1st Pupated mealworm

[MartinW]

Yipeee!!! I think I got my first pupated mealworm! The ones that look like an alien. Does anyone know how long it will be for it to turn into a beetle?

Martin

[Zoe]

lol!

It took about a week to two weeks for mine to pupate :)

Congrats!

[MartinW]

Breeding insects is so much fun!! I was so excited when I saw the little alien:) lol. I'm also trying to breed crix. I think I've seen them lay eggs (they stick their long tail in the vermiculite), but I think the temperature is too low for them to hatch (20*C/70*F). I guess I'll have to wait till the weather gets hotter or find a heat source for them, but hopefully they'll hatch anyway in the meantime! I have 8 day old cricket eggs.

Martin

[Zoe]

The cricket eggs will hatch soon... the one thing you need to remember is to keep them HUMID! As soon as they dry out, the babies die. Actually, I have this awesome box that I used to use to breed crickets, it's made out of really tight metal screen (stainless steel), and has one big door, and one little door for food and stuff. It works really well because it holds heat and humidity, and the smell is pretty well contained.
I don't use it anymore (no need to breed my own crix), so if you're interested in it let me know, and next time I go to Ottawa I can bring it for you.

I've been breeding some mealies... I'm amazed how easy it is, but it sure takes a long time. Right now I have hundreds and hundreds of little mealworms... but they grow pretty fast because I feed them a LOT (cat food, veggies, fruit etc).

Zoe

[MartinW]

That container sounds pretty cool, if you're sure you don't want it and you're coming to Ottawa some time I'll take it:) Is it the cricket eggs that I need to keep humid? I've been spraying the laying boxes with water every day. Do I need to keep the baby crickets humid as well? Or can I just keep them the same way I keep adult crickets (I use egg-cartons, a tupperware lid filled with vermiculite and water, and some healthy substrate, but the air is dry, not humid).

BTW. I love those two web sites you have in your signature! They look great!!

Thanks Zoe!
Martin

[Zoe]

Yep the babies need to be kept humid too... when I first tried, I kept them on drish peat moss and they all died. When I moisened it, they did quite well! I feed them crushed dry cat food, little thin carrot slices and bits of lettuce. They grew pretty fast. And I used that cricket-water stuff... it's like gelatine, but they can drink it, so they don't drown.

Zoe

[snakemann87]

i dont do anything special, and i have over 10 pupated mealies. They just keep turning up!! lol

[Linds]

Also... the warmer you keep them (within reason, you don't want to cook them), the faster they will pupate. I keep mine at 80-85 degrees and find it works fine.

[MartinW]

Umm... does anyone know a good way to get the smell down of crickets? My family's complaining about the smell. I might build a box to put outdoors, with somekind of heater in it. The adults don't smell as bad as the babies cuz the adults aren't in a humid box, but the babies are and it seems to make it stinkier.

Martin