Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[garysumpter]

Hi all.

Over the last few years I have set up breeding colonies of mealworms (allowing them to change into beetles first obviously) but I have never had any decent results, not even a handful of mealworms.

Are any of you having luck with it?

I am cleaning out our garage this weekend and will have a working area in the corner that I would like to use for breeding mealies, morios, waxies and roaches.

I have lots of really useful boxes and similar.

Just curious how any of you are breeding them well.

Look forward to some (hopefully) positive feedback!

Gary
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[Young_Gun]

I have a constant supply of them on the go.
Why?

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MORE THAN 2!

[Jase]

[garysumpter]

Eggman,

Ur really annoying me now.

Lets face the FACTS.

In the wild the mealworms have a chance to escape, they dont have that same opportunity in a vivarium!

I'm also a bit worried about killing them, what if the poor mealie suffers?



Seriously though, How do you guys manage your colonies? Mine always seem to stink very quickly and dont produce much!

Gary
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[Jase]

[Young_Gun]

Seeing as though you like facts Gary, mealworms and 99% of invertebrates DO NOT have pain receptors.
In the wild mealworms are just as likely to be eaten due to the nature of predator vs prey, mealworms are not fast enough or strong enough to escape or fight off an attack.

Change the substrate every 5-7 days, seive it off and keep the very bottom layer as it will have eggs,baby mealworms in.
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[lol93]

I found them really easy to breed. I used porridge oats as a substrate, chucked in some food and let them get on with it. After a month or two you should see the tiny baby worms in the substrate or on the food.
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[KJ Exotics]

I have loads of luck with them, the only problem i get is the eat the bran and make it inot like dust but i cant get the dust out incase there is eggs in there or baby mealworms lol, do they do the same with porridge oats lol93 ???
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Nuneaton warwickshire

[stubeanz]

i find them quite easy to breed, just fill a tub or lunch box up with bran and make sure there is enough air holes otherwise the culture might go off from too much moisture.
just put adult beetles in there add some food and they will breed lay their eggs and when you see tiny mealworms take the adults out as they might eat the mealworms but it shouldnt make a difference really, also you might want to set up a few cultures at differnt times so they dont run out.
hope this helps
stu
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[mark68]

The best way to breed mealworms (if you need a lot) is to sieve all the adult beetles out from the cereal food and droppings on a weekly basis. Then add the beetles to a new tray with food and in the sieved material left behind will be lots of eggs to hatch out. A few weeks later the worms in this tray will be big enough to sieve, to remove all the droppings. Carry on doing this weekly and you will have thousands of mealworms, each tray will have different size worms. You need to keep back 10-20% of the worms to rear on for new beetles. If you want good food for you reptiles give them better food than bran. Also on bran the mealworms grow very slowly.