Aussie Finch Forum

Geoff if you keep your minis in the fridge they will stay that way for weeks, I buy both minis and mealies and have never had any trouble keeping the minis as minis for 4-6 weeks (by which time they are gone).

Thanks for suggestion re fridge.

Ive been keeping in shed, I need to get bar fridge.

Recently purchased maggots as well as mealworms. Not popular using the family fridge

Does anyone know where I can buy a starter culture of these lesser mealworms? I have bought 2 "mini mealworm" packs from different places and both have turned out to be usual mealworms in a few months.
Or is someone able to post me enough to get me started?

Winston

try Personal Pet Services

Thanks Danny. I'll give them a call during business hours.
Winston

Hi everyone. I hope you can help me. I've been breeding mealworms for about a year and haven't had a problem till recently. I've been breeding the normal mealworms but somehow I now have the mini black mealworms too. Reading the comments above I now know why the minis are taking over but I don't know how I got them and what is the best way to get rid of them. Thanks. Mack

Mack wrote:Hi everyone. I hope you can help me. I've been breeding mealworms for about a year and haven't had a problem till recently. I've been breeding the normal mealworms but somehow I now have the mini black mealworms too. Reading the comments above I now know why the minis are taking over but I don't know how I got them and what is the best way to get rid of them. Thanks. Mack

The way to get rid of them is By Feeding Them all to The Finches.

I was going to say if you want to rid yourself then post them to Fishdance here in Queensland. However to clean up your cultures it's a matter of ensuring your feed is sterile and just sieve off your larger larvae, pupae and beetles onto the clean feed. What remains can be fed to your birds (if you don't post it to Fishdance). These little buggers are fast and carnivorous so they will take over if you don't get rid of them in a mixed culture but with a little care you can keep both - just in separate cultures.

When you sieve your worms and see a little nearly round Black Beetle destroy it,infact if you see one anywhere near your M/Worms you know what to do.
If you keep killing the Beetles you should eventually wipe them out as they are the ones that lay the eggs.No eggs no mini mealworms.
Once the proffesional M/Worm breeders get an infestation it is very hard to eradicate

About 27 years ago I had a lot of the little black mealworms in my containers, so I separated them & experimented to see if the finches would eat them, I mainly fed whiteants back then, so I didn't use many mealworms, I found all mealworms to be carnivorous if moisture is low, especially the beetles eating the pupa, so I changed my system back then to remove the beetles as they come out as I was worried they would eat the other pupa.
I also realized the beetles could eat there eggs so I would put the bran aside with eggs in it & give new bran to the beetles.
The mealworm feces I use to use on my gardens.
Its funny I had lots containers with the smaller mealworms & hardly used them, I just liked keeping the mealworms, Im thinking of getting some more soon.