Raising mealworms?? Tips ?

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I started my colony in 2013 when I got my leopard geckos and I have to say, not the most exciting thing to be breeding for fun lol. All they do is dig around and eat. Cleaning the frass is also a hassle. But they are useful feeders, especially as prekilled or maimed for tiny slings, and they can survive basically anything so I like them.

Here's what I've learned during my decade of breeding mealies:

They require only the very basic:
- a plastic tub they can't climb out of
- substrate deep enough to burrow into
- some fruit and/or veggie
I use oat bran as substrate more often than rolled oats for two reasons, 1. I've the found that the worms grow faster eating bran and 2. it's small enough to go through a sieve and separate from worms/pupae/beetles. They do seem to enjoy getting rolled oats now and again but I only sprinkle enough for them to eat in a day or two.

This is one of the tubs of worms I have going now. Super basic but it works.

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The worms are allowed to grow in this until they pupate. I move the pupae to another tub where they can turn to beetles. This is what they look like when they are ready to either moult or turn into pupae:

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Their exoskeleton gets less shiny and the worm gets slow and doesn't burrow. It can still move (slowly) if provoked but mostly lays motionless on its side. After a few days it moults to either a bigger worm or it pupates. Dead worms get rock solid and/or dark brown to black in colour.

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This is one of my tubs of (good) beetles. Same bran and depth but also a piece of egg carton for them to hide under or climb on. As long as they are given food you can keep pupae in the same tub, otherwise they will cannibalise the pupae. Same goes for the worms.
The beetles will breed and lay eggs in the substrate and on the carton. When the first beetles start to die off I use a sieve to separate the bran with all the eggs and the beetles. The beetles go in a new tub to continue doing what they do until they die and the bran goes back in the tub. In a few weeks there will be thousands of little worms in there and the cycle starts over.

However my current worms aren't high quality and this can be seen in the (few) beetles I've been able to produce. Mose of the pupae die before developing. This is the bad colony:

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The beetles are slow moving, not very interested in food, and many of them have deformities. Most of them never turn completely black either and stay a brown colour. I think this is due to inbreeding as similar things have happened before when I went years and years without adding new blood. Oh well, I'll get some new ones in a month or so.

That's basically all there is to breeding these. Cleaning is very easy. You will get a lot of fine, dry poop ("frass") from the worms. Use a sieve to separate the worms from the frass and use a mask when working with it. Breathing in frass is the number one reason people become allergic to mealworms. Throw that away and fill up with more bran. Done!

A lot of sieving and waiting goes into mealworm breeding lol. But it's easy.

Mine don’t seem to be pupating at all but seem to be fine . How long does it take ?

 

[MariaLewisia]

Mine don’t seem to be pupating at all but seem to be fine . How long does it take ? View attachment 452859 View attachment 452860

It depends on temperature and how much nutrition they get. Warmer temp and more nutritious food = quicker growth = pupates quicker. If you feed them regularly with veggies and occasional fruit you should see pupae popping up soon. Their entire larval stage I'd say it takes maybe 2-3 months if they're fed good.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

It depends on temperature and how much nutrition they get. Warmer temp and more nutritious food = quicker growth = pupates quicker. If you feed them regularly with veggies and occasional fruit you should see pupae popping up soon. Their entire larval stage I'd say it takes maybe 2-3 months if they're fed good.

Oh I haven’t had them more than a few weeks . I’m probably fine . They sure eat a lot for so few of them .

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Are you supposed to put pupaes in a separate container ? I still haven’t got any .. and use another kritter keeper for beetles also ??

 

[SpookySpooder]

Uh, yeah... they eat each other if you don't. That's like day 1 info bro

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Uh, yeah... they eat each other if you don't. That's like day 1 info bro

I haven’t seen any pupate I check them multiple time daily . I’ll probably just feed them off , basically same care as super worms .. I think they need separated to pupate.. I lack a container to divide them . Maybe should get lats instead of mealworms . Sounds like mealies are too hard to breed. Nvm I can’t find cheap enough runners the deal I looked at a month ago is $59 now so it’s a pass .

 

[SpookySpooder]

Mealies are the easiest thing ever lol

You gotta force them into pupation, keeping them all together doesn't work

Most people just buy 1000 deli cups from walmart and stack a pupae in each one

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Mealies are the easiest thing ever lol

You gotta force them into pupation, keeping them all together doesn't work

Most people just buy 1000 deli cups from walmart and stack a pupae in each one

Ouch so much work lol roaches are my go to feeder i should had just bought lats . Waste of money .. mealies might die before my curly hair needs food .

