Mealie breeding?

[OneFootedAce]

kay so i started breeding some mealworms so that i dont have to go to the sotre constantly or order off the internet, i started about mid february and its now mid may, i have 50+ beetles with another 60 more pupae that'll be beetles shortly, i still see no sign at all of any mealies, how long does it usually take? i know that the eggs are pretty much invisible, but when should i expect to see some worms? I've been seeing lots of breeding going on since around end of march-ish.

 

[laurlaur12]

it takes a while for them to grow up. have you been seperating the different stages??

 

[dmuehl]

When I started mine it took 6 - 8 weeks to get them started. At that time I noticed the tiny worms on the bottom of the carrots that I was feeding the beetles. At that time I move the beetles to another container so that the worms can grow up.

Now I move the beetles once a month as there are always tiny worms on the carrots by that time.

Good luck on your mealworm breeding.


Superworms took me much longer to get a colony started.

 

[OneFootedAce]

it takes a while for them to grow up. have you been seperating the different stages??

yep im seperating mealies from pupae to beetles, but like 3 months? that seems abit long...

 

[Pepper]

Dig around in your bedding, the worms are really, really tiny!!

 

[Beneath]

They are thin as a hair when I normally see them.

 

[OneFootedAce]

good news i saw one really small one similar to this : - so i guess more are coming thanks for the help patience is key

 

[untamedg]

Yea starting a mealworm colony can take quite sometime, I started my colony about 3 months ago, bought about 3000-4000 mealworms to start with and im just getting mealworms that are big enough for hatchlings. It takes a lot of time, but be patient and once you have it going its quite easy/money saving.

 

[OneFootedAce]

yeah i found a few little tiny mealies on the carrot a few days ago thanks for the help all!