mealworm poo

[Jono_mad]

hi. i put some cucumber in the tub of mealworms and they ate it all. now they've poohed everywhere and they're burrowing around in it. should i clean them out and what should i use for them to burrow in? would wood shavings be ok or should i use some of the peat for my tarantula?
thanks,
Jono

 

[MrT]

I could be wrong, but isn't the stuff mealworms come in, Meal of some sort. I think they eat it, and theres no need to feed them anything else. I misted a tub of them once, and all that did was kill the whole batch. It turned into a nasty mush. The ones I did nothing to, grew from mini mealworms into beetles.

Ernie

 

[Wade]

I've raised mealworms (I assume we're talkin Tenibrio and not Zoophobas) on a variety of DRY grain products, including weat bran, oatmeal, and baby cereal. Mostly now I use chick mash, since I feed it to crickets and cockroaches as well. I just cover the bottom of the container with the stuff and put the mealworms in and that's it, basically. They don't need much moisture, but a little is good. A slice of apple or potato will more than suffice, but these will need to be changed periodically. to clean the cotainer, I find a piece of screen that's fine enough to let the frass (poop) pass through but keeps the beetles and sift all the beetles and larvae out I can. It might be a good idea to wear a mask during this part, I find the dust very irritating when inhaled. Once done, I clean the container and start over. Mealworms are so darn easy to rear that there's almost no reason NOT to have them. Even if you mostly use crickets, a colony of mealworms can always be your back up!

Wade

 

[Jack III]

I am not in the business of raising mealworms, however I have also found very little extra moisture is needed to keep a tub alive for several months. I try to keep the mealworms hydrated but their tub and dry as possible. I too have found that a periodic apple or cucumber slice does the trick. I have never "cleaned" my mealworm tubs. I have also used oatmeal as feed with good success. The worms seem to love it. Good luck.

 

[Jono_mad]

ok, cheers for that. i have done that now and they are happily eating their bran in the fridge - don't know what i'll do with them if my rosea doesn't eat soon though.
Jono

 

[Nikos]

You can simply leave them outside (in your balcony maybe) and they will continue to grow and breed. If you have plenty of them you'll never have to worry about getting food for your Ts in the future.
However it's not adviceable to feed them only mealworms.

 

[Wade]

Well, you could always take them out of the fridge and let them grow and reproduce, then you'll always have at least one kind of feeder insect around. Refridgeration slows them down so they don't change to beetles as quickly, but you won't get anymore either.

I've had mealworm cultures I've forgotten about for months, close to a year, and the looked in and found that there were still beetles and larvae in there! I simply freshened up the food and the colony started booming again.

One word of caution: mealworms have been known to attack a molting tarantula. It's a good idea to not let the mealworms escape into the substrate. Most keepers who use mealworms either offer them with forcepts, or prekilled, or in a dish with smooth sides that the mealworms can't get out of (but the tarantula can).

Wade

 

[HuonHengChai]

I dislike cleaning mealworm poo, here's what i did.

i took out 2 containers (top picture) and start making holes at the botton of one of the container(Pic Below). The holes must not be too large to let the mealworm pass

(I marked the holes with marker pen to give you all the idea how it looks like)
Then stack the one with the holes on the other container.

put the mealworms in the container with holes

And you'll have you mealworms and their poo in diffrent containers.

now all you have to do is shake the thing a little to let the "stuck poo" go into the container below and just throw away the poo in the lower container.

Sorry for digging out an old post