mealworm havesting / picture added...

[L in Ontario]

So MORE containers of mealies Crap I thought I was doing great with ONE container *sigh* Fine, I'll surrender ANOTHER food container to the silly worms or beetles!

[dfcauley]

How are your farms doing Janine and Donna?

ahhh Liz, I gave up on that. Call me a quitter......

I am soooo very proud of you though. Who would have thought it?

[Finch Fry]

You will need a few containers to do this right actually.

I have been talking to my friend who has a worm business and he has explained to me how to raise my own. He said this is how it works.

1. The beetles lay eggs
2. the eggs turn into meal worms
3. the meal worms turn into white/brown alien looking things (called pupae)
4. the alien things turn into black beetles.

The worms eat the eggs. The pupae (alien) eats the worm. the beetle eats the pupae (alien) and worm. So its probably ideal to have 4 containers.
1 for worms, 1 for pupae, 1 for beetles, 1 for eggs.
As eggs hatch, move them to worm bin. As pupae go to beetles, move them to beetle bin. As beetles lay eggs, they will die, removed bettles and put the eggs in the egg bin which will eventually turn into worms...

You get the idea. I am planning to start 4 small 5 gallon fish tanks in my garage once I get moved this weekend to my house. Investment cost for tanks and material is about 2 months worth of meal worm supply.

[B CAMP]

I still like the pay one time per month .just seems like a lot of work .
The mealworms are the best thing I buy for my birds just because they like them so much,I wish they ate everything like they do mealworms

[Ursula]

The pupae (alien) eats the worm.

The pupae don't eat anything, they are dorment.

I used to divide mine into 3 containers, for worms, pupae and beetles. But I've heard that some folks keep them all in one container with success. After pausing for a year or so I am just now again starting my mealworm farm again and have beetles already but not worms hatched from eggs yet. I do separate the beetles though, because I also keep them all in oatbran and that gets eaten and after a while you have only "waste" and no bran. So I plan on keeping 2 containers: one with worms and pupae, one with beetles. After all worms have turned to beetles I'll put the beetles in fresh bran and keep the old bran which then contains the eggs that develop into new worms.
The problem with sorting out eggs is that you can't really see them, so how to sort worms from eggs?
I don't think my worms eat the pupae but some of the pupae seem to die off and turn brown. However, that also happened when I used to sort them out.

Have you also experienced malformed beetles without wings etc that don't live long? I am wondering what can cause this...

[lovemyfinch]

Big, Big question. Last night I finally started a 3rd bin taking out all the beetles to let them lay in another bin. In the bin that they were in I could see the bran moving around, so I put a tiny amount under a childrens bug microscope. What I have are a bunch of tiny little white microscopic things moving around. Are these meal worms or did I breed something completely new.

Please, Please answer, for the time being they don't look like anthing.

[mike]

Big, Big question. Last night I finally started a 3rd bin taking out all the beetles to let them lay in another bin. In the bin that they were in I could see the bran moving around, so I put a tiny amount under a childrens bug microscope. What I have are a bunch of tiny little white microscopic things moving around. Are these meal worms or did I breed something completely new.

Please, Please answer, for the time being they don't look like anthing.

Grain mites. Harmless.

[cindy]

Thanks for sharing that with me.

Anyway raising mealworms, I would love to hear from you. Do you remove the beetles? I NEVER saw any worms...... perhaps they did eat them. But I still wonder what those white looking things are.....

Hi, my husband is a Entomologist, I showed him your picture. He said the beetle looks like a common ground beetle. Your colony of mealies probably got infested either before or after you bought your original batch of mealies. The mealies grow into what is called a darkling beetle.

We used to raise them for our reptiles, mostly crested geckos and various lizards. We replaces the contents of the original container they were shipped in with either oatmeal or bran flakes (grind it). Supplement them with apple slices, carrots. Remove the fruit after a few hours and the substrate around the fruit so as to not grow any mold from moisture left behind by the fruit. Whatever your mealies eat the birds benefit from. You can gut load the mealies with fruits, sweet potato slices and veggies.

[mike]

Thanks for sharing that with me.

