Storing/Feeding Mealworms

[fl_orchidslave]

We want to switch from crickets to mealworms as a staple, starting out with 1000. At what room temp do mealies keep best to store? Would it be the same for breeding them? I've kept smaller quantities in the fridge because they died off otherwise. Hoping to get a breeding colony started next week. Much thanks to anyone who responds

 

[ZooKeeperKarin]

I've just started a colony a few weeks ago. I just had two beetles last night/this morning! I bought a plastic 3-drawer thing at wallyworld for $11. I have them on old fashioned oats, but will change that to cornmeal for cleaning purposes.
Mine have just been at room temp (ranging between 67 and 78 or so). We get a lot of temp fluctuations, especially in the room they are in.
I started with 1000, but 500 have gone to feeding my geckos. I pull the pupates from that box as I find them. I'm keeping the feeders and the breeders separate. So, many of the feeders did not have a chance to get old enough to pupate.
I have about 50 pupates now and two just turned into beetles. I've had a few mealworms die but not a huge amount by any means. Maybe 5% of the total colony, if that.
I use all three drawers... one for the feeders, one for the breeders (both mealworms) and the last drawer for any pupates I find. I'm keeping the pupates in a small tupperware container in the drawer and use the rest of the drawer for the actual beetles. This way hopefully the pupates won't be eaten!
HTH!

 

[leopardgeckos96]

how many geckos do you have??

 

[leopardgeckos96]

how many geckos do you have??

sorry i didnt see the bio thing honestly with 14 geckos i would start off with about 5 thousand because you will feed off the thousand before you get beetles and if you dont want to so that, start breeding 1,000 then about a month or so later start breeding another 1,000 because when you have beetles and babies you are going to need another food supply and you can also breed those, and when you have babies you will have adults. I know someone you can get 5,000 from very cheap if you want that many just PM me if you want a link to his business.

 

[Kristi23]

I keep my mealworm colony in a drawer system. I use Pro Gecko Gutload for bedding and throw in carrots every other day. The room I keep them in is around 78-82 degrees and they breed like crazy when it's warmer. They slow down a lot in the winter when the room is closer to 90 degrees. I keep 1-2 drawers of beetles and 3 drawers with worms. I stopped picking out the pupae because it was too much work. I just wait until they change to beetles now and pick those out. I started off with at least 5000, but I can't remember exactly now. It's been a couple years. Every so often, I'll pick up 1000 mealworms from someone to add in some new blood.

Good luck!

 

[T-ReXx]

I also use a 3-drawer system for mealworms. I started with 5000. I keep the beetles in the top drawer, which has the bottom cut out and replaced with a piece of metal window screen, All I keep in that bin is a few pieces of egg crate, some dry food(wheat bran, cereal, etc) and a few pieces of carrot/potato for moisture. As the adults lay eggs they fall through to the second drawer. The second drawer is used for hatching/raising up baby mealies. It contains wheat bran and a few pieces of carrot/potato. Every month or so I pour the contents of this drawer into the third drawer. The third drawer contains larger worms. When I add babies to this drawer I remove the worms and bedding, sift and remove a few hundred pupa and put the pupa in the beetle drawer in a small container(later beetles are removed from this container and added to the beetle colony) and put the larger worms in a container and store them in the fridge(keeps them from pupating). Before feeding these to my animals I remove them, warm them to room temps then gutload them with Progeckos Gutload for 24 hours beforehand. I keep all my feeders in a walk-in closet turned into a feeder/storage room and temps are fairly warm in there as I have heat pads on the roach bins so it stays in the low-mid 80s. So far the system has worked out well and I am doing something similar with superworms. If you want to breed mealies I would start with 1000 to be pupated into beetles, then buy additional amounts that you can feed off while starting your colony up. I add 1000 every 6 months or so.

 

[Shadraak]

I also use a 3-drawer system for mealworms. I started with 5000. I keep the beetles in the top drawer, which has the bottom cut out and replaced with a piece of metal window screen, All I keep in that bin is a few pieces of egg crate, some dry food(wheat bran, cereal, etc) and a few pieces of carrot/potato for moisture. As the adults lay eggs they fall through to the second drawer. The second drawer is used for hatching/raising up baby mealies. It contains wheat bran and a few pieces of carrot/potato. Every month or so I pour the contents of this drawer into the third drawer. The third drawer contains larger worms. When I add babies to this drawer I remove the worms and bedding, sift and remove a few hundred pupa and put the pupa in the beetle drawer in a small container(later beetles are removed from this container and added to the beetle colony) and put the larger worms in a container and store them in the fridge(keeps them from pupating). Before feeding these to my animals I remove them, warm them to room temps then gutload them with Progeckos Gutload for 24 hours beforehand. I keep all my feeders in a walk-in closet turned into a feeder/storage room and temps are fairly warm in there as I have heat pads on the roach bins so it stays in the low-mid 80s. So far the system has worked out well and I am doing something similar with superworms. If you want to breed mealies I would start with 1000 to be pupated into beetles, then buy additional amounts that you can feed off while starting your colony up. I add 1000 every 6 months or so.

OMG why didn't i think of this to fix my mealworm problem now i feel retarded thanks a lot T, atleast now i know of an easy way to do this hehe i could even do it large scale with supers but i'm not going to off to the drawing board D: why sift when you can just have it sifted while being they're being laid .

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Thanks everyone! My superworm colony has just produced the little thread-like baby worms but they need some time to grow. By midweek an order of 1000 each of large and baby supers, also mealies. We have on-hand plenty enough giant supers which they love, and crix (some small enough for hatchlings) to hold all the kids over. There is no dependable place within 50 miles to buy even half decent feeders in a pinch. So half the mealies will be used to start a colony. One of our reptile rooms stays at 85, the other is 82-83. Thanks for responding with the temp info I'm going to try the screened drawer setup Whenever there's been an excess of supers, we've sold off a couple hundred to folks in our herp society. Hopefully we won't end up with a million worms