpillars and the whole miracle repeats itself

These pupas are the beetles cocoon.

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:51 pm

okay..... it is just that I was expecting to see worms like the ones I bought and started with.

I haven't seen any of that. I removed some of the beetles to another drawer with fresh substrate.....

I did go out and get some of those TINY white things...... they devoured them! So are you saying that the heat is turning the worms into pupa too fast?

Thanks so much for your help. This is a new one on me.....

Post by **Sally** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 6:29 pm

Yes, those are the pupae. When you put your mealworms in the box, as Candace said, the extreme heat we've been having accelerates the cycle, so the worms quickly turned into pupae, and then some of the pupae have turned into beetles. They say to remove the beetles or they will eat whatever, but I have never bothered with that. Once they turn into beetles, I just leave them till they are all dead, then scoop out the dead bodies. Then you can set the box aside for a while, as the beetles should have laid lots of eggs, which will hatch into teeny mealworms. If the beetles ate some, I sure never noticed, and still had plenty.

My birds have never liked the pupae. They look like they are in hibernation, but if you touch them, they jerk--first time it happened to me, scared me half to death!

CandoAviary · Post by **CandoAviary** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 7:22 pm

I never to bother to remove beetles either unless I am setting up a brand new box. Then I put the beetles in to breed and lay eggs.
It is not always possiblr to get the pupae while they are soft and white, as they harden quickly and then the birds don't like them.
One thing you can do is when the worms get big enough to feed then you can take a bunch and put them in a container with a little bran. They will semi hibernate and not develop into the pupae stage...so that way you always have a mealworm stash when you need it. Rotate your refrigerator ones every so often because they can not hibermate indefinately

You were lucky to catch the pupae at the white stage, I find that is when my birds love them the most

I am proud of you, Donna.... I knew you could do it

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 7:26 pm

Thanks for all your help and support. I told my husband " I cannot believe I am doing this."

There is one thing I still am not understanding..... I have not seen one single "mealworm". Nothing that looks like what I started with......

CandoAviary · Post by **CandoAviary** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 7:30 pm

One more thing, the reason you did not see worms like the ones you bought is because they dont have baby worms. They have to change into a form that can lay eggs....hence the beetle. The worms you bought simply grew up. See you did good

Just think about the first person that saw a bird egg

They probably were very confused that the bird did not have a baby bird but something that resembled a really hard cocoon

Or when the really strange looking critter pecked out of that hard cocoon

Then started sprouting quills

Then one day turned into a bird and flew away

Must of been rather confusing to the first eye witness.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 6:02 am

Donna,

Those white grub things with the beetles are NOT mealworm pupae. I would suspect that these, along with the beetles have devoured all mealworm eggs which is why you haven't seen any worms. You will get far more worms from your colony if remove the beetles shortly after they turn black.

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 6:10 am

Matt wrote:Donna,

Those white grub things with the beetles are NOT mealworm pupae. I would suspect that these, along with the beetles have devoured all mealworm eggs which is why you haven't seen any worms. You will get far more worms from your colony if remove the beetles shortly after they turn black.

Matt,

I suspected that they were not. They move and did not look like pupae.

Do you have any idea what they are or how they could have got in there?

It is so strange to me.......Should I remove everything.... start over with just a few beetles?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:11 am

I have no idea what kind of bug they are!

I would start fresh with new substrate and try again.

Post by **Sally** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 9:16 am

Donna, if those things I called pupae are crawling around, then they are not pupae. Mealworm pupae only move when you touch them, and then it is like a jerking movement, and then they are still again. If they are crawling, then yes, you do need to dump the whole mess and start over, as something else has invaded your culture. Once in a while, I have seen a weird-looking worm in with the mealworm shipment, so I take that 'invader' out.

CandoAviary · Post by **CandoAviary** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 10:09 am

Are those things moving? Do you not have any pupae? white or tan?
If those things crawl, well I have never had any. I will try and get a picture of my pupae today

mike · Post by **mike** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:28 pm

Can you take one/few out and photograph it? It's hard to tell what it is when they are all half buried. I can probably ID it but I'll need to see it a little better.

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 6:49 pm

Sorry, they are gone. We burned some brush today and everything went into the fire.

I think I will be ordering mealworms tomorrow.

L in Ontario · Post by **L in Ontario** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 7:05 pm

Sorry to hear about your outcome, Donna. Hope next time round goes better for you.

Today I just set up a VERY small plastic box for mealworms to 'do their thing'. I had found 5 pupae in the mealie dish in the Stawberry cage so I used those and a few more worms with bran and oats topped with a few layers of newspaper and two pieces of potatoe... we'll see what if anything happens.