starting a mealworm colony

[The Gecko Guy]

I am going to start making my own mealworms. What do I need to do that and how do I do that?

 

[Alusdra]

Plastic bin/ critter keeper (probably 2 or 3 to separate life stages)
Meal (oat meal, corn meal) and carrots/potatoes or gutload
Mealworms
Time to get beetles and breeding

 

[TWC]

first, i use 3 bins; one for the mealworms, one for the alien pupa, and one for the beetles. you fill all three bins up with what alusdra says above me, and when the mealworms start turning into little alien things, but them in the second bin, and when they turn into beetles, put those in the third bin.

the beetles should mate, and you should have eggs real soon, even though you cant see them. most people start off with 100, but since i have a lot of geckos, i used 500. i hope that helps.

 

[The Gecko Guy]

It does thanks. how do you transfer them?

 

[Alusdra]

I just use my fingers. For a while I had 'mealworm tweezers' but they only really got used by gecko-sitters and eventually ended up in my bathroom kit, anyway...

 

[The Gecko Guy]

can the beetles fly?

 

[TWC]

no, not these beetles, i just pick them up and put them in the other tub. the beetles dont bite, and they are very slow. it is very easy once you get started. for feeding, i just pick up a handful of mealworms and throw them in the bowls in the gecko tanks. it is fun and exciting to see your colony grow.

 

[The Gecko Guy]

thx

 

[Alusdra]

I've also been making sure I put some in the fridge to "save" as in the past my colony has gone all egg on me and I was having to buy them for a month or so. (Trying to alleviate that by having 2 separate colonies, too)

 

[The Gecko Guy]

I only have 2 geckos but it just seems easier than going to the pet store every week. how many should I start out with?

 

[mynewturtle]

I'm going to sum it up on how I breed them.
I started off with 1k meal worms, put them on the bedding.
After 2-3 weeks I start to notice a vast amount of pupas. At this point I start removing them putting them in a 6QT bin on a heated rack (as my mealworms are on aswell)
After another 1-2 weeks you'll notice your first few beetles. Congrats. After you get your beetles put them on bedding in a new bin I add a bunch of egg crates to my beetle bin for the beetles to lay eggs in I find thats how I get the best hatch rate. After 2 weeks I remove the beetles and put them into a new bin with FRESH bedding and keep the other bin in a 85F incubator I have set up(Hoping to get a 50/50 hatch rate)
It takes about 2 weeks after the mealies to hatch for you to see them. Then for me about 1-2 weeks more for mid sized/small meal worms to actually feed off. (I perfer large) Good luck I hope I summed this up farely well you'll be thankfull your breeding your own feeders it saves a lot of money. Sorry for my bad english.

 

[The Gecko Guy]

thx that helps

 

[Inlovewithherps]

I keep two tubs for my three Leo's.
One tub has my beetles and tiny babies(w/a small container of aliens) and the other has the rest of the mealies.
The beetles breed better for me if I'm not digging through the bin all of the time and so I sift them into the mealie container every two or three weeks and leave them alone the rest of the time.
Growth also depends on the temperature that you keep them at. My house is generally in the mid-high 60's and it's taken a few months to get mealies large enough to feed. I have a pretty nice colony (around 50 beetles) and hopefully have bought my last mealies for awhile (finger's crossed).
If you keep them at warmer temperatures (80's)you likely would have less time to wait before you have mealies large enough to feed.
They are easy to breed and pretty much do their own thing just remember to throw a few pieces of potato or carrot in a couple of times a week and keep the container uncovered so that the substrate doesn't get moldy.