Mealworm breeding - beetles

I'm considering raising my own mealies. After doing a number of searches and reading up on the various methods, I still have a few questions. Hopefully someone has some experience with this (I believe a few of you breed mealies).

- I've seen people use egg cartons for their farm. How come? Is this an easier way to separate things if required?

- A few sites mention that beetles will lay the eggs as young adults, but beetles will also eat the eggs so they need to be separated. As the eggs are tiny and you may not see them, how do you know when to separate the eggs from the beetles? Knowing my luck I'd separate before they've had a chance to lay eggs.

Thanks so much for any help!

I had a mealworm 'farm' for many, many years. I just got a plastic shoe box sort of container and filled it with oatmeal and brand flakes. I put in about 60 mealworms and a slice of apple or potato and let nature take it's course. The mealworms will turn into the white larvae sort of things then they will transform into beetles. The beetles are flightless and will not get out of the container. The beetles mate and lay eggs, often on the piece of potato or apple so I usually would leave them in the cage when putting in a new slice of apple or potato. The old ones just kind of shrivel up. In a few weeks you will see little, tiny mealworms all over th bottom of the container. Just feed to your hedgehog as needed. I usually feed my mealworms to my critters (usually reptiles) when they were half grown. The mealies seem to get a little 'tough' when very full grown. A mealworm 'farm' is pretty self sufficient and very, very easy to maintain. If the bran and oats started to look all used up, I would take out a bunch of larvae, beetles and mealworms and dump the rest, refill with new bran and oats and start all over again.

I never used egg cartons but I've seen them used for crickets to crawl around on and hide in when someone is breeding crickets. I never separated the beetles and I always had MANY mealworms.

Awesome thanks! Now I gotta get over my anxiety with beetles. I have no problem with mealies, but I guess we'll see how the beetles go. Not having to separate them will definitely help.

I agree, it really isn't that hard to raise them. We raised them at the aquarium I worked at when our bug supplier was having issues shipping us mealies.

We never separated the beetles from the eggs and we had plenty of mealies.

I don't remember the exact substrate we kept them in but I know it was something like Carol mentioned and we just put a half of a sweet potato in there too.

I agree though, the beetles were kind of creepy..

April. I have been raising mealworms for some time now. I never remove the beetles. Mine are raised on oatmeal for bedding. To feed them I break a carrot up into about 3-4 pieces (depends on its size) and spread them out through the container. When I notice that the carrot pieces are nearly gone, I add new carrot.

I don't like apples or potatoes as they are too wet. They caused two colonies to become moist and a mold/fungus grew on the bedding. I've had the best luck with carrots and sweet potatoes.

The beetles aren't too bad. Mine always hide when I tap on the container. Sometimes there looks like there are none in the container at all. Also once you get the colony started, you can take mealworms for feeding out of the container and store them in the refrigerator, thus reducing the number of times you have to see the beetles .

I read somewhere that you can also feed the beetles to your hedgies. I've fed them in the pupae stage also, just so I wouldn't be over run with beetles.

Some hedgehogs absolutely adore beetles. Rose loves them. I think its the crunch they make. Plus they are supposed to be a lot lower in fat, and higher in fiber than their larval counterparts.

Mealworm Farm FAIL!

Hi...new here...I came over from HHC, mother of Snarf. :wink2:

I realize the post about mealies/beetles is over a year old but I am having the same issues...

I have tried unsuccessfully to farm mealworms. I get a bunch of to the larvae stage and then they die...or do they? It occurred to me that I may be giving up on them too soon...some basic questions:

- do the larvae get kinda browny-grey and dry looking as they are 'morphing' into beetles? (this is when I usually toss them)

- is altitude/heat an issue? i generally keep Snarf's mealies in a container next to his cage (they get daylinght from 6am-9pm) and at a warmer room temp. I have tried keeping the 'farm' in a storage room - always dark and much warmer...which would be better? does it matter? I live at a high altitude...does that make a difference?

- the most i have ever got was a few beetles, granted i fed those to Snarf likely before they laid eggs but still...I would have expected more larvae/beetles...everything from 200 mealies.

- i use brand as a substrate and feed carrots, replacing them when they get wilty looking

- what the heck am I doing wrong?:hmm:

Thanks in advance! With a second hedgie on the way, farming my own mealies seems to be the smart/affordable thing to do!

I'd leave the larvae alone until they are obviously dead. They will get dried out and break when they are dead. Leaving them in there isn't going to hurt anything. They shouldn't rot or mold as long as the colony itself is kept dry.

I have 2 colonies going currently. One I feed from, and one I just have breeding. I add large mealworms, or pupae from the feeding colony to the breeding every so often to continually add various ages of mealworms to it. You will need to let some of the beetles live long enough to die on their own. Let them live to reproduce.

Here is a guide to breeding mealworms

I'm having issues again as well. The pupae keep dying and the beetles seem under developed. Is this a sign of growth hormones being fed to mealworms to prevent their normal reproductive cycles? It's the only thing I can think of. I'm just not getting any babies, even after months of effort. :hair:

I just started my colony yesterday morning, (bought 500 from Petco on sunday) and I already have a pupa. I'm using Oatmeal for bedding, and feeding them carrots. I also have them on top of a bookshelf - its warmer up there. The warmer (and darker), the faster their life cycles. They are nocturnal. Its also pretty humid down here in the south. today its 81%

I heard that only the GIANT mealworms have growth hormones injected into them. Which makes sense, because it takes extra time to get that big.

this article is pretty in depth: http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm