OK here it is people the BIG book on mealworms, I made it myself with all my photos, Come on this is everything you need to know!
Mealworms, Many people use them for reptiles and even other animals. Mealworms are fantastic feeders and there are many reasons why you might want to breed your own. Since sometimes it’s hard to find mealworms at a local pet shop and when you do the prices are very high after getting them you will be uncertain of how well they had been kept along with what they had been fed. Breeding your own mealworms can save you money and give you healthier happier animals.
welcome home mealworms: Plastic bins work very well there are many plastic bins that come with levels and they are just the thing for breeding mealworms. Now since you got your container we can now talk about Mealworms!
5k Adult mealworms Per level is a good number.However i do 10k because am running out of room!
Do you really want to do this? When choosing to breed mealworms you need to have a hefty number of them if you are trying to feed animals as you’re breeding to breed the mealworms, 5K should be okay for someone with a rather small collection of animals. Remember breeding them takes a LONG time and Months of work! It’s better to have extra mealworms to start with! Once you have your worms you need to store them in bedding, This will act as much of their diet and just something to crawl around in. you can use Wheat bran or rolled oats, along with many other wheat’s and some cereals there are also bedding made just for mealworms. I find that Wheat bran is the Best to use its cheap and easy to find at a local feed stores or even your own food store. Wheat bran is also tiny enough for your worms to eat and Much easier to clean. Pour enough so there is a inch of wheat bran in your bin. 10k will just about eat a cup a day of wheat bran, so I usually place 3 cups and then replace with new wheat bran every 5 days or so.
i bet this isn't what they had in mind
When it comes to cleaning: your mealworms bins will need little cleaning. Bins should never ever be damp, grow mold, or have a moldy smell to them. Every so often you might need to replace bedding do this by taking the bin and 2 other empty bins to a table Along with a kitchen sifter, (this can be found by kitchen supplies at your local house hold stores) place some worms at a time in to the sifter and place it over one of the empty bins then shake and vibrate it and you will notice the bedding falling in to the bin and keeping the worms in the sifter Once cleared of all bedding Toss worms in to the other empty bin, repeat this step till All worms are in the other bin once you are done you can throw out the poop left over by the worms. This is a good time to take the bin of worms and Hand pick out any food left behind, dead mealworms or Pupa then once the worms are cleaned fill their other bin back up with New wheat bran then Place in the worms. It’s best to mix them in to their new bedding then Place their new food in.
Cleaning the worms
Right: bin i use to clean and handpink stuff out before placing them back into the main bin
Middle:the main mealworm bin
Left: i use this to sift out the poo.bedding, or even baby worms.
They love there veggies: Many people try to give the best to their feeders since it will pay off when they give the worms to their animals, and they couldn’t be more true. You can use Veggies that are fresh. The number one thing to use and one of my preferred choices are raw potatoes and apples. Many people use other veggies but I find these works best. Raw cut up potatoes are cheap and easy to find just cut them up and share among bins, keep in mind that if your bins ever seem moist don’t add so much. The food can be replaced as often as you feel it is necessary. The lowest food you can give your mealworms are water crystals , they are great for giving water but do not compare the high amounts of vitamins and such veggies have already in them.
you can really use a number of things Even some carrots or greens however keep away from peppers,onions,Garlic anything with a kick or you think is bad for them you will not want to feed...And why on earth would you even try.. lol
This is a bin of 10k+ mealworms that's a whole apple and it will be gone by the next day, remember don't add to much food.
My mealworms are changing! a few months of doing this you will begin to see pupa. No don’t worry your mealworms are fine this is a good thing really. See when you start to see this it would be wise to store about a month’s worth of mealworms in to the fridge *this will keep them from turning in to pupa and you will use this stock when your mealworms are all beetles, Do not stick them in the freezer *, Pick out the pupa when you clean the bins *as noted before* And place them in another clean bin with no worms, they do not need and food or water however I place mine on wheat bran because in a week or so they will hatch out in to beetles.
Pupa they make look ugly but they cant hurt you, so be nice to the pupa because he needs you and you need him...or her.
The evil scary beetle…The darkling beetle, First off NO they can’t hurt you. They almost never fly, only when they are starving will they try to fly out of the bin. And you love your beetles right? So let’s feed them. Anyway the pupa will turn in to beetles In about a week from there on that bin will be there new home, keep placing new pupa in the bin as the mealworms changeover.. These beetles are harmless and even easier to care for. Just feed every so often…around week 5 or 6 you should see your first very small babies if not wait longer this can take months. Once you do start seeing very small babies it’s time to clean the bedding like you do with the worms but this time doesn’t throw anything away. Keep the babies in a new bin and replace the beetles bedding with new wheat bran you can clean there bins again in another 5 weeks. (You can choose to clean more often or even less this is all up to you) keep cleaning and feeding your mealworms, beetles, and baby mealworms. Remember the smaller the better. So what if you can’t see the mealworms very well? They should be super small this let them drop threw the sifter any bigger and it will not work. After that and you only have baby mealworm in the bin feed them like all the rest, but remember babies take almost MONTHS to grow up. Faster you feed them they will grow..However it will still make you want to pull out your hair!
Yes that's a lot of beetles and trust me i have Lots more bins to clean....
To separate or to not separate that is the question, between mealworms, Pupa, and beetles things can become a bit harder when you do not separate them. Every life stage will pick on one another and even kill no matter how much food you give them.. You will have a high death rate on all sides! They will eat one another. Maybe not all… but enough for you to go “Oh my gosh what happen” it’s better to hand pick the stages away from other groups. Bedding will stay much cleaner and there will be less of a death rate for pupa. When bins seem to full of whatever it may be or high death rates of beetles it’s a good thing to cull off some or pick out a few good ones this way you can throw out the dead ones but still have some alive left over, take a large bin and have a few hand full’s of a time on one side then just pick up the live beetles that crawl to the other side. It goes faster if you have a light over them, but not to close or you can kill them.
Time to get a tan!
now i have some for a new clean beetle bin
Hehe, they tickle....
Be your inner squirrel, the whole life sages of a mealworm are very long. Even after you have beetles it can take Months more to even be able to Use the babies. This is why it’s always handy to start off with a lot when breeding and storing some mealworms in the fridge they will go in to a waiting state and not turn in to pupa, and when you’re all out of mealworms then you can use these mealworms to store up. So in the end be a smart squirrel and store your mealworms!
Putting clean worms back in there bin
Babies!
Are we there yet??? After all this time you should see your baby mealworms growing in to nice adults, yes it’s been a long road for us all. We have had some very touching moments and are up’s and downs but we made it, So lets not waste anytime and feed them to your reptiles!
I hope this helps everyone that would like to breed mealworms if you need to know anything else Pm me! but what more could you need to know!!!!! lol just ask.
Mealworms, Many people use them for reptiles and even other animals. Mealworms are fantastic feeders and there are many reasons why you might want to breed your own. Since sometimes it’s hard to find mealworms at a local pet shop and when you do the prices are very high after getting them you will be uncertain of how well they had been kept along with what they had been fed. Breeding your own mealworms can save you money and give you healthier happier animals.
welcome home mealworms: Plastic bins work very well there are many plastic bins that come with levels and they are just the thing for breeding mealworms. Now since you got your container we can now talk about Mealworms!
5k Adult mealworms Per level is a good number.However i do 10k because am running out of room!
Do you really want to do this? When choosing to breed mealworms you need to have a hefty number of them if you are trying to feed animals as you’re breeding to breed the mealworms, 5K should be okay for someone with a rather small collection of animals. Remember breeding them takes a LONG time and Months of work! It’s better to have extra mealworms to start with! Once you have your worms you need to store them in bedding, This will act as much of their diet and just something to crawl around in. you can use Wheat bran or rolled oats, along with many other wheat’s and some cereals there are also bedding made just for mealworms. I find that Wheat bran is the Best to use its cheap and easy to find at a local feed stores or even your own food store. Wheat bran is also tiny enough for your worms to eat and Much easier to clean. Pour enough so there is a inch of wheat bran in your bin. 10k will just about eat a cup a day of wheat bran, so I usually place 3 cups and then replace with new wheat bran every 5 days or so.
i bet this isn't what they had in mind
When it comes to cleaning: your mealworms bins will need little cleaning. Bins should never ever be damp, grow mold, or have a moldy smell to them. Every so often you might need to replace bedding do this by taking the bin and 2 other empty bins to a table Along with a kitchen sifter, (this can be found by kitchen supplies at your local house hold stores) place some worms at a time in to the sifter and place it over one of the empty bins then shake and vibrate it and you will notice the bedding falling in to the bin and keeping the worms in the sifter Once cleared of all bedding Toss worms in to the other empty bin, repeat this step till All worms are in the other bin once you are done you can throw out the poop left over by the worms. This is a good time to take the bin of worms and Hand pick out any food left behind, dead mealworms or Pupa then once the worms are cleaned fill their other bin back up with New wheat bran then Place in the worms. It’s best to mix them in to their new bedding then Place their new food in.
