should i get a cricket farm going before i get my geckos?

swisswiss

Member
of course i dont hate you guys, youve proven to be a valuable and friendly source of information! agreed personal "disgusto" issues need to be put aside for the well being of the animals we keep.....

thx for that link Cory!
 

Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
My darkling beetles are currently eating the pupae that did not make it to beetle stage. I also noticed that my roaches will eat the molted exo-skeleton that they leave behind. I feed my roaches adult bearded dragon pellets with carrots, collard greens and apples. My beetles get the same veggies/fruits except they really love kale and I have them on a bed of oats.

Like Hilde said, if you get too many of either, you can throw the worms outside and freeze the roaches before you put them outside. The woodland critters will appreciate it. Also, you don't hate us....I hate roaches but I put my disgust aside for the health of my leo, my cresite is not interested in the roaches.

Noob mealworm breeder here! :) I wish to feed the larvae to some geckos I'm getting.

This Jan 13 I began a "culture" with 100 giant-size Tenebrio molitor on a bed of ground Alber's All Purpose Poultry Feed in a 6 quart tub.

Should I have gotten darkling beetles instead? If so, where did you get yours?

So far I've given them green pepper cores and carrot shavings for moisture. They don't seem crazy about either of those veggies.
 

JessJohnson87

New member
The darkling beetles are the mealworm beetles. Mine go crazy over carrots, I tried bell pepper and they were not fond of it but my roaches loved the bell pepper. I've noticed the mealworms are really picky, they love kale but will not eat collard greens or apples.
 

swisswiss

Member
so I got my meal worms this morning by mail...and boy is a kilo over kill!!! but ill make goos use of them... anyway im msging you folks because i noticed there were some small beetles with the worms. im not sure if they are shipped as "clean up crew" but they cant be the beetles of the mealworms can they? they are soooo small....

uploaded some pics below for you to see...
 

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JessJohnson87

New member
Within a week or so at room temperature you'll have about 50 pupae....

I have around 30 beetles right now and I'll soon have more mealworms than I know what to do with. The birds and squirrels are going to love me this year :)
 

swisswiss

Member
turns out you folks are right, im starting to seriously dig these roaches....

im trying to face my "fear" and handle them more and more and honestly its not that bad....

try it Jess

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Elizabeth Freer

Well-known member
turns out you folks are right, im starting to seriously dig these roaches....

im trying to face my "fear" and handle them more and more and honestly its not that bad....

try it Jess

View attachment 38046View attachment 38047

Can you try this, Jess?

I don't mind picking up dubia with my fingers. The males will fly to the floor if they get to the top of their egg crates and those are near the top of their home.

It's roaches like red runners (Blatta lateralis) that creep me out due to their speed and escape potential.
 
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JessJohnson87

New member
Nope I'm still good with the spoon. I haven't bothered mine in a while, been trying to give them some space so they will breed. I do need to shake them off the egg crate and assess my male to female ratio.

On another note, if you can find Repashy or Pangea CGD, they LOVE to eat that stuff. It's like the song Milkshake by Kelis....
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swisswiss

Member
thought I would share with you folks...

a female dubia that LITERALLY just molted (removed the still lightly attached skin off her myself...) super white....

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swisswiss

Member
UPDATE AND A FEW QUESTIONS.....with pics

so after almost losing hope thinking iv been doing things wrong, a couple of my pupae have turned to beetles....very tiny beetles...for some reason I still think they should be bigger.....

the concern im having at the moment; is that i seem to have several dead beetles in my beetle drawer and not many baby worms in the drawer just underneath it (beetle frass/baby worm(pupae drawer.... that has no mesh base)

in comparison I have a lot more baby worms in the last drawer (worm frass drawer), probably coming from the beetles/pupae I haven't been able to remove from the drawer above it (main worm culture with mesh base drawer)..... but this isnt that big of an issue since so long as im getting some births all is good right?

the pictures below show in order;
1.beetle drawer, with mesh base
2.beetle frass/baby worm/pupae drawer, with no mesh base + close up on pupae
3.main worm culture drawer, with mesh base
4. worm frass drawer, with no mesh base....

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my real concern is regarding the fact that the beetles in the beetle drawer barley seem to want to touch any food, or so I think....granted i have a zillion worms that reduce an apple to shreds in a matter of hours, but the beetles seem to have no interest in any of the food i provide them. whether it be: oat, cereal, fresh green or fruit.....nor do they seem to fancy the adult bearded dragon pellets from zoo med....though the worms love them liz)...

on a different not I was able exploit the surrounding environment in which i keep my feeder cultures and "hack" a heating source.... the box you see over my house heating unit is the dubia culture, iv noticed that where its resting the heating unit puts out a comfortable 30-31°C (roughly 86°F) so hopefully this will "spice things up" in the colony....

Iv also divided the males and females and currently have 13 males for 39 females... for a grand total of 52 roached..... and two babies I didnt count in the equation....

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anyway there you have it hope you enjoyed the update....

oh yes! I almost forgot I added a couple infrared bulbs to my set up but ill post questions and concerns about it in my other thread.
 

JessJohnson87

New member
For my darkling beetles (mealworm beetles) I put fresh veggies in with them twice a week and leave them on the bed of oats the rest of the time. I find they congregate on the fresh food more if it is put in less often, I do the same with my roaches but I give them a variety of other things. When I had pupae, I had twice as many pupae than beetles when they started changing, I have yet to see any babies but I'm going to be making a set-up similar to yours but with two 6-qt tubs. I have had a couple of beetles die but I still have plenty of the little buggers going at it like rabbits everyday.
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That was taken a couple of weeks ago but most of them are happy and healthy. I would add more oats because they like to burrow when they lay their eggs.
 

JessJohnson87

New member
I have a few smaller ones in there, you just cant really see from that picture. The smaller ones tend to hide more, I would give it some time. You should start getting some larger beetles, but still, the smaller ones will breed and make babies.
 

JessJohnson87

New member
Have you seen any babies yet? I just found little itty bitty mealworms in my bottom tub after I fixed some of the holes in the beetle tub, they kept going down to the poop/baby tub.
 
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