Breeding/Buying Mealworms

[Lenewen]

Hi everyone!

Now that I have gone from 1 to 6 geckos in what feels like no time, I am running through mealworms, crickets and waxworms like CRAZY! I know how to breed crickets, but I am having a hard time figuring out how to effectively breed mealworms. Does anyone have any sources to cite? Firsthand experience?

In the meantime, I need to start getting mealworms in bulk. Anyone recommend any particular online vendor for doing so?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Mardy]

Try grubco.com, they're pretty good.

As for breeding guide, try: How to Breed Mealworms | Gecko Time

 

[Lenewen]

Excellent article on mealworm breeding, Marty! Thank you!

Does anyone have firsthand experience breeding mealworms? It looks TOUGH!

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Ummm...try looking in the "feeders, food, and nutrition" section of this site??? There's several very explicit posts on how to correctly breed mealworms.

 

[badkelpie]

I breed mealworms, it's very easy (my way is, at least).

Take a bunch of mealworms, put them in a container (open top rubbermaid type plastic shoe box, or whatever you have). I use whole wheat flour for substrate, but you can use anything "grainy", cornmeal, oatmeal, whatever. Keep a carrot or raw potato slice in there (replace it when it dries up or molds). Then wait. I don't remove the pupae or beetles, just leave everyone in one bin. No one chews on the pupae when they are immobile, and the beetles don't eat the worms. Every 6 months or so, move everyone to a new container, this is where the flour makes it easy, just sift it through a fine mesh strainer, then remove food bits, dead worms, etc. And put everyone in a new bin with fresh flour. Hang onto the sifted substrate and re-sift it in a few weeks, there'll be eggs and tiny mealworms in it.

I know everyone likes to separate the pupae and beetles but that's more work and unnecessary if you ask me.

 

[Lenewen]

Ummm...try looking in the "feeders, food, and nutrition" section of this site??? There's several very explicit posts on how to correctly breed mealworms.

I was more interested in finding people with first hand experience. I did read some of the blogs on this site before posting.

However, thank you. I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

 

[Lenewen]

I breed mealworms, it's very easy (my way is, at least).

Take a bunch of mealworms, put them in a container (open top rubbermaid type plastic shoe box, or whatever you have). I use whole wheat flour for substrate, but you can use anything "grainy", cornmeal, oatmeal, whatever. Keep a carrot or raw potato slice in there (replace it when it dries up or molds). Then wait. I don't remove the pupae or beetles, just leave everyone in one bin. No one chews on the pupae when they are immobile, and the beetles don't eat the worms. Every 6 months or so, move everyone to a new container, this is where the flour makes it easy, just sift it through a fine mesh strainer, then remove food bits, dead worms, etc. And put everyone in a new bin with fresh flour. Hang onto the sifted substrate and re-sift it in a few weeks, there'll be eggs and tiny mealworms in it.

I know everyone likes to separate the pupae and beetles but that's more work and unnecessary if you ask me.

Thank you! This is a much better description of what I can expect when doing this than I have seen so far. I appreciate the help! I'll be giving this a go and we'll see what happens

 

[MauricesExoticPets]

Mealworms are very easy to breed; mealworms + bedding + hydration = more mealworms.

Superworms are a bit different but similar in many respects; superworms + 1oz sauce cups (one per cup and lid) = superworm beetles, superworm beetles + superworm beetles + bedding + hydration = superworms

Bedding for both meal and superworms can be as simple as wheat bran or as complicated as you want to make it so long as it is grain based the insects will consume it. Adding brewers yeast at 10% by weight adds a particular B vitamin not often found in bran alone in quantity that is required for the insects to develop properly.

How you house them and sort the life stages is more a matter of increasing the percentage of eggs that end up being viable feeders, you can increase production with sorting every week as much as 30%, daily sorting can increase production in an active operation by as much as 90%.

Try not to over think it, it's simple stuff.

I feed off in the range of 11,000 insects per day depending on the time of year, about a 25% of that is meal or superworms.

Maurice Pudlo

 

[Lenewen]

Mealworms are very easy to breed; mealworms + bedding + hydration = more mealworms.

Superworms are a bit different but similar in many respects; superworms + 1oz sauce cups (one per cup and lid) = superworm beetles, superworm beetles + superworm beetles + bedding + hydration = superworms

Bedding for both meal and superworms can be as simple as wheat bran or as complicated as you want to make it so long as it is grain based the insects will consume it. Adding brewers yeast at 10% by weight adds a particular B vitamin not often found in bran alone in quantity that is required for the insects to develop properly.

How you house them and sort the life stages is more a matter of increasing the percentage of eggs that end up being viable feeders, you can increase production with sorting every week as much as 30%, daily sorting can increase production in an active operation by as much as 90%.

Try not to over think it, it's simple stuff.

I feed off in the range of 11,000 insects per day depending on the time of year, about a 25% of that is meal or superworms.

Maurice Pudlo

What type of containers do you keep large amounts of mealworms in? I was thinking of using those long, shallow plastic containers that are typically used for storing things under your bed. Could they get out really easily? Would they try to escape if theres food?

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

I was more interested in finding people with first hand experience. I did read some of the blogs on this site before posting.

