mealworm havesting / picture added...

[L in Ontario]

I have my first beetle today! Light brown but I guess it will darken to black soon. I'll try to get a pic of it.

[mickp]

time for everyone to put in their worm orders. wont be long until Liz has millions of them crawling everywhere

[L in Ontario]

Well since I can't ship live material across the border - I may just have to toss a few on the BBQ

[B CAMP]

I think someone had a recipe for cookies with mealworms that sounded pretty good

[lovemyfinch]

Hey Liz, before you BBQ 'em, send them on over here - no borders. Ever since the eggs have been hatching the shaftails have been going through at least 100 a day. Because of the weather I have only been working half days - and when I get home they're all out. Should I be giving them extra provisions , or will they eat other foods while they are waiting for a refill?

[L in Ontario]

IF I can get any baby mealworms (never thought I'd see the day I'd being talking about MY baby mealworms) ; I'd be most happy to scoot some over your way Janine.

Here's pics of the mealworm pupae and a newly emerged beetle. Then the same beetle darkening the next day already.

[lovemyfinch]

Now I'm ashamed of myself, yesterday while cleaning out the cages I threw out a pupae. I had no idea what it was until your pics Liz.

On Tuesday I have an order of 1000 coming in, so I discussed it with hubby, and we will try raising the 2 or 300 I have left in the fridge. Like I told him, with the shaftails eating almost 100 a day (and this is when the babies aren't eating on their own) it would be much more economical to try and raise them.

Can you post a pic of your container Liz, so I know what I'll need to pick-up with the mealies. And what did you put in the container to feed and make them grow?

[L in Ontario]

I just use a plastic Rubbermaid container about 4" high and 8" long x 4" wide - had hubby put holes in the lid. Then I found out you don't even need a lid or just put it on sideways - not sealed, so they get plently of air circulation. Honestly you can use ANY plastic container.

I put dog-kibble in and again found out and agree that bird-kibble (parrot pellets) would be even better. I also use Oatmeal flakes and Bran cereal. But I bought the wrong kind of Bran - you can see in the pics, long "stick" like things - that's the bran - I should have gotten Bran Flakes.

On top of the oatmeal, bran and dog-kibble I tossed in a 'few' worms, whatever pupae I could find in with the worms and laid 2-3 layers of newspaper cut small enough to not touch the sides of the container. Then I bought a whole potatoe and cut slits all over it and laid it on top of the newspaper. So far this potatoe is doing okay and not going moldy. You need to keep a close eye on any fruit or veggie to make sure it doesn't go moldy. That can wipe out everything.

So you see I did so many things wrong with mine. I'm sure you'll do better, Janine.

[lovemyfinch]

Ok so I never thought I'd be saying this in my entire lifetime - but I have mealworm pupae.

[lovemyfinch]

My first beetle. Hurry up shaftails are hungry!

[lovemyfinch]

Curious minds need to know, has anyone had any luck with their mealworm farms. Just needed to post this "I have mini, very mini, mealworms", so it can work.

[L in Ontario]

Okay I hope this isn't too 'silly' but can you have too many beetles? Here's a pic from last week with about 10 beetles but now there's quite a few more (closer to 20)! Do I have to get them a larger container or can I just leave them in this one. It's about 5" wide x 9" long x 5" high.

How are your farms doing Janine and Donna?

[lovemyfinch]

That's a great question Liz I was also wondering if we should be seperating the beetles to another container

I think my farm is doing pretty well, I haven't had to buy any mealies in 2 weeks. I had been buying 1000 every week. I was never able to buy 5000 at a time, so the last batch of 1000 I threw in with the other 200 and have just been feeding the shaftails from the container. They seem to really love it when I give them a white one about to turn into pupae. (I'm guessing that they are juicier)

[Sally]

The white ones are from when the mealworms shed their skins as they grow. When they are white, they are supposed to be more tender, as the brown skins are tough (I'm not about to test this out myself! ). They will shed many times, being white when they first shed their skins--then they soon turn brown again.

For me, the ideal thing is to move the beetles to a new drawer (or container). I use wheat bran, so I put fresh wheat bran in a drawer, add the beetles, and just give the beetles a little sliced potato. Soon the beetles will lay hundreds of eggs and then die off. Once all the beetles are dead, they can be cleaned out and the drawer set aside. Eventually, those eggs will hatch into microscopic worms, eventually growing to a nice size for feeding.

[mickp]

have found that my cordon's prefer the white mealies as they are softer, they actually eat the whole worm instead of selected bits.

to have a continuous supply of mealworm you need to have more than one container of them on the go.
I use 4 containers. they were set up roughly a month apart. at present one is full of bugs (approx 1000), the second has pupae and the odd worm, third has mealworm in it that are now to big to feed to the birds so will be left to pupate and the fourth has heaps of tiny mealworm in it (biggest would be 1/2") that I am currently feeding to the birds.
I leave the bugs in the container until they die off and then put that continer to one side to wait for the mealies to grow.