Mealworms...

[ReneeB]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to know the easiest way to raise my own mealworms..
I looked at one site online and it says it takes 12 weeks to go from egg to worm to beetle.

Says to take a rubbermaid shoebox or sweater box depending on how many you want. Then add wheat bran or oatmeal until it's about an inch deep, then add mealworms. Add a few slices of potatoe and WAIT.

Says each female beetle lays up to 500+ eggs.

How many worms should I get to start? 100? 500? 1000?

I've got two geckos right now [Thanks to Tarzet Exotic Pets], and plan to buy/trade for about 10 more.

I've also got 2-1.2 rat colonies and 2 colonies 'growing to feeder size' going and they get about 50 mealworms once a week.

[Linds]

I would definitely start off with 200 mealies or more, they seem to take a while to kick start (not really, its just the babies are just so teeny weeny...lol). All you need is a container with a few inches of substrate, throw in peices of potato, carrot, apple, for moisture and food (alternating between those works well). The warmer you keep them (within reason) the faster they will grow and reproduce (this is why often times you see mealies in pet store fridges). Then just sit back and wait ;) I've included a good recipe for mealie substrate :)

<center><U>Substrate Ingredients</U>

* red bran
*white bran
*rice or mixed fruit baby cereal
*rolled oats (not instant)
*fish food flakes
*12 grain mix
*wheat germ
*Bottom of the bag of rodent blocks (I know not everyone can do this, but if you get big bags of rodent blocks the dust at the bottom is super nutritious)
*orange peel

*either peice of carrot, potato, or apple

[Jaylyn]

Thanks so much for the recipe! I haven't fed mealworms much before - because I couldn't figure out how to gutload them (except for fresh fruits and veggies for moisture). Wonderful!


There is an excellent cricket gutload recipe here: www.adcham.com is case anyone is interested.


Thanks Again,

Jaylyn