Where do mealworms originate from?

[bugmankeith]

I'm talking about Tenebrio molitor. I've read they feed on cereals,oats, dry pet food. But how do the eggs get into these foods? Do adult beetles survive outside and fly to grain crops, lay eggs in seeds, and the eggs survive being cooked?

Their wild cousins like click beetle live underground eating plant roots and sometimes plant base, do wild mealworms even exist? Would they eat plant roots too?

 

[artchic528]

No one knows for sure where the darkling beetle (Tenebrio molitor) originates from, although its thought to have been somewhere in Europe. I imagine that they originially fed on nuts and seeds from various plants in the wilds they originally inhabited. They sometimes even eat scraps of meat and other insects so they could have lived much like a ground dwelling version of flies. Somewhere along the line, when man began to cultivate, grow, and harvest grain crops, they became pests, invading the places where the grain was collectively stored. They have been introduced to all parts of the world since that time, and pin pointing their origin has become impossible. Eventually, more sanitized ways of storing grain have been used, reducing the likelihood of an infestation.

In recent times, they have become popular as a food source for a variety of pets and wildlife and industry to raise them has boomed.

 

[bugmankeith]

Being people frequently feed live mealworms to birds during warm weather (have a neighbor that does), if the mealworms escape and burrow underground and eat grass roots could they become established, we have small lots of tall grass and plants like clover and grass and thistle that flower and have seed, and yards all have grass and leaf litter. Question is how cold hardy are they? Normal winter is 0 F lowest, but rarely (like this year) we had one day -10 but that is very rare only every few years or so. Could they be wild here?

 

[artchic528]

Well, I don't really know how they would survive in the wilds of New York, but I do know that the colder the temps the slower their metabolism is and the slower they grow. They don't survive a solid and prolonged freeze, as far as I know, because when they are put in the freezer, they die.

 

[Dark Raptor]

Genus Tenebrio is widely distributed in Europe and Asia (and has been also transfered to other continents). They live in the bird nests, under the bark of trees, in the rottened wood ect. Decaying wood in the tree hollows, or deep burrows in the soil provide them safe hideouts during cold winters. I collect "wild" mealworms every year. They are also attracted to light (wild strains are able to fly), this is the way how they usually get to new places.

 

[Smokehound714]

They're native to the USA. Both the "traditional" mealworm, and the "super-worm" can be found here in socal in oak woodlands, especially within the cleveland national forest.