food for mealworms

[louise f]

Just out of curiosity, What do you feed your mealworms with ?

 

[YagerManJennsen]

I use lettuce and the Orange cricket food, the kind that comes in cubes in the jar (forgot what they're called).

 

[Kymura]

mine get a mix of oatmeal, cornmeal and bran flakes whirred in the blender to partially crush it up for them,
fresh carrot slice, occasional bit of banana peel (as they seem to like it),

nearly any unsweetened cereal or fresh fruit/veggie works, just don't let things mold in there.
I always keep a small colony as I hate FFF and use tiny mealworms for my little slings in between pinheads.
Been keeping them on and off for years with zero issues.

 

[Envoirment]

I keep mine in an oats substrate and feed them carrots for their water. Make sure not to put too much carrot in and that the top of the enclosure they're being kept in has lots of holes. One thing they hate is a lot of moisture. I learned that the hard way losing a huge box of mealworms because I put in too many carrot pieces in without enough air holes at the top (It stank to high heaven good god - not a pretty sight!).

 

[Phaedrus]

Carrots work well to gutload and fatten them up.

 

[lunarae]

I do the same as Enviroment, like exact same. XD they aren't hard to tend for at all.

 

[louise f]

Thanks for all your responces.
I am asking because i just bought 2 kilo of them, and they are coming next week.
My roaches seems to not want to breed at the moment, and i cant get in touch with my roach supplier. Bummer. Guess i will find a new one

 

[lunarae]

Mealworms can take a long time to breed just to forewarn you. Mine took months to really take off. Of course I DID start with a tiny little thing of 50 from petco and now I have a like 2 gallon tub half full of substrate full of them after I'd say 6 months? Course I was still learning on what to feed them and with potatoe you deal with mold very easily. It's why I switched to carrot, if you have a lot of ventilation then it really just dries up rather then molds I've noticed.

 

[louise f]

Mealworms can take a long time to breed just to forewarn you. Mine took months to really take off. Of course I DID start with a tiny little thing of 50 from petco and now I have a like 2 gallon tub half full of substrate full of them after I'd say 6 months? Course I was still learning on what to feed them and with potatoe you deal with mold very easily. It's why I switched to carrot, if you have a lot of ventilation then it really just dries up rather then molds I've noticed.

Ohh i know, thats why i bought some other food supplies as well, really gonna need it. but thanks for saying so <3

 

[johnny quango]

I use slices of potato they go crazy for it in my experience, although I don't use them that often anymore as 40 of my 41 tarantulas won't eat them my little A metallica sling loves them for now

 

[lunarae]

I use slices of potato they go crazy for it in my experience, although I don't use them that often anymore as 40 of my 41 tarantulas won't eat them my little A metallica sling loves them for now

Yeah my A. versicolor stopped eating mealworms as soon as I started to really get them going, as if it knew I was breeding them to save money.

 

[YagerManJennsen]

What are the conditions needed for them to pupate and then make more mealworms?

 

[Envoirment]

What are the conditions needed for them to pupate and then make more mealworms?

Nothing special, just keep feeding 'em and they'll get big enough that they'll start to turn to pupa. Already had 20+ pupa in my current small batch of mealworms without having to do anything except feed them. It'll take a a week or two for them to turn to beetles.

 

[louise f]

I have my feeders ( roaches ) in my shed. There is a heater and isolated, i keep them at 26-28 degrees.

 

[lunarae]

Nothing at all to them pupating, not like superworms. I don't seperate my beetles from the worms at all either. I have noticed if you don't keep enough moist food though some of the beetles get munched on a bit or wing development may have issues as well keeping them mixed together. I'm trying more carrots more often to see if that solves the issue I saw arise. Outside of that they do fine all together. I do have some egg crates in there as well which they'll climb on. It provides a little cover for the beetles to lay eggs and such.

 

[crlovel]

I've been debating mealworms. I bought 500 crickets at a show recently; never again. NEVER AGAIN.

 

[louise f]

I've been debating mealworms. I bought 500 crickets at a show recently; never again. NEVER AGAIN.

Because of the noise ?

 

[lunarae]

Probably the noise AND smell XD Good god 500. No thank you.

 

[louise f]

i would not mind i just put them in my shed. haha then they can go party

 

[crlovel]

Because of the noise ?

No - the stench. You look at them wrong, they die. Every day, I pull out bodies and toss them. I keep them dry, well fed, paper rolls and egg crates to hide in, Cheerios to eat, Flukers orange cubes, and they still die. And they STINK.