Mealies OVER populating!!!!!!!

drewlowe · 12-10-04, 02:23 PM

About 1 year ago i started my mealie colonies, i first started out with 2 containers then about 6 months ago i had to add a third (the first 2 where going a little too strong). I am also going to be doing a 4th one soon but that one will be going to my boyfriends little sister for christmas ( i know a crappy x-mas gift but she's getting more than that and we will be moving out soon so she will not have easy acces to mealies like she does now, so we thought we would be nice and start and give her instructions on how to take care of one).

Anyway even after taking enough mealies to start the 4th bin i will still have WAY to many mealies (man do these things ever slow down on breeding, i think there worse than rabbits LOL). Now i won't have 1000's of mealies to sell, but every week or so i'll have a few hundred i could sell or give away.

Would it even be worth my time to try and sell them???

I would have to buy the packaging for shipping or just selling them around here. Then i would either place them on ebay or try to sell to a local herp shop. Or should i just say screw it and kill them off and not even waste my time trying to sell them.

Thanks for any opions.

Jamie

spidergecko · 12-10-04, 02:58 PM

I think you will notice that as soon are you begin harvesting them in large quantities (like 100 a week) you will no longer have mealworms with the right size to feed your animals. I find my mealworms appear in cycles. At one point most of the mealworms are in worm form then at some other point they are all beetles with not enough good-sized worms to feed my animals. When I harvest a few at a time, there is always enough. I think you could successfully sell/trade/give worms away on occasion but I don't think you will have enough to make any significant profit. If I had to estimate the number of mealworms I had right now it would number in the tens of thousands.
Just curious but why would you need to kill off mealworms? The occasional potato in the container can't be draining your wallet that much

drewlowe · 12-11-04, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by spidergecko

Just curious but why would you need to kill off mealworms? The occasional potato in the container can't be draining your wallet that much

It really doesn't have anything to do with my wallet. There is just WAY too many. Like i said above i have 3 bins going and can start a forth without it hardly putting a dint in my collection. I also just added more "food" for the mealies about a month ago and they are already ate most of it and every inch of the substrate is crowded with mealies of all sizes, plus all 3 bins are on slightly differnt cycles so having the size i need for my guys to eat really isn't to much of a problem, also i only have 8 herps that are eating mealies at the moment. I'm also not looking for a profit of any kind just trying to get rid of quite a few of my mealies so my bins aren't over populated.

Thanks

Jamie

RepTylE · 12-11-04, 12:11 PM

Have you considered/tried to trade off the excess mealies for store credit at your local petshop? Just an thought but if you could get store credit then you could apply that to buying feeders or other supplies.

HeatherRose · 12-11-04, 12:20 PM

I think the obvious solution is to buy more herps!!

I'd love to be in your situation...I've drained my mealie colony, and have to give it a 'break' for the time being...

I'd do what Reptyle suggested, try a petstore for credt and such...they have to get them somewhere.

nguyen_inc · 12-11-04, 12:25 PM

reptyle has a good idea, and I think its pretty nice to give them away. both ways your getting rid of them

hahaha I thought I have a lot with only a rubber maid full, I started with around ten bettles... It's crazy how fast and how much these guys produce.

blazinreps · 12-11-04, 12:45 PM

wow my collonies havent done well at all i have alot of small herps to feed so a collony would help alot could i get some tips?

Linds · 12-11-04, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by blazinreps
wow my collonies havent done well at all i have alot of small herps to feed so a collony would help alot could i get some tips?

To get the most out of your colonies, you have to have several containers in which to rotate beetles every few weeks. If you keep the beetles and pupae in with the worms, they will get eaten. Keeping them moderately warm (I keep mine around 80) will also make sure they are growing and pupating at a good pace. I use a substrate of (well, used to, now I have had to switch to something inedible) 12 grain mix, mixed fruit pablum, skim milk powder, fish flakes, rolled oats, rye flakes, bran, etc. and feed them nutrient rich foods such as bell peppers, oranges, greens, etc. It took a few months to start seeing worms for me, but it wasn't too long after that before they really started growing in numbers.

spidergecko · 12-11-04, 01:58 PM

I think the key to getting lots of worms is to start off with a lot and keep multiple bins while only harvesting from one bin at a time. I started off with 1000 worms but this didn't last. Then I decided to dump 4000 worms in there and just left them alone. Now, when I throw a potato into the bin it's Fear Factor creepy!

I also throw out a lot of beetles every summer.

Since the mealworms and beetles really only need vegetables for food (the media they live in doesn't matter) I don't even bother changing the bran meal any more. I'm not allergic to the dust so I just let them do their thing. It saves me a lot of work.

I actually have spiders living in my mealworm containers. They moved in for an easy snack and I don't have the heart to send them away. I let them share the surplus with the reptiles.

HeatherRose · 12-11-04, 02:24 PM

Quote:

wow my collonies havent done well at all i have alot of small herps to feed so a collony would help alot could i get some tips?

In addition to what Linds said, try giving them something to lay eggs on. I didn't see a surplus of babies until I did this. Some people will say to use cork bark, but it never worked for me. I use apple cores, and sometimes if I pick one up it's MOVING...very cool.

nguyen_inc · 12-11-04, 02:30 PM

Card board seems to work for me. I skin it so to speek so theres ridges on it.

snakehunter · 12-11-04, 03:16 PM

You could just eat them, theres plenty of protein and stuff in them, and I hear they have a nutty flavor.

spidergecko · 12-11-04, 03:34 PM

I thought that was crickets.

drewlowe · 12-11-04, 07:00 PM

I could try the pet store thing cause I do trade my excess greens for a few dozen crix. He may do the same for me with mealies.

Most people do put cardboard and having multiple tubs to switch worms, pupae, and beetles to make faster colonies. Luckily I haven’t had to add any cardboard or cork bark for them to lie there eggs on and I haven't had to the switching thing since the first 3 months of breeding them. I started out with 1 bin then 1 week later I got another bin to do the rotate thing. I did that for a little over 2 months then I just decided to see if I could get them 2 established at different cycles. After those 2 were going real strong I introduced the 3rd and just used pupae from the 1st tub (I believe may have been the second) and waited for them to start. And now I’m over run by mealies. I keep their temp around 70-75 with a substrate of-- rolled oats, wheat bran, red bran, rice baby cereal, oatmeal baby cereal, mixed grain baby cereal, evaporated milk, ocean kelp meal, and every few months I’ll throw in tropical fish flake food.

Oh and I started off with about 3-4 thousand mealies

Heather Rose I would LOVE more herps, but ummmm where am I going to put them; hmmm maybe I should convert my drawers under my bed to cages. LOL

I’ve also attached an older pic of my colonies except they look a lot nicer in the pic than they do right now, cause every where you look you see a mealie.

Thanks again everyone,

Jamie

peterm15 · 12-11-04, 08:26 PM

why dont you try cooling them down slightly. everything on breeding that ive read says if you keep them cool they wont breed as quickly.... so in theroy you can cool them down until you get rid of some... then when you start to get lower just put there temp back to normal.... that way you can controll the rate at which they breed.....