Breeding and feeding meal worms

[drewlowe]

Hi i have a few questions about meal worms. I rarely ever used them in the past but am thinking about begining to use them. I was wondering what do you feed them. I have heard about oatmeal, but i would like to feed them a more nutrietional diet. also how do you breed them. how long does it take and what type of container do they need to be housed in? what temps do they need to be kept at seeing i live in a basement and all.

Any help would be appreciated or a nudge in the right direction. I'm also going to be doing my own research on them but would like other opinions from people that have done this.

Thanks

Jamie

[Chobdragon]

I use oatmeal as a somewhat substrate, but I feed my mealworms pumpkin pieces(gives reptiles a brighter appearance) or carrotts, potatoes, sweet potatos. and grapes! But I dont limit this. To breed em, u should just restrain from feeding like Id say 7 or 8 of em an put em in a seperate container. Then just keep feeding em, they will start to turn into beetles in a few weeks, then they will breed. remove the beetles after about a week then put em in another container, u will then have some new mealworms , and a nice continuous flow of Mealys!

[Linds]

I keep my mealies in a substrate of:

-12 grain mix
-mixed fruit baby cereal (pablum)
-rolled oats
-wheat germ
-rye flakes
-bottom of the bag of rodent chow, cat food, dog food, or whatever
-white bran
-red bran
-oat bran

Spirulina is also an excellent additive to the substrate mixture. For moisture I provide them with a variety of high calcium greens, vegetables, and fruits. They seem to enjoy just about everything I just keep mine in rubbermaids with no lids. I find if you have a lid, unless it is totally screened off, you end up having moldy substrate, which is a real pain if you need to toss it all out and already have an established colony. The warmer you keep them (within reason) the quicker they pupate and grow. Mine are kept between 80 and 85 degrees. Many people like to rotate their beetles around several containers, but its a little too tedious for my tastes, so I just have a couple colonies in several containers that I don't tamper with. As for starting your colony, I would have to disgaree with the above statement of starting off with 7 or 8 beetles, I would recommend starting off with at least 100 beetles Good luck with your mealie breeding

[snakedude_03]

do you guys know if i can use corn meal?

[Edwin]

I follow dr.gecko's formula:

Its important to provide roughly 3 inches of high-quality and nutritious substrate for the worms to burrow in and eat. Many people keep their mealworms on a simple substrate of oat bran. We prefer to maximize the nutritional quality of the substrate since the mealworms actually eat it. We include a mix of:

12 grain cereal mix baby rice cereal rolled oats
white bran wheat germ red bran

We also sprinkle in the following items to boost the nutritional quality of the substrate even further:

alfalfa flakes dandelion flakes spirulina flakes
bee pollen dried sea kelp tropical fish flakes

www.drgecko.com

Hope this helps.

[depressor86]

do you have to take the adult beetles out of the container after they lay? i didnt and ive never seen any baby mealworms so im guessing they either arent breeding or the beetles are eating the mealworms?

[drewlowe]

ok question, ive been doing some reading on them and Only ONE of the care sheets ive seen says that the beetles fly. Is that true???

Ive also come across one that says you can leave all stages in the same contanier but all of the other ones says to separate into at least 3 different containers. I was wondering which is the best way to do this. I want to find out every thing i can before i start breeding them.

[Linds]

drewlowe,
1) Flour beetles don't fly, if they did I would be in trouble because I do not have lids on the mealie colonies
2)It's all a matter of preference, as I stated in my above post, I do not have the patience to pick and sort the little buggers, so I just leave them all in one container to do their thing (well I have a few containers, but I don't fiddle with any of them).

depressor86,
The mealie beetles can be left in the container. How long have you had your colony? What temperature are you keeping them at?

[drewlowe]

is the flour beetle the same as the darkling beetle. Cause everything i have read have said that darkling beetles was their name. I just don't know much about bugs lol i'm the same when it comes to fruits and veggies.but i'm trying to learn for my guys and girls.

[Linds]

Mealie beetles are also called flour beetles...

[Linds]

Mealie beetles are also called flour beetles. I'm not huge into bugs, but I;ve never heard them referred to as a Darkling beetle before? :dumb:

[drewlowe]

http://insected.arizona.edu/mealinfo.htm

http://www.insectlore.com/xinsectuca..._activity.html

http://www.nabluebirdsociety.org/mealworm.htm

Those are some of the sites i came across when i was looking for info. I don't know i quess thats their real name. if i'm looking at the wrong thing please let me know.

[WingedWolf]

I use a substrate of a mix of dry whole-grain baby cereals, and avoid oatmeal, as it's not very nutritious for the herps.
I then use fruit slices or soaked tissue or paper towel as a water source for them.

The beetles are a type of darkling beetle, so that is the correct name for them.

[Bryce Masuk]

They are by far the easyist bug to breed all you have to do is let them sit and give them carrots while they live in bran I had thousands soooo many i give a ton away...

[drewlowe]

thank you all for your imput.

I started the mealie breeding colony last night. as of right now i have rolled oats, rice baby cereal, powdered milk ( i read that off a site, is that ok for them to eat???) wheat germ, wheat bran

Is all of that ok to start??? i'm trying to find the rest. i have a friend thats going to pick up some bee pollen for me. i already have the tropical fish flakes. I just have to find out where i can find the rest of the stuff.

I'm also picking up some apples carrots and potatoes today.

Thanks again everyone.