Suprise! You've got Worms!

[Jay_Bunny]

I was doing some upkeep on my mealworms (taking out dead ones, molts, and things) and decided to try and find the old containers that I had lying around that the mealworms came in. The containers I get from the petstore. I found two in a drawer and opened the first one. It still had uneaten food and dead beetles in it. I was about to throw it away when I saw something move. Upon closer inspection I see very small mealworms cruising through the food.

After trying before to get my beetles to breed and giving up, here I am with a small cup of baby mealworms. I feel very excited for some reason. I'm trying to get a mealworm colony going so that I don't have to keep going to the store for mealworms.

[Reptilian]

Creepy crawly cause me to shiver :::shivers::: but congrats, sounds like a unique hobby to have.

[Flagg]

Separate the pupa from about 50-100 mealworms as they change move them into a new setup with a couple inches of wheat germ and whatever gutload and a water source, vegetables and/or water crystals.

After they change to beetles, leave them a month or so then move the beetles to another new tub setup. I've found the key is keeping the different stages separate so they don't cannibalize. I now have a shoebox tub just teeming with mealworms and another one full of beetles that will be thousands of new mealworms in another month or so.

I get a lot of deformed beetles that I purge out once a week or so as they appear, the tarantulas love the newly molted beetles.

[Jay_Bunny]

I'm very OCD about keeping the stages separated. I check the tubs and cups daily.

I was wondering if there was anything I can do with older beetles ( couple of months into the beetle stage) or dead beetles. Do birds like them? At the moment I throw any dead beetle either outside into the yard or into the trash. If the birds will eat the dead beetles, then I could set up a small bird feeder with them.

At the moment I have a small glad container (bout the size of a cereal bowl) with about 50 worms in it. I have 16oz cups I use for beetles and I have one cup with about 15 or so beetles in it. I also have two smallish cups that I will use to put the left over food and such from the beetles after a few months of being in there. If there are any eggs in the leftover food they will hatch in that container and it will become thier grow out container. Once reaching an appropriate size, they will join the main worm tub for use as food.

[Flagg]

The containers might be a little small, I use 6 qt shoebox tubs which work great. Just make sure to have a moisture source for the old food that will grow out into new larva. If there is no water source they will cannibalize each other for water.

I believe adult beetles only live about 4 weeks depending on temps so leaving them a few months may be a bit long =)

[Laooda]

Hahaha! That's great! Hope you get your colony started up and running!!!!

[Jay_Bunny]

I will probably update my container system once I move into my own place and I have the space to keep them all organized. I just moved the tiniest little worms into a grow out container. As they get larger, I will bump them up to larger containers. I have two small containers full of small mealworms. They are not even big enough to pick up.

And also, I just got a huge batch of King Mealworm pupa.

[Gooseman]

I guess that's the only time hearing someone shout "i've got worms" would be a positive thing.... lol

[Freakie_frog]

I guess that's the only time hearing someone shout "i've got worms" would be a positive thing.... lol

LOL When I read the title I heard it said in the AOL voice. "Bling Welcome....You've got worms" YESSSSS!

LOL good luck with all the little creepy crawlies.

[Kristy]

You should have seen me when I realized I had baby roaches. My husband still thinks I am nuts. Still teases me about my reaction lol

The only thing that really bugs me is when I try for so long to breed something like crickets, never sucessfull. Then one day I look in bin and there are about a billion pinhead crickets, exactly when I don't need them.