Aussie Finch Forum

I have just ordered my first lot of mealworms in order to start my own colony and I am after some tips in farming these. I have 2 places where I can set them up:
1. In the back lawn locker would be ideal as that is where all of my bird feed is kept but I am concerned about the heat. I could place the containers down low on the concrete slab to help regulate the heat a bit better. The lawn locker has small highlight windows in the gable so light filters in enough that you don't need a light to see what your doing even with all doors closed.
2. Under the house I have a store where it is always cool but quite dark.

I also have a few questions on how to get the best out of them. Is it best to use oats or bran? How often do you change the bedding? How often do you replace their water source? Is carrot or potato better?

Cheers
Ron

Davo, I just started my breeding experiment 5 weeks ago so it may be a bit early to see if my process works. However, here goes.

1: I use 20 litre plastic storage containers. Most of the lid is cut out with fly screen wire replacing it.
2: 2-3 cm of bran. The cheap stuff from coles.
3: Sliced potato changed every 2-3 days.
4: Remove beetles after two weeks and place into the next tub.
5: 30 days later the eggs are supposed to hatch and a few weeks later you are supposed to be able to actually see the meal worms.

I started with meal worms and after approx 3-4 weeks they had all changed to beetles (worm-to-pupae-to-beetle). I removed both the beetles and the pupae from the worm tub and kept them separate as apparently the beetles and the worms can eat the pupae.

I have now moved my beetles three times and am yet to see any worms in the first one, hopefully that will change over the next couple of weeks.

The tubs are kept in my garage and we have had temp in the high 30s to low 40s. Beetles seem happy enough but do devour the potatoes quicker searching for moisture when it is hot.

I use potato as it lasts longer than carrot. I spray water (small amount) into the egg tubs when i change the potatoes for the beetles. The beetles get new bran when they change tubs every 2 weeks.

Hope this helps.