Breeding Mealworms

[cookey]

Hi all. I've read a number of previous posts (through search engine) about breeding mealworms.

I'm about to start the process as it will cost me a small fortune if I continue purchasing through the livestock/feed depot. I've purchased a plastic draw stacker, which I think should be okay to seperate the worms through different stages of development.The question I have is: If I throw in a heap of mealworms into one of the draws, will they develop into beetles and then start the egg laying process? If not, what will happen and should I perhaps be seeking some beetles to start the process - if so, where the heck do I get beetles from!

Apologies if I'm covering previously discussed topics but I couldn't dig down far enough in previous posts to find the information. Any advice will be much appreciated!

Regards

[MadOzzie]

Gday!

I probably do it all wrong.

First I tried another way. I started by Googling all the info I could find. I then bought a chinese takeaway box of mealworms at a pet store. I had a heap of trays and I separated beetles and worms and was most diligent about it all.
Some how I ended up with all my mealworms in one plastic box.

Every now and then I replace the bran. This means straining the debri in the box through a bit of flywire screen. All the beetles and mealworms go in the box with a new lot of bran. In hot weather i put a damp paper napkin on the top. At other times I feed them with carrot peelings and with banana skins.

I only have zebs and one quail that eat them and I feed them to them as a treat. I certainly have enough for this.

MadOzzie

[cookey]

Thanks Mad Ozzie (another cool forum name). I take it from your post that the worms just turn into beetles? I also note that yours are in with bran, I've just put mine in a draw with sawdust and carrot peels. Do ya reckon I'll need bran? Pretty ignorant with this I must admit.

[garyh]

cookey please just be careful,some stores sell mealworms that have been sprayed and make them serile,thus no thing in the trays.The contianer is usually marked to tell you, just make sure,see you garyh.

[MadOzzie]

I found in my Google search that bran was the medium used by most m/worm breeders. I buy 2 kg from my seed provider/produce store and put the lot in my tub.

There is an intermediate stage between worms and beetles. it is the pupa. The beetle lays eggs and the cycle starts again = egg, larvae, pupa, and beetle. The larvae is what we call the mealworm.

MadOzzie

[Finchman1]

http://www.finchsociety.org/cfa/livefood/mealies.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[maz]

Bran and a carrot and make sure they don't get too moist or too dry, nice warm spot and that's about it....one of the easiest insects to breed

[cookey]

I've bought a 100g tub of mealworms and it doesn't say anything about them being sprayed on the packaging. See what happens.

[Greg41]

Hi Cookey, I started to try and breed meal worms about six weeks ago and have just started to use the first batch of small worms.
I spoke to a lot of people and also found a lot of info on Google.Most have worked out their own way of breeding them and no 2 ways are the same.
I was lucky enough to talk to a person who does it commercially and tried to follow their method.
I use Flakey Bran for the medium, it can be bought at most stock feed/seed merchants. They eat carrot, potato, banana skin, bread, vegi stalks.
I bought a tub of worms from the pet shop, put them in a plastic container with the bran and feed them until they turned into beetles.Left the beetles
for another week or so until they had laid their eggs and then removed the beetles into another container and let them start over again. The eggs in the
bran then hatched into worms and I had my first batch. I now have 3 tubs at various stages plus the beetles. you should let some of the worms grow out into beetles to keep them going. Long winded I know but hope it has helped.

Cheers Greg

[flap]

Hi everyone, at the risk of sounding dumb, what is the advantage of having 3 tubs? Following on Redwings set up, I have a plastic box with no lid, bran, and a facetowel on the top,and all stages of development are kept together, I just look through with long tweezers and pull out the size worms that I want. Thanks.