Mealworm with epilepsy?

[Autumnvicky]

I kept my mealworms in a plastic container with yellow cornmeal and dead leaves from my backyard tree. I mist the leaves and they eat and drink from the leaves. This has been going on for weeks and their growing big and fat!

I knew there were no pesticides in the leaves as both my family and my neighbors are lazy. The cornmeal I was feeding them was nothing but mealworm poo by now so I changed the containers, sifted out the mealworms, and put them in a new container with their other favorite food, dead leaves from my backyard tree.

I found five pupae, ( yay! ) lots of normal healthy mealworms, and this one mealworm that looks like it's having a seizure.

It twitches, curls in a ball, then rolls around and around and around and this has been going on non stop all last night and all of today. I've isolated it and am trying to guess what's causing this.

Is it the left over mealworm poo or maybe something in the leaves? Something in the container itself maybe?

 

[xhexdx]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm wondering what a backyard tree looks like.

As for your question, I have no clue. I don't keep mealworms.

Does it only move like that when you disturb it? I know you said it was doing it all last night, but I'm still unclear as to whether it was provoked or not.

 

[spydrhunter1]

Are you treating the leaves before feeding them? We I collect leaves for the millipedes, I freeze the for several weeks at -80 Celsius. That prevents the introduction of fungi, parasites, etc.

 

[Autumnvicky]

It's oak tree leaves mostly, no, I never treated the leaves

Good thought though, didn't think of parasites

I never saw a hint of fungus anywhere

Nope, it was non stop movement, it wasn't provoked. It just kept going and going...felt sorry for it.

 

[bugmankeith]

I think I remember for the first few days after molting mealworms get really squirmy like yours and roll around at the slightest disturbance. Once their skin fully hardens they tend to move less.

And backyard trees are common, ever heard of dwarf varieties?

 

[skips]

It's oak tree leaves mostly, no, I never treated the leaves

Good thought though, didn't think of parasites

I never saw a hint of fungus anywhere

Nope, it was non stop movement, it wasn't provoked. It just kept going and going...felt sorry for it.

im not sure if it matters for bugs. Oak trees do have a few natural secondary compounds in them that are toxic. At our zoo we always had to rake the leaves every day lest our hoofstock eat them and get sick. Why they planted them in the first place ill never know.

you really dont have to see the fungus for it to be there. I dont think you'll really ever know.

Parasites can also make other animals do weird stuff. acanthocephala for instance parasitize tiny amphipods (barely visible shrimp), turn them bright blue and make their brains release seritonin so that they go nuts with hornyness, start humping leaves out in the open (they think they're mating) so that they get eaten by the parastites tertiary host. I love parasites

not that that's at all what I think is happening, but inducing massive flailing would make the animal conspicuous and easily eaten, which is exactly what parasites want-to get to the next host

 

[kupo969]

....Why would you use oak leaves? It's simple. Use wheat bran/oats and use potatoes/carrots for moisture.

You can add some protein in there by adding dog/cat/chick (unmedicated) food.

 

[Autumnvicky]

I put cornmeal in there with apple or potato slices for moisture. That was how I started out.

I gained many cuts on my hands cutting slices of apple and potato for them in the beginning. With the heat in my room the slices would mold very quickly and dry out so my meal worms weren't getting enough moisture. Some were dying from lack of moisture/things to drink from.

I read that in the wild they ate leaf litter so I put dead leaves in there and misted the leaves. They left the cornmeal in favor of drinking the moisture from the leaves and eating the leaves as well. The leaves have more surface area so they didn't dry out as fast. I stopped loosing meal worms and noticed them getting nice and fat. Ever since I've just stuck with cornmeal and dead leaves misted often to keep the leaves moist.

Recently I've found lots of pupae and currently have two beetles! Just worried about this one meal worm. If the leaves caused this, or parasites I'd like to know. I was planning to use the beetles as a feeder insect.

It would make sense if it were a parasite, make the meal worm wiggle to attract attention to itself so it could be eaten by a bird, the parasite's next host.

 

[kupo969]

I live in South Florida and it's darn hot down here and my room temp is not cool at all. I give them potatoes 1-2 times a week (sometimes I forget to even do that) and they seem fine and pupate regularly. They will also start to mold the next day. They typically eat all of the slices, sometimes they will leave one or two. I heard cutting the potato in half and leaving them whole will make them last longer, haven't tried it myself though.