beatles

[nguyen_inc]

Hi, I have a problem turning my extra meals and super worms into beatles:( . Are there needs so they can turn into beatles? And if I can turn them into beatles what should I feed them? thanks, sorry for so many ?'s!

[Lrptls]

i only know regular meal worms, i think supers are just about the same but i'm not totaly sure. This is how i raise my worms... I keep them all in a tub with a nutricios edible substrate like corn meal (alot of times they come with the stuff) And i feed them vegies for moisture. After some weeks they turn into pupe, this is sort of a cacoon stage, they kind of look like little white aliens. Seperate these from the meal worms, and they dont need any thing special. After a week or so they turn into beetles. Give the beetles the same subsrate for meal worms and give them vegies too. The beetles only purpose is to mate, lay eggs and die, so they wont live very long at all. Hope this helps.

[Linds]

Mealies should turn on their own. As soon as they pupate in to those little aliens, I seperate them in to another container to change in to beetles, as I find the worms start to eat them if you don't.

Superworms need to be seperated in order to turn. Put a bit of substrate in a small place (film containers, thread containers, etc.) and place the worm. Make sure they have a small air hole, but if the container is made out of medium hardness plastic such as film canisters, make sure they cannot reach the hole, as they can chew their way out :rolleyes:

Beetles should be seperated from worms, worms will eat beetles. Superworm beetles like places to hide, bark works well and they will lay their eggs in it. Mealie (Darkling) beetles are kept the same way as the worms, grain substrate and some veggies and fruit, or greens. Superworms can be kept on various substrates, such as grain and peat. I've only ever used grain so I cannot comment on any others. I feed them the same as the worms as well; leafy greens, fruits, and veggies.

[nguyen_inc]

waw just the info I needed! thanks a lot! but I have one more thing to ask, can i use oatmeal for the substrate?

[Linds]

Oatmeal is fine, but remember you are what you eat. I like to use as much as I can in my susbtrates. Some ingredients include:

rolled oats (not the quick kind)
oat bran
red bran
white bran
wheat germ
spirulina fish flakes
12 grain mix
rye flakes
quinoa

[drewlowe]

I set up a rubbermaid with rolled oats, various brans, spirnila (sp) evporated milk, and i throw in some veggies for moisture.

The mealworms will turn in to "aliens" (pupae) from there they will turn in to beetles then the beetles will lay eggs.

It doesn't happen over night or even in a week or so.

I've had 3 mealworm colonies going for a few months or so. The first 2 are completly established the 3rd one i'm still waiting to see some tiny mealies. You don't need to add cardboard to make it work either.

They will also grow depending on temps. The higher the temps the faster they cycle the lower the temps the less they will cycle.

I have mine at the mid 70's temps and the cycle is very slow so it takes me a few months to get them through all of there cycles. If i want to speed the cycle up i place a heat lamp over my bins.

Sorry if other people have replied before me i'm at work and it took me over a 1/2 hour writing this reply, cause i'm doing several other things.

Edit: when i first started this tread nobody had replied, but now i'm way down in the list. LOL damn work.