Pupae!

I got my first Pupae!!!! Only took two days! I lucked out! I sorted through the rest of the colony and didn't see any other ones. But I will check again tomorrow. 

Hes very squirmy and I just moved him/her to the second bin. I put oats in (even though pupae don't eat until hatching it just seemed like it needed something in there. I also covered it with a tp roll. Seemed like dark would be the most comfy to a non crawling thing. So hopefully in a few weeks I will have my first beetle! 

Checked on the worms and they are looking good. Very wiggly and getting plump. They almost finished off the potato so I will most likely discard that tomorrow and put a fresh one in. The carrot is completely gone. I also picked out all the shedded skins and set two sickly looking worms in the corner of the bin.

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

The Beginning and Why I decided to breed Mealworms.

The idea of a worm farm seems INSANE! Until your sister gives you a leopard gecko that you fall in LOVE with and want the best for it!

Originally I was set to feed "Tiger" Crickets. But they smell and they are sooooooo loud when you want to sleep. Also you try 'catching' the uneaten crickets ... much harder than it sounds. Crickets in pet stores are starving and need to be gut loaded... this takes a few days and crickets are ninja escape artists.

Enter the Mealworm! My local pet shop does not sell many worms. Therefore they are old crusty and mostly dead blech! I searched online and found Uncle Jims Worm Farm had great reviews. I placed my order and 8 days later they arrived. 8 days in 90 degree weather= gross.

Half were black on arrival. I contacted Uncle Jim and he promptly re-sent my order.

4 days later I got a bag of fat juicy worms :D Yay! I moved them to an empty clean butter bowl with holes in the fridge. I fed "Tiger" 10-15 every day or so.

I noticed about 2 days ago that there were more black worms and that the overall size and health of the worms was declining. Obviously storing them in the fridge had a lot to do with it. Im sure they don't eat or move as much. Some Googling showed that worms can live in the fridge 2-6 months. Thats a HUGE range gap. I began to entertain the idea of proliferating the worms I had on hand. They were already starting to die at about 4 weeks in the fridge why not see if I can turn this around!

And thats how it started :D