mealworms?

[Richard McJimsey]

has anyone ever bred mealworms?
id like some tips, as i am trying to breed them, but these darned mealworms wont pupate
any help is appreciated
thanks

Rick

 

[Xaranx]

It's not hard, I kept them in a tupperware with cornmeal and an apple. It can take a while, they need to molt a few times as worms, then morph into beetle, then molt once more.

 

[Matt K]

...I take the biggest worms and put them each alone in the smallest of all Gladware tubs, poke holes in the top, and set them on a shelf. After a bit the worm molts into a pupae, and then a week or so later molts into a beetle. Then I dump the beetle back into the communal tub where they breed and lay eggs, starting all over. I usually have about 2 dozen working like this at any given time.

 

[cacoseraph]

are they dying off instead of pupating?

mealworms have always pupated w/o special effort for me

if they are dying off instead of pupating maybe a component of their care is not tuned enough?


edit:
also, there is at least one type of tenebrid larva (meal worms and relations) that is doped with juvenile hormones to keep them from having their imago/ultimate molt.

 

[Richard McJimsey]

well, andrew, not really
i have had only a few deaths
they just wont pupate, and they are fat as can be
on an unrelated note, has anyone uploaded pics from the bbq at kevins house?

Rick

 

[Andrew273]

I'm having trouble getting them out of the pupae stage. Mine turn red and then just turn to mush. I seperated them from the larva to see if they were eating them but so far no change.

 

[Andrew273]

Oh wait. Are you sure they are mealworms and not superworms? I read superworms won't pupate if they are housed together.

 

[cacoseraph]

it seems that you might just have to wait a little longer

how long have you had them? also, what are temps where they are beign kept?




i don't think anyone has uploaded yet. i broke my cam adventuring and haven't had the willpower to not buy bugs and get a new one yet =P

 

[Richard McJimsey]

they are all ~1" long, and ive had them for over a month
they are all about 75 f

 

[cacoseraph]

can you tell if your larva are the last instar before molting?

or rather, can you tell if they have molted into a larger larva since you got them?


a month at that temp just might not be enough time.

 

[Richard McJimsey]

yes, they have molted and gotten much larger in my care
i put the shed skins in a thornton vial and now its my good luck charm LOL

Rick

 

[Choobaine]

well I keep both tenibrio molitor and zoophobas morio. I keep them in an open, 8" tall tub half full of crumbled whetabix, bran flakes and peppered with apple chunks. Tenibrio are the little ones. only a centimetre and a half long at most, they will breed all the time, lay tons of eggs, produce lots of larvae, they will pupate together that's not a problem. Morio is the one you need to seperate unless you've got a massive tank and lots of substrate and only a few morio. I take stackable little yoghurt pots that are no more than an inch high, half fill them with the above mentioned substrate, drop a tiny bit of apple in, stack 'em up and wait about a week. The pupa are quite something and a lot more jittery than tenibrio. They are great to keep.

Watch them, they are great to watch, all they do is run around and mate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRjzvYfAf7Q

I wanted to know what they do. So I did a time lapse. These are tenibrio molitor running around and doing nothing of any use. Apart from mating. Yep... that's a lot of mating.

 

[cacoseraph]

you kill me choo

funny lady

 

[ZooRex]

Um yeah, I was cleaning out a cabinet and found a very old mealworm container, and in it were a number of beatles. So I set them up on a peat mixed with oats and a carrot for water and eggcrate to hid in. About a month latter i had a large population of mealies, now I just need to wait for them to get bigger enough to keep the cylcle going. ~ Rex