How long before mealworms turn into beetles?

(09-05-2012, 04:54 AM)amanda509 Wrote: unlike crickets, the beetles will not eat their young..i feed mine oatmeal and carrots :3

A couple months ago I bought some mealworms to feed a bird. The very next day I saw a beetle in the worm colony, and it was chewing on a mealworm. I did not know it was a mealworm beetle right away and I thought it was some kind of insect somehow got into the colony and it was eating my worms. It was confirmed as a mealworm beetle after I looked up on the internet and found a photo of it.

Although it can be an isolated case, that one beetle did chew on its own species.

Usually we have so many worms in a single colony, it is hard to notice a pupae or two until we see the beetle.