I have 10 bluebirds, two Carolina wrens, three or four song sparrows, three or four tufted titmice and some chickadees. I go through 10,000 meal worms every week and a half. I see all of them first thing in the morning and then they come back two or three at a time several times throughout the afternoon. I probably put out 100 or more at a time. I order large but haven't seen any I would consider large for quite some time. I think that is one reason they eat as many as they do. Dave

Absolutely!! You'll see little drifts of skins! That's very good news! I do not mist---too worried about mold. I have drawn boundaries regarding what I will and will not do to raise mealworms. I'm pretty overloaded as it is! Mine do fine with just veggies and cornmeal. At least I think they do! In a box that big, I usually put 4 little pieces of celery (or whatever) to supply each "quadrant." If they're that tiny, I don't know how far they can go to get food! Hope that helps, Ann

Keith, when you feed the mealies you should leave them out of the fridge to feed, the apple peals need to have some apple on them too, not just the peals as they need the moisture from the apple. Mine eat the apple and leave the peals. I have kept mine in the fridge from October to April and they have stayed alive. You just need to take them out like once every three weeks or so and feed them or they will die. When you feed them you leave them out of the fridge for several hours so they can wake up enough to eat, I usually leave them out a whole day but not overnight. They also eat the wheatbran or oatmeal that they are in but they need apple/carrots/lettuc etc for moisture. Do not leave the moisture source in them when you put them back in the fridge though or they could mold and kill the mealies. Donna

Hi all, I am in Australia and raising mealworms for the local Noisy Miners. I have tried this mealworm thing before to no avail. I have three full tubs of mealworms (from tiny to fully grown) under the house that are brimming with grain mites. I'm still going to strain these and feed them to the 'locals' but I need to buy more worms to begin a new farm. I've had to consider heating as the new colony will live under the house. The old one was inside the house and when the mites broke out, I had a LOT of cleaning to do! After looking into all heating options (and reading all of your advice), I am thinking of buying a ceramic heating lamp with a thermostat. The basic idea is to put the beetles/babies container directly under the lamp with empty containers either side (for the egg-filled strained beetle subtrate). These 'sister containers' will benefit from the lamp, but to avoid overheating of the beetles, I will put the thermostat sensor in that box. Hopefully, by keeping an eye on the temperature and humidity (with a cheap Thermometer & Humidity Gauge) I will avoid those horrible mites. Oh, and for anybody that is interested, I've been playing around with a beetle container that I saw on youtube with the mite infested beetles to find what works best before I begin the new colony. So far, the best that I have found was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKJ52gW8i9M He does call it a 'Superworm box' but I've found that it works really well for the mealies (in a smaller box). I used a different substrate though, a roughly blended mix of corn flakes, wheat bix and oats. Instead of filling the bottom box, I gave it a little shake and let the loose stuff fall. When the beetles began to lay, the eggs/babies fell through and thrived in the lower box. Oh, I also used two of the same containers (he used a plastic container and a kitty litter container) and drilled air holes (with mesh) in the sides so the babies can breathe. I'll let you all know how it goes :)