Meal Worm Guide

[Surf_420]

I was searching through some sites on the net about how to have

a breeding colony of meal worms and superworms. What i found was

probally the most definative site about mealworms.

I thought maybe this would help some people out seeing how questions

always get asked about this info.


http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm#dead


this site has all the info you would possibly need, as well as other

insects as well.

 

[Pacific Gecko]

Thanks Steve...That site is very helpful

 

[ssscales]

I set aside about 100-200 Beetles about 2MO ago to see how hard it was to breed mealworms. This morning I decided to move the beetles to another tub after not seeing any baby mealworms all this time. As soon as I moved the substrate and went below 1/4" there were what looks to be 1000's of baby mealworms about 1/8". After dropping slices of carrots and potatoes in their tub once a week; we finally got baby mealworms!

 

[Surf_420]

dont be fooled and throw out your substrate, as you said there could be 1000's of babys plus eggs that are hard to see.

i have read that they are more active with a RH of 90-100 % and at least 75 degress .

so if your seeing slow progress in there breeding... move them to a warmer place

 

[ssscales]

dont be fooled and throw out your substrate, as you said there could be 1000's of babys plus eggs that are hard to see.

i have read that they are more active with a RH of 90-100 % and at least 75 degress .

so if your seeing slow progress in there breeding... move them to a warmer place

I think maybe leaving them too long in one tub, maybe they were eating some of the eggs and babies? From now on we'll be moving the beetles to a new tub and saving the substrate every 3-4 weeks, just in case they were eating some of the eggs/babies.

But, it is very cool! I just lifted up some pieces of potato slices I left in there old tub and under every slice was dozens of little mealworms. We also just decided to try breeding some Superworms and see how that goes. We just separated 30 Super worms into their own small cups.

 

[Yeroc62]

I was actually amazed at how many baby mealies I had!! I almost gave up and threw the substrate out, and found hundreds and hundreds of teeny tiny worms. This is so much easier than I thought it would be! Right now, I have about 60 beetles and another 100+ pupae, so looks like a lot more mealies are on the way :main_thumbsup: Only thing that takes time is moving beetles and pupae and worms around all the time. I have little tubs all over my house! LOL

 

[ssscales]

I was actually amazed at how many baby mealies I had!! I almost gave up and threw the substrate out, and found hundreds and hundreds of teeny tiny worms. This is so much easier than I thought it would be! Right now, I have about 60 beetles and another 100+ pupae, so looks like a lot more mealies are on the way :main_thumbsup: Only thing that takes time is moving beetles and pupae and worms around all the time. I have little tubs all over my house! LOL

This is one thing I've learned, move them around and not letting them sit in one tub for 2-3MO. Even though we had mealies and lots of them, we probably would have even more if we moved the beetles to a fresh tub and bedding every 3-4 weeks. We've not got about 100-200 beetles and about another 100 pupae. I also set aside now 50 Superworms and hope they'll turn into pupae and beetles soon. Most have already started to curl up and looks like they'll be turning into pupae soon.