Anyway raising mealworms, I would love to hear from you. Do you remove the beetles? I NEVER saw any worms...... perhaps they did eat them. But I still wonder what those white looking things are.....

Hi, my husband is a Entomologist, I showed him your picture. He said the beetle looks like a common ground beetle. Your colony of mealies probably got infested either before or after you bought your original batch of mealies. The mealies grow into what is called a darkling beetle.

We used to raise them for our reptiles, mostly crested geckos and various lizards. We replaces the contents of the original container they were shipped in with either oatmeal or bran flakes (grind it). Supplement them with apple slices, carrots. Remove the fruit after a few hours and the substrate around the fruit so as to not grow any mold from moisture left behind by the fruit. Whatever your mealies eat the birds benefit from. You can gut load the mealies with fruits, sweet potato slices and veggies.

To whose pic are you referring? All of the pics in this thread show darkling beetles. I can tell tell you this on good authority because I also have a background in entomology.

We need to stop putting fear into everyone's minds about breeding mealworms (darkling beetles). It's the easiest thing in the world and requires next to nothing to do. The worst pests you'll find in the mealworm bin are the mealworms themselves and I'm being dramatic even when I write that.

[cindy]

Thanks for sharing that with me.

Anyway raising mealworms, I would love to hear from you. Do you remove the beetles? I NEVER saw any worms...... perhaps they did eat them. But I still wonder what those white looking things are.....

Hi, my husband is an Entomologist, I showed him your picture. He said the beetle looks like a common ground beetle. Your colony of mealies probably got infested either before or after you bought your original batch of mealies. The mealies grow into what is called a darkling beetle.

We used to raise them for our reptiles, mostly crested geckos and various lizards. We replaces the contents of the original container they were shipped in with either oatmeal or bran flakes (grind it). Supplement them with apple slices, carrots. Remove the fruit after a few hours and the substrate around the fruit so as to not grow any mold from moisture left behind by the fruit. Whatever your mealies eat the birds benefit from. You can gut load the mealies with fruits, sweet potato slices and veggies.

To whose pic are you referring? All of the pics in this thread show darkling beetles. I can tell tell you this on good authority because I also have a background in entomology.

We need to stop putting fear into everyone's minds about breeding mealworms (darkling beetles). It's the easiest thing in the world and requires next to nothing to do. The worst pests you'll find in the mealworm bin are the mealworms themselves and I'm being dramatic even when I write that.

..........................................................................................................

I was referring to "dfcauley" on page 1. I tried to do a quote with the picture but it would not allow it. It is possible that more than one species of beetle infested the colony and there is more than 1 species of beetles in that pic. I have also raised crickets and from time to time when ordering 1000 we had little hitch hickers that were harmless show up in the container when it arrives, it happens. Mealworms are a great, easy source of protien, I plan on starting a colony of my own this week. My owls love them, my waxbills have not shown a great interest in them yet.

If you want to take a little piece of screen mesh (like they use on pool screens) and tape it over any air holes it can help keep anything you may not want in your colony out, especially living in Florida the bug capital of the world!!!!

[dfcauley]

Well all I can say is that I had a very bad experience trying to raise my own mealworms.

It was not from the lack of trying either. I do not know what infested my colony, but I just gave up and went back to ordering them.

[L in Ontario]

I still have my "colony" go/growing. There are soooo many beetles now and I still have everything in one container.

[lovemyfinch]

I did some investigating on the net. I had mites, soooo....we removed the beetles put them in a new bin, and threw out the mites. Back to the old drawing board.
This apparently happens when you have too much humidity, was probably the sponge. They say to put in sliced potatoes (from which the beetles will get all the humidity they need by drinking the juice) when they dry up, change them.

[mickp]

I dont add any water to my colonies, they get moisture from the fruit & veg I give them, carrot, cucumber, apple etc

[lovemyfinch]

I dont add any water to my colonies, they get moisture from the fruit & veg I give them, carrot, cucumber, apple etc

This was apparently my downfall, I had read on one of he posts to put in a damp sponge. But now have read that this would bee too much humidity, causing mites , which had been my problem. So I dumped out the bin with mites, after removing the beetles. Hopefully this time things will work out. In the meantime, I guess I'll have to keep buying mealies at the pet store. Argh.