Cleaning the worms
Right: bin i use to clean and handpink stuff out before placing them back into the main bin
Middle:the main mealworm bin
Left: i use this to sift out the poo.bedding, or even baby worms.
They love there veggies: Many people try to give the best to their feeders since it will pay off when they give the worms to their animals, and they couldn’t be more true. You can use Veggies that are fresh. The number one thing to use and one of my preferred choices are raw potatoes and apples. Many people use other veggies but I find these works best. Raw cut up potatoes are cheap and easy to find just cut them up and share among bins, keep in mind that if your bins ever seem moist don’t add so much. The food can be replaced as often as you feel it is necessary. The lowest food you can give your mealworms are water crystals , they are great for giving water but do not compare the high amounts of vitamins and such veggies have already in them.
you can really use a number of things Even some carrots or greens however keep away from peppers,onions,Garlic anything with a kick or you think is bad for them you will not want to feed...And why on earth would you even try.. lol
This is a bin of 10k+ mealworms that's a whole apple and it will be gone by the next day, remember don't add to much food.
My mealworms are changing! a few months of doing this you will begin to see pupa. No don’t worry your mealworms are fine this is a good thing really. See when you start to see this it would be wise to store about a month’s worth of mealworms in to the fridge *this will keep them from turning in to pupa and you will use this stock when your mealworms are all beetles, Do not stick them in the freezer *, Pick out the pupa when you clean the bins *as noted before* And place them in another clean bin with no worms, they do not need and food or water however I place mine on wheat bran because in a week or so they will hatch out in to beetles.
Pupa they make look ugly but they cant hurt you, so be nice to the pupa because he needs you and you need him...or her.
The evil scary beetle…The darkling beetle, First off NO they can’t hurt you. They almost never fly, only when they are starving will they try to fly out of the bin. And you love your beetles right? So let’s feed them. Anyway the pupa will turn in to beetles In about a week from there on that bin will be there new home, keep placing new pupa in the bin as the mealworms changeover.. These beetles are harmless and even easier to care for. Just feed every so often…around week 5 or 6 you should see your first very small babies if not wait longer this can take months. Once you do start seeing very small babies it’s time to clean the bedding like you do with the worms but this time doesn’t throw anything away. Keep the babies in a new bin and replace the beetles bedding with new wheat bran you can clean there bins again in another 5 weeks. (You can choose to clean more often or even less this is all up to you) keep cleaning and feeding your mealworms, beetles, and baby mealworms. Remember the smaller the better. So what if you can’t see the mealworms very well? They should be super small this let them drop threw the sifter any bigger and it will not work. After that and you only have baby mealworm in the bin feed them like all the rest, but remember babies take almost MONTHS to grow up. Faster you feed them they will grow..However it will still make you want to pull out your hair!
Yes that's a lot of beetles and trust me i have Lots more bins to clean....
To separate or to not separate that is the question, between mealworms, Pupa, and beetles things can become a bit harder when you do not separate them. Every life stage will pick on one another and even kill no matter how much food you give them.. You will have a high death rate on all sides! They will eat one another. Maybe not all… but enough for you to go “Oh my gosh what happen” it’s better to hand pick the stages away from other groups. Bedding will stay much cleaner and there will be less of a death rate for pupa. When bins seem to full of whatever it may be or high death rates of beetles it’s a good thing to cull off some or pick out a few good ones this way you can throw out the dead ones but still have some alive left over, take a large bin and have a few hand full’s of a time on one side then just pick up the live beetles that crawl to the other side. It goes faster if you have a light over them, but not to close or you can kill them.
Time to get a tan!
now i have some for a new clean beetle bin
Hehe, they tickle....
Be your inner squirrel, the whole life sages of a mealworm are very long. Even after you have beetles it can take Months more to even be able to Use the babies. This is why it’s always handy to start off with a lot when breeding and storing some mealworms in the fridge they will go in to a waiting state and not turn in to pupa, and when you’re all out of mealworms then you can use these mealworms to store up. So in the end be a smart squirrel and store your mealworms!
Putting clean worms back in there bin
Babies!
Are we there yet??? After all this time you should see your baby mealworms growing in to nice adults, yes it’s been a long road for us all. We have had some very touching moments and are up’s and downs but we made it, So lets not waste anytime and feed them to your reptiles!
I hope this helps everyone that would like to breed mealworms if you need to know anything else Pm me! but what more could you need to know!!!!! lol just ask.
