mealworm feeding

[NgoDuong]

I have been feeding my mealworms with some carrot once a week but eventually I got trouble with mold. Is there anyway to prevent that happen? Is it possibale if I dont feed them carrot at all? I feed them the Quick Oat _ Coles smart buy Brand (the cheapest stuff from Coles).
Another question, Can i keep them all in the same big tank/bottle or should I separate them? I heard they eat their eggs and larva. I used to have a similar bugs like this and I keep them all in a big glass tank, only feed rice pop, Nothing else. They seem very happy and reproduce at normal.

[maureen_g]

What birds are you feeding them to? I have it from a highly respected breeder that maggots have a better phosphorus/calcium ratio and are much safer for many species. Since I've been breeding my own maggots I am having great breeding response. And it's very easy to breed maggots!!

[E Orix]

There are other longer explanations within the Forum posts but a quick response.
Firstly you have far too much moisture within the mealworm culture and Carrots shouldn't create the problem if you have enough**** ventilation.****
The old way was a wooden box(often an old Tea Chest) Bran then a piece of hessian bag and repeat the process. The top generally had a double layer of Hessian and the Carrot or what ever vegetation was used was placed between the two layers. This brought the beetles and worms to the surface.
If you were only taking a few then the colony just kept on producing.
Today all the serious Mealworm breeders separate the Beetles from the eggs. The Beetles are placed in a container(well ventilated) with Pollard and Carrot.
Every 3 to 5 days the Beetles and old Carrot are separated from the Pollard via a sieve. The Pollard holding the eggs are placed into another well ventilated container. New Pollard is added to the Beetles and the process is repeated. Eventually the eggs hatch and the worms grow.
The second method will produce something like 6 times more worms than the first and they will all be of similar size.

[Diane]

There are several topics on the forum that have really good insight into growing mealworms and their requirements.
The link below should take you to a list of those topics.
A comment in one topic that jumped out at me mentioned carrots as a food source but they only served slices of carrot in an effort to reduce the humidity.
search.php?keywords=mealworm&fid[0]=42