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  1. #1
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    Meal worm colony

    The other day i was at Walmart looking at some tubs because I'm considering switching my corns to tubs. Anyway, i found a very small drawer stack (much like a tub rack) that i thought would be great for a meal worm colony, that way the different stages could be separated and what not, but it wouldn't take up much room. It was around 8 bucks, and the corn meal was 1.50 or something i think. It was the second size up of the drawers that they have. I'm using potato chunks for water right now until (if) i find anything better. Also I've heard they'll just eat the cornmeal, and I've also heard to put some oats in it, so i do just in case and whatever goes in seems to be gone the next day. I have quite a few beetles that have been in there for around a week or so. I need to look the life span of the beetles and hatching time up again so i can decide how long to add beetles to the drawer before moving on to the next so there wont be a bunch of live beetles in with the babies (not sure if they'd eat em or not, just easier to keep everything organized that way so i have somewhat of a count on things). I plan on getting another drawer set up soon (they're designed to stack we'll see how well they actually do) so i can rotate them through the life cycles. and not have to many different sizes/stages together. I don't have any pics at the moment because i keep forgetting to take them. Maybe ill see this post tomorrow while I'm there and remember to take the pics .
    Last edited by piranhaking; 10-25-2006 at 11:30 PM.

  2. #2
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    Re: Meal worm colony

    Finally the long promised pictures of the colony.

    stacked

    pupae drawer

    larva drawer

    beetle drawer

  3. #3
    BPnet Veteran Pork Chops N' Corn Bread's Avatar
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    Re: Meal worm colony

    You will be upgrading that to a much larger tub soon. I started with 3,000 worms and now have well over 200 beetles, over 1,000 pupates(sp?) and less than 1,000 worms all in a single tub. I just put the pupates in a seperate container and pick the beetles out daily. Its getting to be a pain to seperate the pupates daily but if you don't they will die and get eaten. If you are starting with a smaller number of worms, maybe it will be much easier. Also, do you know if they eat the eggs as well because I haven't seen any baby worms in a while. MEAL WORMS ROCK!!!
    ~Jake~
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  4. #4
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    Re: Meal worm colony

    Some sites mention beetles eating young, some dont. There is so much variation that i dont know what to believe as far as the time cycle, so i once my eggs hatch im going to keep my own records and ill let you know what i find as time cycle from egg to adult. I am picking pupae and beetles out each day (except weekends, since they are at school). Im only planning on cycling my beetles between drawers so hopefully they wont be around the babies.

  5. #5
    BPnet Veteran Pork Chops N' Corn Bread's Avatar
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    Re: Meal worm colony

    Quote Originally Posted by piranhaking
    Some sites mention beetles eating young, some dont. There is so much variation that i dont know what to believe as far as the time cycle, so i once my eggs hatch im going to keep my own records and ill let you know what i find as time cycle from egg to adult. I am picking pupae and beetles out each day (except weekends, since they are at school). Im only planning on cycling my beetles between drawers so hopefully they wont be around the babies.
    Ya, I found a few babies but not recently. I just wonder if the larva and beetles eat the eggs as well
    ~Jake~
    Too many boas to list and a few balls as well

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    Re: Meal worm colony

    I found babies about two days ago . I moved all the beetles to a new drawer, and left the babies to grow. I've only had 4 or 5 beetles die yet, so the put them in for a week, then start on a new drawer idea isnt going to work. I guess now i will just populate a drawer as heavily as seems comfortable for them, and in a few weeks time move all the adults to a new drawer. I also picked up two larger drawer units, partly for the meal worms, partly for the supers im workin on too. New pics comming probably monday.

  7. #7
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    Re: Meal worm colony

    I forgot to mention in the last post, im now using a small ziplock bowl with a bunch of holes in the lid to hold the pupae. With the current size of the colony, thats plenty of room for them, and i can sit it down in one part of a drawer. That gives me another drawer free for transfering the beetles to as new babies appear in the old drawers.

  8. #8
    BPnet Veteran Pork Chops N' Corn Bread's Avatar
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    Re: Meal worm colony

    Congrats!! I found quite a few babies over the weekend too. 30 mealies every 2-3 days for my leos. Glad they are so eady to breed huh? I hope your colony explodes and you don't end up with well over 200 beetles and almost no worms left!!
    ~Jake~
    Too many boas to list and a few balls as well

  9. #9
    Apprentice SPAM Janitor MarkS's Avatar
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    Re: Meal worm colony

    When I was raising meal worms I had problems with mold when I was feeding potatos, at least at first. After the colony was established it seemed that they were going through so many potatos that they didn't have time to mold. But when I was first starting out it was a big problem for me. Did you have that trouble and if so what did you do about it?

    Mark

  10. #10
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    Re: Meal worm colony

    Nope. No mold trouble at all. I have a few pics to post later some of my meal worms and a few of the super worm's new drawer unit and the one beetle I have at this point. I have a ton of babies it seems. They're all way to small to really tell, but under every slice of potato in the drawer there's probably 20 that are just laying there on the surface, probably 12 slices..... If thats what's in one thin layer of the substrate im sure there are several hundred at least in there.

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