Starting a Mealworm Farm

I read tons of articles and wikis and forums. It seemed that making my own colony of squirmy wormies boiled down to three things.

1.) Habitat

Most commonly used are these Sterilite containers. 3 Drawers for each stage of life. Any plastic or glass container will do. No wood, cardboard or cloth containers because they can eat through them. 
They do need air so if you use a lidded container make sure to drill holes. My drawers have a slight gap so no holes are needed. 

2.) Bedding

Oats or Grains of some type. 1-2 inches deep.  I saw all sorts of things from mill grounded bran to mixtures of baby cereal and sawdust ground catfood. I picked rolled oats. 

3.) Moisture and Hideaways

They will drown in water and water crystals don't give nutrients.  The top used sources were carrots, apples, and potatoes. They were the slowest to rot/ mold and seemed to give the best results. It also is good practice to put the food items on a square of paper or a plastic lid. This way there's no moisture getting to the oats. 

As for the hideaways just cut up a toilet paper roll. Mealworms are fond of the dark (they are called Darkling beetles after all!) and these just help add a little extra dark for them. 

Optional:

They like to stay around 70-77 degrees F. If you live in very cold climates you may need to get a heater. Also if you live in very dry climates you may need to adjust your humidity with a vaporizer in the room. 

Once You have your 1-2-3 then its time for Worms!

I got mine from 

I'm not sure the exact number I started with but roughly 40 from the first shipment and 500 from the second. So lets guestimate I put 540 in there. I sorted them out by hand but didn't keep a count. 

One last thing I want to add. Patience! The mealworm life cycle is as follows:

Egg(6 weeks) -->Worm (12-18 weeks) --> Pupae(1-2 weeks)-->Beetle(3 Months) 

Beatles can lay eggs as soon as 4 days after emerging from pupae stage or as late as 2 weeks. Thats a total of about 38 weeks or 9.5 months for a complete cycle.  Most people will have a head start because they are entering the cycle in the worm stage. Most Jumbo worms will not pupate because they have exhausted all their energy getting huge. 

If you wish to make a business out of it, best to be sure you give yourself enough time to cycle through before opening up shop. If you are feeding your animals make sure you have enough worms to farm and still feed your reptiles/ chicken/ fish ect. 

Good luck and happy Farming :D