Mealworm Beetles egg expectancy and transporting help...

[Jeff876533]

hey guys, so far ive got about 25 beetles, 15 pupating, and around 20 still mealworms. Im going to add more mealworms to the tub, but first i have a question. Around how many eggs does one female mealworm beetle lay?? and also, after how long should i transport them out of the bedding, and how would i do that??

thankss,

Jeff K.

 

[GeckoMandi]

I don't know how many eggs they lay but I know it took mine about 2 weeks to turn into beetles and that's what I have right now.

I started with 100 mealies all in 16qt shoebox tub on wheatbran, then I just started moving the beetles to another tub for breeding with wheatbran bedding as well, now in another 2 weeks I will move the beetles again and see if they layed any eggs in the second tub. I use tweezers to move mine they gross me out! lol

 

[acpart]

I switch my beetles over about every 4 weeks. The easiest way to move them if you have a lot is to take a strainer and strain the substrate back into the original container. Then the beetles will be left and you can dump them into the new substrate. If you don't have so many, or when you get down to the last 20 or so, you can use a plastic fork to sift through the substrate. They usually cling to the fork and then you can transfer them. Fingers work too if you're not too grossed out.

Aliza

 

[eyelids]

I've read females lay up to 500 eggs at a time!

 

[Jeff876533]

I've read females lay up to 500 eggs at a time!

dang, if that is true than i'll have a lot of mealies in no time lol. Thanks for all the responses guys, it really helps a lot. I'll probably move my beetles in around 3 weeks to a new tub. I use wheat flakes w/ codys pro gutload on the bottom. question though, can i just use codys pro gutload along w/ a fruit or veggie for moisture?? Will they eat the gutload?? It'll be real easy to sift if that works


Jeff K

 

[lil_katiedan]

Yes, you can do that. They eat whatever they are in so using just the gutload is fine or you could mix it with something else that is easier to sift, that way the gutload lasts a bit longer.

 

[Jeff876533]

What do you guys suggest i should mix my gutload w/ to conserve and save it??? N thanks for teh suggestion lilkatiedan . Maybe i should mix it with wheat flakes put in a blender to get really small grains?? Any other better suggestions??

Thanks a ton guys,


Jeff Kreger

 

[ByRandom]

I was breeding meal worms at one point or another, everyone does it -- some with greater success.. It just seemed to me that it took soooo long for the little mealworms to grow.. Now, roaches on the other hand are by far the best feeder in my opinion.... just can't have any at the moment lol.

 

[Jeff876533]

rar, sad to say but 3/4 of my beetles died these past 2 days. Im almost positive it was because there was too much moisture. O well, ive still got 20 on the way


Jeff K

 

[jenkznza]

We use a pretty conservative estimate for egg production. We put about 1,000 beetles per tub anticipating that 500 are females. We then estimate that each female will lay approximately 100 eggs during her liftime. With that estimate each group will produce 50,000 worms.

We move our beetles every week so depending on the nature of the beetles in the tub we produce about 5,000 worms per tub each week. Quite often its more than that, but it a good average.

Here's a picture of one of our first rack set ups. It really allowed us to organize our production making us far more produtive.

 

[gothra]

Wow! That's a spectacular mealworm breeding setup!

I have about 300-400 beetles and move them (by tweezer) once every 1.5-2 months.

 

[jenkznza]

We sort out the beetles by shaking the bran through 1/8" hardware clothe. I took a sterilite and cut the bottom out then replaced it with hardware clothe. I shake the bedding in to a container. The beetles stay on the screen to be dumped into a new bin. I always put the bedding back into the original container as the bottom of the original bin will be covered with eggs. Works great!