However, thank you. I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

Right, but I wasn't talking about the blogs. Did you take the time to read the stickied threads in this section of the forums? We have several very detailed care and breeding sheets for feeder insects written by VERY experienced people. Maurice in particular (who has also been kind enough to respond to you in this thread of yours) has posted multiple threads on how to breed them. In any case, please do try doing some basic research (ie using the search feature and looking through the appropriate sub-forums on this site) when asking questions. You'll be surprised how many questions you can find the answers for on your own with a little effort.

 

[MauricesExoticPets]

It's ok Ethan, I'm fine with it. The post has been started and someone will find it down the road so might as well put some information here.

Mealworms will not climb out of smooth plastic tubs that are kept fairly clean, so yes, the tubs you mention are likely just fine.

Keeping the bins on a shelf is better than having them in some random area of the home. First off because messing with them more often than you need to is not going to help them breed any faster than leaving them alone.

Another basics bit of info you might be able to work with is this, mealworms take X time to cycle from eggs to a pair of adult beetles laying more eggs. You need to figure out what X is for you in your situation, use the same food, temps, bins, numbers of beetles to start with etc. Once you know this you'll be able to figure out how many bins you need to support your own collection.

I can't answer that for you, because I use a different diet than you will, I keep mine at a different temperature and humidity level, I'm anal as all get out in a number of ways that keeps my production very high.

But this is all I do so I have the time, you might not be free 16+ hours a day to mess with bugs and reptiles.

Build or buy a shelf that will hold six tubs, that will serve most normal collections with a fair bit of excess. If you have too many, feed the birds outside, they will love the extra food. If you fall short, add more bins/shelves.

It is always better to have too many, and too few is always a problem.

Maurice Pudlo

 

[Lenewen]

It's ok Ethan, I'm fine with it. The post has been started and someone will find it down the road so might as well put some information here.

Mealworms will not climb out of smooth plastic tubs that are kept fairly clean, so yes, the tubs you mention are likely just fine.

Keeping the bins on a shelf is better than having them in some random area of the home. First off because messing with them more often than you need to is not going to help them breed any faster than leaving them alone.

Another basics bit of info you might be able to work with is this, mealworms take X time to cycle from eggs to a pair of adult beetles laying more eggs. You need to figure out what X is for you in your situation, use the same food, temps, bins, numbers of beetles to start with etc. Once you know this you'll be able to figure out how many bins you need to support your own collection.

I can't answer that for you, because I use a different diet than you will, I keep mine at a different temperature and humidity level, I'm anal as all get out in a number of ways that keeps my production very high.

But this is all I do so I have the time, you might not be free 16+ hours a day to mess with bugs and reptiles.

Build or buy a shelf that will hold six tubs, that will serve most normal collections with a fair bit of excess. If you have too many, feed the birds outside, they will love the extra food. If you fall short, add more bins/shelves.

It is always better to have too many, and too few is always a problem.

Maurice Pudlo

Thank you. Ive ordered a bunch of adult mealworms that are close to the pupa stage so that I can get started. If I have more questions, ill PM you, if thats okay. You seem to know a lot about this. I have seen nothing but conflicting information on the subject, so as you can imagine, getting started has been rather confusing for me.

Ive read guide after guide on how to do this, and they all vary, and all insist in certain things that other people say are not necessary, such as sorting. Glad i have this blog to help me sort out what is right and what isnt.

 

[MauricesExoticPets]

Breeding mealworms is sort of like driving a car, there are more methods than one could ever even hope to describe. Most will get you from point A to point B, often it comes down to picking a style that fits you most.

If you dig a bit deeper into the subject of driving a car, you soon understand why a geo metro does not corner or accelerate like a rx-7, the cars will both get you from point A to point B but the trip will be quite different in each of the cars.

How that fits with breeding mealworms is this; insects can be looked at like machines, they require a certain type of fuel (food), and they operate best at a certain temperature (you don't want to over heat your car or never allow it to get to operating temperature). To get the most out of your car it helps to know more about it than the average driver, the same goes for the common little larva we use to feed geckos, lizards, and other critters.

One of the best ways to develop a breeding method that you can call your own is to use Google Scholar and read, read a ton. compile the information you can pull away from scientific papers and go from there.

The next best thing to do is to sort of average out the information you find in standard care sheets, the average would be a good place to start, the far limits are often not truly workable or are just plain old wrong. Work toward a limit, when things do not work out all that well, back up a step or two.

I have tried a vast number of differing methods, and continue to try new things, nothing comes out hugely ahead of other methods except for the sorting thing, and it's not all that bad of a thing to do.

Food wise, lots of fat is bad, you want to avoid high fat like you might want to avoid standing in the middle of a busy highway, it's just a bad idea. Look toward the USDA nutrient database or whatever similar resource you or your country might have to see what nutrients are available in a given ingredient, this will work into your ability to digest the information you found on www.scholar.goole.com and turn it into something of real use.

Big hint, use as little bedding as is possible, 2 inches over 1000 mealworms way overkill, just enough to cover them is enough. Using a boat load of bedding is asking for a giant grain mite issue to develop.

Maurice Pudlo

 

[norea]

i have to agree that hydration is really important... 2-3 weeks without any source of water for my beetles and i saw a sharp decline in mealworm production...