mealworm culture questions

nimrodfiftyfour · 03-12-04, 12:56 PM

I've had my mealworm culture for 2 months now and still no new worms! Tons of beetles, but no larvae. I've got them on chick mash giving oranges and carrots for water. Any ideas? Thanks.

Slannesh · 03-12-04, 02:59 PM

I noticed when I was starting mine it seemed to take much longer than i'd read anywhere to start seeing new Larvae. I didn't really notice any until a couple weeks after all my beetles had died off.

Linds · 03-12-04, 08:30 PM

I've found it takes a while to initially start a colony for some reason (a couple months). I've never kept anything in chicken mash before so I cannot say how effective it is as an overall substrate. I would recommend removing all the beetles after a while and transferring them to a new container to do their business and see if you can find any teeny tiny little worms developing in the next few weeks without any beetles in with them. Also, the warmer the temps (within reason) the quicker the cycle of egg -> worm -> pupae -> beetle. I keep mine at about 80 degrees.