new and improved mealworm colony ;)

so i had my mealworms all mixed up in one giant tub and i noticed thair death rate was very high, everything was eating everything. the worms were eating the beetles, the beetles were eating the baby worms and pupae..it was a mess. so i finally found a wonderful drawer thingy at the dollar store and sat down for 3 hours seperating bugs -.-

the drawer thingy


the pupeas :3


the beetles:


the worms!

(09-20-2012 03:55 AM)amanda509 Wrote:  everything was eating everything. the worms were eating the beetles, the beetles were eating the baby worms and pupae..it was a mess.

Ouch. You finally noticed the same thing I have been talking about mealworms. One of my mealworm beetles was eating a mealworm the first thing after it turned into a beetle. I don't think they are too bright. Eating their own species is not exactly cool.

How are you going to keep them separated indefinitely? Picking out the beetles every day?

(09-20-2012 03:22 PM)Thor Wrote:  Ouch. You finally noticed the same thing I have been talking about mealworms. One of my mealworm beetles was eating a mealworm the first thing after it turned into a beetle. I don't think they are too bright. Eating their own species is not exactly cool.

How are you going to keep them separated indefinitely? Picking out the beetles every day?

yep everyday i check the pupae and theres usually about 5 or 6 beetles that i put in the beetles drawer, and every two weeks i will put the beetles substrate with the worms so the existing eggs can hatch, and i check the worms for pupae and move them to the pupae drawer about once a week ill clean out the dead beetles.

That's a pretty good system Manda. I just can't spend enough time to breed the damn things. That's basically what I've heard petiole do with small colonies. How's it going so far?

(09-28-2012 11:11 AM)Fishbone Wrote:  That's a pretty good system Manda. I just can't spend enough time to breed the damn things. That's basically what I've heard petiole do with small colonies. How's it going so far?

its going really good actually and very organized and alot cleaner than a huge colony. every morning i get about 3-5 beetles that emerged from pupae, and about 2 or 3 pupae from the worms. will be changing the beetle substrate so the eggs in the current one can hatch and i will put it with the bigger worms.

Is there any easier way to separate adult beetles from the worms than by hand picking?

I am curious how the professional mealworm breeders do it. They must have at least tens thousands worms if not millions. They can't possibility picking the beetles out one at a time, can they?

I'm currently doing this same exact setup. Right now, I have about 20 beetle's in a drawer, with about 50-60 pupae waiting to join them. This is my first go at it, so I'm not sure what I'm doing yet, but so far, so good.

I'm interested in trying out the system with s screen on the bottom of the drawer, so that the eggs and baby mealworms fall through to the lower level, but the beetles stay up one level. I've heard that it doesn't work very well, but I don't know if I believe it or not. I think it may just have to be setup perfectly. I'd like to give it a go, but for this time I'm just doing everything manually.

What do you feed your beetles? I've been feeding mine on carrots and pieces of potato.

Many people feed their mealworms oatmeal. I have had some mealworms to feed a baby bird last year. I fed them banana skins, tree leaves before I got some oatmeal. Mealworms are not picky eaters, but they eat a lot.

Not sure why the mealworms we get often mature at very different time. It should be a lot easier if they are all around the same age instead of turn into beetles one at a time and start eating each other.