Breeding and Maintaining Mealworms....Part Deux

[MyGiants]

I started a my first try at breeding mealworms and superworms about couple months ago. Right now I have several plastic boxes with hundreds in each in beetle stage. There isn't much really to do what I have read. Once there in there beetle stage they mate lay there eggs then die. I have these boxes just stacked. I check now and then to see how there doing. For the superworms to get to size I want them will take 4-6 months after the eggs hatch.
If your breeding mainly for your own use for food it would seem to be a very big project if you want to keep a constant supply. I did it just to try it. I probably will just buy the superworms as its not that expensive really. I buy 1000 at a time at $23.49 per 500 shipped to my door.

 

[packer43064]

they're in electrical at HD. you just splice it into the hot lead anywhere on the cord that's connected to your flexwatt. there are different wattages, but i think they start at 600watt and go up from there. rheos start at, i believe 150watt. flexwatt should tell you how many watts per foot they burn, then just do the math to see how many watts you'll need. if you're not (now or ever) going over 150watts, you might just want to buy the rheo for the convenience. but like i said before, it's super simple to rig up the dimmer.

The flexwatt is 20 watts/foot. I got 4 feet, so 80 watts total. I'll just get the dimmer and see how that goes/ease of setting it up. I'll need to get the dimmer to even understand your pic. I get it, but need the actual visual, lol. Thanks though.

DISCLAIMER: electricity can be deadly, do this at your own risk, for educational purposes only, blahblahblah...

here, i was bored, lol! hit me up if you need more details.

 

[packer43064]

I started a my first try at breeding mealworms and superworms about couple months ago. Right now I have several plastic boxes with hundreds in each in beetle stage. There isn't much really to do what I have read. Once there in there beetle stage they mate lay there eggs then die. I have these boxes just stacked. I check now and then to see how there doing. For the superworms to get to size I want them will take 4-6 months after the eggs hatch.
If your breeding mainly for your own use for food it would seem to be a very big project if you want to keep a constant supply. I did it just to try it. I probably will just buy the superworms as its not that expensive really. I buy 1000 at a time at $23.49 per 500 shipped to my door.

Yeah when their beetles you just change their water source so it doesn't get moldy. After awhile the eggs will hatch and all and the beetles will eat the smaller mealworms so you will want to change them after that, but that's it. I'm breeding them to sell them, just a side hobby thing.

 

[packer43064]

Got my Fruit Flies!!! These are pretty kool looking. Their going downstairs on the shelf where the mealworms are at. I'm going to start some new cultures when the 4 I have now start "booming" and get better at it then hopefully start selling them. Pics to come!

 

[nes999]

ifyou have a culture die keep it around for a week or two ive had many that i was well over 100% sure they died and few weeks late i find that they all are alive

 

[packer43064]

Will do.

 

[packer43064]

FF pics:
Melanogaster-The smaller of the two.

Heidi on the right

Excelsior,going to buy a bale next time I purchase some.

Extra containers...I need way more.

 

[fishheadPH]

wow this is a really interesting thread. I have meal worms I feed my fish and didn't realize what their whole life span inlcudes. I wonder if I let them sit around too long before feeding them to the fish if they will form a cocoon?

 

[packer43064]

wow this is a really interesting thread. I have meal worms I feed my fish and didn't realize what their whole life span inlcudes. I wonder if I let them sit around too long before feeding them to the fish if they will form a cocoon?

Thanks and they definitely will, lol.

 

[packer43064]

I'm going to put the feeders all upstairs in the "office". We were going to put my desk and hers(GF) in there, but we said that 6 months ago and there's only my desk in there which I don't even use. We put the fake Christmas tree up there, but we don't use the room besides storage here and there. I've decided it would be better if it was up there. It's alot more space then cramped up all under the staircase and if I did get mites I wouldn't want it to spread to our hamsters or vice versa which can ruin the feeders. Which is potential money down the drain. Only negative difference is that it's 68F instead of 70-71F downstairs. I may purchase a heater of some sort in the future or heat every shelf on my rack.

I will buy more racks after Christmas and get really into this. I'll make a thread in the photo lounge when I get more racks. I'll have my own feeder room which will hopefully start producing some money after I get different inects breeding and culturing them.

I've searched quite a bit and emailed some large breeders of feeders/insects. I think I can do this, nothing huge compared to them of course. A side hobby that will make some extra cash. I love breeding insects so it makes sense to me to do this. Everyone has their "thing" or expertise when they start selling, I want mine to be a "smorgesboard of feeders". Sounds dumb, but seriously do you know of that many websites selling all kinds of insects as feeders. A site where you can buy the FF's(fruit flies) for your darts or isopods for them, but can still buy superworms/mealworms for your leopard gecko then buy some bloodworms for your fish. There's some but not that many. I want to be that site. I think with the room and startup costs I can do it. Once you get the specific feeders breeding it's all downhill from there. Quite easy.