Raising mealworms?? Tips ?

[WhiteMoss]

For my mealworm colony I keep the beetles and worms in Tupperware on a thin layer of dry topsoil with some egg carton pieces

I pick out and pupae and put them in a separate small container until they emerge as beetles and I wait for them to brown up a bit before introducing them to the beetles container. *note there isn't many beetles as I've been feeding off all my feeders. I have waayy too many of many varieties lol.

Your issues of mold could be multiple things. All easy to correct.
Number one; stay away from bran or oats as bedding. Bran is less likely to mold, but I found after so long from all the excrement, it starts to smell and with feeders that start out this small, the fewer sub changes, the better.
Number two; keep their substrate dry. It doesn't effect their breeding whatsoever and only increases your chances of mold.
Number three; keep their food simple. I stick to lettuce and carrots. They tend to dry up before they will mold. But I usually give fresh daily, picking out the uneaten stuff and feed it to a feeder that will consume it in their daily feeding.

I'm not sure what happened to your pupae in that pic where they're black, but I saw something about misting. Nothing needs to misted. Also if your using lids - I don't. I just make sure whatever their in has sides too high for them to get out.- make sure you lids are extremely well ventilated. The lids I use for my ants would work well and they're EXTREMELY cheap to make. I'll post a Pic, but you basically cut out a section of the lid and hot glue landscaping fabric (one roll can make hundreds of lids) over the opening.

 

[FlamingSwampert]

For my mealworm colony I keep the beetles and worms in Tupperware on a thin layer of dry topsoil with some egg carton pieces
View attachment 473942
I pick out and pupae and put them in a separate small container until they emerge as beetles and I wait for them to brown up a bit before introducing them to the beetles container. *note there isn't many beetles as I've been feeding off all my feeders. I have waayy too many of many varieties lol.

Your issues of mold could be multiple things. All easy to correct.
Number one; stay away from bran or oats as bedding. Bran is less likely to mold, but I found after so long from all the excrement, it starts to smell and with feeders that start out this small, the fewer sub changes, the better.
Number two; keep their substrate dry. It doesn't effect their breeding whatsoever and only increases your chances of mold.
Number three; keep their food simple. I stick to lettuce and carrots. They tend to dry up before they will mold. But I usually give fresh daily, picking out the uneaten stuff and feed it to a feeder that will consume it in their daily feeding.

I'm not sure what happened to your pupae in that pic where they're black, but I saw something about misting. Nothing needs to misted. Also if your using lids - I don't. I just make sure whatever their in has sides too high for them to get out.- make sure you lids are extremely well ventilated. The lids I use for my ants would work well and they're EXTREMELY cheap to make. I'll post a Pic, but you basically cut out a section of the lid and hot glue landscaping fabric (one roll can make hundreds of lids) over the opening.

View attachment 473943 View attachment 473944 View attachment 473945

I second this. I also use a similar lid for my beetles and mealworms.

On another note, what is the white stuff in your substrate? Is it vermiculite?

 

[WhiteMoss]

I second this. I also use a similar lid for my beetles and mealworms.

On another note, what is the white stuff in your substrate? Is it vermiculite?

It's just the perlite that comes in the potting soil.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

For my mealworm colony I keep the beetles and worms in Tupperware on a thin layer of dry topsoil with some egg carton pieces
View attachment 473942
I pick out and pupae and put them in a separate small container until they emerge as beetles and I wait for them to brown up a bit before introducing them to the beetles container. *note there isn't many beetles as I've been feeding off all my feeders. I have waayy too many of many varieties lol.

Your issues of mold could be multiple things. All easy to correct.
Number one; stay away from bran or oats as bedding. Bran is less likely to mold, but I found after so long from all the excrement, it starts to smell and with feeders that start out this small, the fewer sub changes, the better.
Number two; keep their substrate dry. It doesn't effect their breeding whatsoever and only increases your chances of mold.
Number three; keep their food simple. I stick to lettuce and carrots. They tend to dry up before they will mold. But I usually give fresh daily, picking out the uneaten stuff and feed it to a feeder that will consume it in their daily feeding.

I'm not sure what happened to your pupae in that pic where they're black, but I saw something about misting. Nothing needs to misted. Also if your using lids - I don't. I just make sure whatever their in has sides too high for them to get out.- make sure you lids are extremely well ventilated. The lids I use for my ants would work well and they're EXTREMELY cheap to make. I'll post a Pic, but you basically cut out a section of the lid and hot glue landscaping fabric (one roll can make hundreds of lids) over the opening.

View attachment 473943 View attachment 473944 View attachment 473945

I got an issue where I couldn’t remove beetles from worms because they hatched too soon.

 

[WhiteMoss]

Just hand pick them out.

 

[FlamingSwampert]

I got an issue where I couldn’t remove beetles from worms because they hatched too soon. View attachment 474308 View attachment 474309

You can just keep 'em together

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

My cages have gone out of hand , I cannot seperate larvae from beetles I don’t have good enough filters or anything. Things have gone haywire but I still have a decent amount of beetles. I can’t remove dead beetles 🪲…

 

[Brewser]

I use Oatmeal with Honey stirred in.

 

[Aracnophile]

I literally just have different open lid tubs with multiple colonies, with oats as soil. I add in a piece of apple or carrot in each bin once a week and let them do their thing. It might not be optimal for the individual colonies themselves but imo multiple decent sized colonies that you spend less time on is more efficient than a huge colony you spend your time excruciatingly separating and caring for.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I literally just have different open lid tubs with multiple colonies, with oats as soil. I add in a piece of apple or carrot in each bin once a week and let them do their thing. It might not be optimal for the individual colonies themselves but imo multiple decent sized colonies that you spend less time on is more efficient than a huge colony you spend your time excruciatingly separating and caring for.

One enough died off I had to clean up the dead , the other one has thicker sub and is still going strong on oats and random veggies.

I use Oatmeal with Honey stirred in.

they eat Honey? Without getting stuck ?

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Update beetles are doing good I need to water them with veggies any suggestions ???

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Absolute disaster I cannot toss frass because beetles layed eggs so it’s another incubator for baby mealworms lol .. so hard to remove the roaches and big worms /beetles . Any tips ?

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

I seperated them ,not sure how long until
They quit breeding or die off. Loads of dead beetles pain manually removing them .

 

[Kada]

Fun thing just happened. I have a small plastic container with mealworms inside. Overthebsummer I kept it on the floor as it's super hot here.

I was interested of proper grain and couldn't any quick, so I ran to the bird feed store and got some of whatever their commercial mix is. Upped it in. 2 days later, a mole (vole)...those underground burrowing rodents....found its way into the light room, chewed a hole in the tub and was eating up all the feed.

Live and learn haha.