 

[SpookySpooder]

You don't need to pupate every worm, just enough to breed your next batch.

These people are breeding them to sell, I think.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

You don't need to pupate every worm, just enough to breed your next batch.

These people are breeding them to sell, I think.

Good thing I had these saved for potential water dishes … I can atleast breed one generation.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

It depends on temperature and how much nutrition they get. Warmer temp and more nutritious food = quicker growth = pupates quicker. If you feed them regularly with veggies and occasional fruit you should see pupae popping up soon. Their entire larval stage I'd say it takes maybe 2-3 months if they're fed good.

How long til they hatch from pupae??
separating them worked!!!

 

[Tired Teacher Vibes]

Should only take around 3-4 weeks, especially if they're warm.

If they weren't hydrated enough before becoming pupae they'll die before becoming beetles.

I found cucumbers to be really good at keeping a lot of insects hydrated when it's hot. I also found they did better for me if the pupae were kept in a little bit of moist-ish dirt, it it was too wet they'd die, but the little extra moister helped when it was too hot in my house. They also come out looking a little funky when it's too hot/dry.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Should only take around 3-4 weeks, especially if they're warm.

If they weren't hydrated enough before becoming pupae they'll die before becoming beetles.

I found cucumbers to be really good at keeping a lot of insects hydrated when it's hot. I also found they did better for me if the pupae were kept in a little bit of moist-ish dirt, it it was too wet they'd die, but the little extra moister helped when it was too hot in my house. They also come out looking a little funky when it's too hot/dry.

I kept watering the substrate so they should been well hydrated. Now they’re all pupating even the ones not seperated.

 

[SpookySpooder]

They get most of their hydration through the food they eat, not the environment. Keeping the environment humid slows down dehydration, it does not hydrate. The pupa cocoon is already sealed, so adding water after they pupate does not help. Basically if it didn't eat enough watery veggies before it pupated, it could die during the process.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

They get most of their hydration through the food they eat, not the environment. Keeping the environment humid slows down dehydration, it does not hydrate. The pupa cocoon is already sealed, so adding water after they pupate does not help. Basically if it didn't eat enough watery veggies before it pupated, it could die during the process.

Oh I see yeah I constantly gave them fresh veggies until they all started pupating. Only time will tell they were in the poor care of a pet shop for most their lifespan. I paid for 100 got around 40-50 max .. more like 35–45

 

[SpookySpooder]

So while they're pupating, research and prepare breeding enclosures. The beetles will need a medium to lay their eggs in, slightly misted styrofoam or cardboard works.

Start preparing batches and pretty soon you'll be able to cut feeding costs entirely.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

So while they're pupating, research and prepare breeding enclosures. The beetles will need a medium to lay their eggs in, slightly misted styrofoam or cardboard works.

Start preparing batches and pretty soon you'll be able to cut feeding costs entirely.

What susbstrate is the main question most sites tell me bran or oats but I have my mealworms on top soil with 1/4 oats right now .. do you need to buy bran if you have loads of oats ??
there pretty much all pupaes now. I take it the beetles eat substrates also ? Or do they survive just on energy reserves ?

 

[SpookySpooder]

Idk I don't do mealies or supers

The beetles eat the same thing the larvae do so from what I've seen people do wheat or bran blended into a fine powder. The beetles will lay eggs in the substrate and then you can separate them into another container for another batch of eggs since the beetles will eat larvae and pupae. The eggs will hatch in the empty containers and eat the substrate and grow into batches of worms. So you can easily prepare thousands of worms in just a few months

 

[DerGraf]

I don't use any dedicated substrate as bedding for my superworms (which are a little but nnot much different from mealworms), just a mixture of grounded oats and wheat bran. For me, they eat both but you can use only one if you want, whatever works best for you. I don't use anything other for substrate to make my life simpler when moving larvae from breeding to raising containers and when picking some off to be fed, but otherwise it doesn't hurt to have it. Soil substrate means less fodder for potential grain mites, but I've been lucky so far to not have any infestation. It's another matter of "whatever works for you".

 

[ladyratri]

I have an absolutely exploding bin of lesser mealworms crawling around in mostly topsoil that I spilled some cricket chow into at some point, and they are living off that, plus whatever cricket leavings are one there, and their own fallen brethren... And yet, there are consistently more and more of them.

I no longer worry about feeding slings if the pet store crickets are too big I guess. Honestly, no clue what to even do with all of them...my last sling is gonna be too big for them once she molts. (And for those who know Lava, she doesn't need more food lol.)