King mealworms not turning into pupae

[robinson]

Ok i have had my king meal worms for 3 weeks now, they were all over an inch long when i got them and some are not coming close to 2 inches long...

However i am waiting for them to turn into beetles and first i pupae im wondering how much longer i should be waiting?

also i heard that some worms are given hormones so they grow large and don't pupate is this possible that this happened to mine?

thanks

 

[BalloonzForU]

Kings aka Giants are the ones that won't change. Next time just purchase Large Meanworms.

 

[xximanoobxx]

If you want them to pupate, you have to separate each one using those really tiny sauce cups with lids. Or you could get those plastic boxes with dividers from a craft store.. From there, you wait for about a month until they turn into beetles. And I think you have to have a separate container for the beetles.

 

[BalloonzForU]

If you want them to pupate, you have to separate each one using those really tiny sauce cups with lids. Or you could get those plastic boxes with dividers from a craft store.. From there, you wait for about a month until they turn into beetles. And I think you have to have a separate container for the beetles.

That is what you do with Supers, these are King mealworm and do not need to be separated.

 

[robinson]

ok soo here is what i have found.

Today i went to change my bedding for my mealies and i found 3 pupae, (out of 150 king meal worms that i have) but thats a good start i suppose...

But the thing i was shocked about is that i check the meal worms every day and i never found any of the pupae on top of the bedding i discovered all 3 while changing the bedding.

So i guess this means that the king meal worms will pupate and turn into beetles and i have separated the pupae from the other worms because i heard that they may eat the defenseless pupae.

My 3 questions now are,

how long does it take for the pupae to turn into beetles.

How long will it take before the beetles start breeding and i get little mealies

Is it possible that i damaged our killed the pupae while changing the bedding even though they still look fine

thanks

 

[BalloonzForU]

The length of time to change from pupae to beetles can varry depending on temps. I'm not sure how long it actually takes for them to reproduce I usually just find worms after the beetles start dying off. If you think you hurt the pupae touch them and see if they wiggle, if they wiggle they are fine.

 

[robinson]

so is it odd that i found all the pupae under the wheat bran instead of on top? should i continue to search through the wheat bran for more pupae or wait to see if they appear on the top?

 

[ez2animate]

King mealworms are given hormones that stop them from pupating, or if they do pupate they wont reproduce, Because the hormonrs messed them up internally.