Baby mealworms!

[IslaReina]

Right when I was about to give up on the cage i was using to house mealworm eggs and place the parents back in there to start again, I saw a little bit of motion at the bottom in the substrate. I blew a little bit, and a bunch of VERY tiny mealworms began to squirm around! Haha, I was so proud! (I feel weird saying that I was happy to have baby bugs in my house...)

I have a couple of questions.
1) How long will they take to get to an appropriate size to feed to an adult gecko?
2) They are living in mushed up grain cereal, but should I provide them with carrots or something to give them moisture? What's the best way to ensure they will live to be big enough to feed to my gecko?

Thanks!

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Yes they need moisture, carrots are fine. They take 1-2 months to grow up. Eggs will keep hatching for a good while.

 

[IslaReina]

Ok thanks so much!

 

[Kotori]

Well what I do is put eggs in, wait a week or two, then place a carrot in. about a half hour later, lift the carrot- if you have babies they will swarm the carrot. One thing is make sure to sift beetles every 2 weeks to get the maximum number of mealies, and to correctly size them (I have 3 worm jugs, 2 weeks apart- small, medium and large. small is only 2 weeks old, large is 6)

I use wheat bran as substrate, thinking of grinding a bit to make it easier to sift, with some wheat flour mixed in, carrots for mealworms (apples are a treat for beetles- swarm!)