best way for mealworms?

[david13]

Does anybody out there have a good and easier way to separate mealworms and beetles and the pupae? The only way i know of is picking them out one by one. That gets a little ridiculous after thousands of mealworms and hundreds of pupae. So please share any ideas/ suggestions. Thank You.

 

[sablebeauty]

I used a hand strainer to get the worms out of the media and the beetles usually scamper off on their own.

 

[BadKelpie]

Yeah....don't. As long as they have plenty of food and water sources, they don't eat eachother.

But then, no one ever believes me when I say this, even though I haven't had to buy mealworms in a very long time.

 

[MiamiLeos]

BadKelpie, how many geckos are you feeding? I think it makes a big difference if you're feeding only a few versus many. I separate mine but would love not to have to. However, if it lessened my production, then separation may be worth it for me.

 

[david13]

If you don't separate them unless you pick them out.. what happens when you have to pick out hundreds at a time? You'd have to sift them. That would take hours to not?

 

[acpart]

Here's my method:
1. Whenever I sift my mealworms to feed the geckos, I pick out any pupae or beetles that I find in what I've sifted (I don't worry about the ones still in the mealworm container). I put the pupae in a container with no gutload and the beetles in a container with gutload and veggies

2. Before I start my (nearly) nightly feeding I check my pupae container and move any beetles into the beetle container. There's no gutload, so it's easy to see and remove the beetles

3. Every month or so I sift my tiny worm container and put all the worms that don't fall through the sifter into my feeder worm container (so I have 4 containers: tiny worms, feedable worms, pupae, beetles)

3. Every month or so, I remove the dried up veggies from the beetle enclosure and sift the gutload with the tiny worms into my tiny worm container. Then I pick out the beetles and put them back in their container with new gutload. This is the only really tedious part

If you start slow with #1 above, eventually they'll be all sorted.

Aliza

 

[david13]

im trying to picture it haha. so you sift it out the first time and then you have to actually pick them out of the sifter because only the gutload or whatever falls through. but after that, they will all eventually be sorted out just by sifting the certain containers? because the baby worms will fall through, pick out the beetles manually.. and then ur left with big worms for feeder? i dont know if what i said makes sense hah

 

[bigcat]

i have had all my mealworms puppa and beetles together i just decided to separate all of them i took all the beetles and put them in there container and a took a small container and put my puppa in there i check the containers every day its alot easyer that way other than that i dont know away to with out picking them out.

 

[acpart]

im trying to picture it haha. so you sift it out the first time and then you have to actually pick them out of the sifter because only the gutload or whatever falls through. but after that, they will all eventually be sorted out just by sifting the certain containers? because the baby worms will fall through, pick out the beetles manually.. and then ur left with big worms for feeder? i dont know if what i said makes sense hah

When I feed my geckos I scoop up a bunch of mealworms and gutload and sift out the gutload. Then I dump the mealworms into a container that I take to each cage so I can feed the geckos. Before I feed them, I look in the container and remove any beetles or pupae to the appropriate bin. Since I'm sifting the mealworms anyway to get them out of the gutload for feeding, this is no big deal.

Every now and then, I sift through my tiny worm container. As the worms get bigger, more and more will stay behind in the sifter. I sift the gutload into an empty container and whatever mealworms are still stuck in the sifter get dumped into my feeder worm container.

The only pain in the neck part is picking the beetles out of the sifter when it's time to do the beetles. I like to remove the dead ones and I don't want a whole lot of tiny worms in with the beetles when they get their new gutload. Consequently, I have to pick them out of the sifter. I don't do that very often, though.

I hope that helps.

ALiza

 

[Kotori]

What I did the first time, but haven't had to do since because i use less food, is not give them any moisture for 1-2 days, then dampen a papertowel and set it on top. about a half hour later, flip it over and there should be enough to feed off stuck to the bottom. This can also be done with long strips of carrot.

 

[david13]

yes it does. thank you. what kind of sifter do you use?

 

[acpart]

yes it does. thank you. what kind of sifter do you use?

Just a regular metal mesh strainer like you'd use for flour.

Aliza

 

[Owens]

Yeah....don't. As long as they have plenty of food and water sources, they don't eat eachother.

But then, no one ever believes me when I say this, even though I haven't had to buy mealworms in a very long time.

I do the same as you, I just keep them all in one container and make sure there lots of fresh veggies in there, I started my colony back in Sept and I am now feeding 12 leos from it without the need to stock up. I have started another colony with the purchase of new mealies in anticipation of needing more for the hatchlings this year.