Breeding and feeding meal worms

[Pookie]

Ok so i'm just a bit confused. Once the mealworms turn into beatles....what do you put them in? I understand what the mealworms themselves must be in but i'm not clear on what to do once they actually transform into beatles.

[drewlowe]

thats a good question pookie

I myself just started doing this so i'm not 100% sure. But i have been told to leave the beetles in there. Give me a few weeks and i'll tell ya how it's going with my colony.

so far i have 2 alien looking things. I know thier just bugs and there going to get fed to my leos anyway, but since i'm just starting to do this i think it's kinda cool.

[depressor86]

ive had a few attempted colonies where nothing came of them. i was keeping about 50 beetles in a big container with oats and bran as a substrate. i had a few pieces of egg carton in and offered veggies. kept them at room temperature and waited. eventually all the beetles died off and nothing else happened.
is the temperature wrong? or do they need something else to lay eggs in?

[Linds]

Pookie,
Just put the mealies into a container full of substrate and thats it. You don't need to do anything different for them as they turn into beetles, just keep treating them as though they were worms

depressor86,
What temperature were you keeping them at? How long did you wait before assuming it was unsuccessful? They don't require anything to lay their eggs in other than the substrate you are keeping them in. I find my mealie beetles don't have as long a lifespan as everyone elses do, however I've never had problems with them reproducing. It usually just takes several months for them to be noticably reproducing I found. Its best to start out with as many beetles as you can. I have one colony that I threw out because the substrate went moldy, well I actually misplaced it (back when I used to have lids with holes in them), well more than a year later I find the thing and there are always loads of mealies and a few beetles, I don't feed them and the substrate is all mold. I feel bad throwing them away, but I'm sure not gonna use em! Once they start they are very resilient!

[WingedWolf]

Yeah, it can take several months for those eggs to hatch and turn into new worms big enough for you to see. Just keep the substrate, and wait.
The beetles do die long before the eggs hatch.