Good for you Gibby. I think you'll have fun with it once you see some progress. It does take a while, but it's fascinating to watch them change from mealworm to pupa to beetle.

Learn to EMBRACE your mealworm colony! Embrace it as you embrace your blues! LOL!

Ann

Well, yesterday got my first beetle, and this morning there was one more, so I'm on my way. All but a coupe of my worms have turned into pupa, anmd maybe they still will. On to the beeetle stage!!!

I went ahead and built the "farm" with filter i seen on YouTube and recently posted a video.

Ok its not that good. But you can see how quickly the larva start appearing.

I really didn't know that my cheap little camera had sound.

Here is a link that might be useful: My Mealworm Farm - with Filter

Kendra, or anyone, How do I know when to take the beetles out and put the in a different box, if you can't see the eggs? My beetles (the first ones) were 1 week old Sunday and some are black, I keep getting new ones everyday. So should I change the bedding at 2 weeks? put the beetles in a different box and add the bedding to the worm box? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi Gibby,
There is no steadfast rule, but I'm happy to tell you what I do. I wait until I can see the first tiny mealworms (they always show up for me between 29-31 days after the beetles are put in) then I put the date on the container. It will take longer for you since you are just starting out and you are adding them one at a time, but once you end up switching that batch of beetles out, the time frame will be more reliable. I'm guessing you will probably see the tiny mealworms about 45 days after your first beetle was put in. To find them, I put the box under a bright light and sift through the bedding using a Popsicle stick. One tip I can give you is to sift through slowly and look for movement. I always see them by their movement first because they are so tiny they are hard to see. Then I leave them in there for two more weeks before taking the beetles out. I leave the mealworms and eggs in the original bedding and place the beetles on new bedding in a new box, which I also put a date on. I hope this makes sense. Feel free to ask any other questions.

All of my worms hav changed into upa except a couple, so I tgot a bigger worm box and thought I'd sift the beetles out, add the bedding and eggs to the worm box and keep the beetles in the ssame box that they are in right now.All of my pupa have turned into beetles too, except for a couple, sot thye must have been all about the same age. I think I will have a slew when Ig et little ones. Must have been about 200 worms because I just bought them before the birds left. So of the beet;es are inthe box with eggs, they won't eat them?

As long as you are providing some kind of moisture source for the beetles, it should not be a problem.

fosteem1 - I just saw the video of your mealworm setup. What type of screen did you use? I saw the original guy's setup and he said that his beetles ate thru the mesh type of screen. Wow! So, did you use standard sized wire window screen or something different? The holes just look so small in the window screening that I've seen but maybe it's enough for the eggs to sift thru. Please let me know cause I want to try this set-up. Thanks!

Here is my setup with directions and photos: http://home.earthlink.net/~lviolett/mealworms.html

Here is a link that might be useful: http://home.earthlink.net/~lviolett/mealworms.html

Wow Linda, what a fabulous web page. Your pictures and set-up are great. And your instructions are clear and easy to follow. Thank you so much for posting this. I had a great time reading through it.

Kendra

Linda - how many beetles do you have per container and how many containers of beetles? I wasn't clear on that. Thanks.

Fosteem1 - I didn't want my question to you to get lost so I'm posting it again. What size/type of screen did you use under the beetle bin? Was it standard wire window screen? Thanks.

Judy

Judy, you asked the same question I was going to ask. How many beetles per container? I didn't see that addressed on the site. I have been thinking lately that if I added a greater quantity of beetles, but moved them out sooner, I may end up with more mealworms of a more consistent size.

Each beetle bin has about 100 to 150 beetles. The screen is a fine mesh and purchased by the roll from Home Depot. Sorry, I don't have the packaging for more information.

I don't receive automated messages for this mealworm topic thread but anyone can reach me by Googling "2-holed Bluebird boxes". Glad to answer any questions.

I'm posting this picture to show the size difference between mealworms grown on heat, and ones grown without heat. The mealworm on the left was in a bin with no heater, and the one on the right was grown in a bin with a 4 watt reptile heater under it. These are both about a month old. They were both kept in a room that was approximately 70 degrees. I put a standard sized ball point pen in the picture to give an idea of the size of the mealworms at this stage.

Wow! What a difference the heat made!

Gosh, maybe I'd better put the heat to mine!!! I thought having them in the house at 70 degrees, would be good enough. I'm sure they're laying eggs. the are burying their back ends for a bit and sometimes going under completely, Is this when they're doing their egg laying?

I have never been able to actually see the eggs, even with a microscope. But I always assumed they were laying eggs when they stick their back ends into the substrate. Though I do think they lay them all over the place as well. I was so pleased with how much faster they grew after using one of those reptile heaters that I went out and bought two more. I had some of my bins in a spare room for a while and that room tended to be around 63 degrees. They grew really, really slowly at that temperature. You want to be careful not to overheat them though. I tried a larger reptile heater once (an 8 watt instead of the 4 watt) and I fried a bunch of them.