What Size Should A Mealworm Be To Sell

Raising Mealworms:
Everything You Always Wanted to Know (and more than)

Also run across feeding mealworms and how to make your own feeder

I wouldn't say raising mealworms is FUN, but it's not too difficult and tin save y'all a lot of money. Mealworms. Photo by Bet Zimmerman

Quick Tips for maximum productivity:

Identify large mealworms in a shallow plastic sweater container. Cut a hole in the tiptop for ventilation and use a hot glue gun to adhere window screen to it to keep critters and moths out.
Add 2-3" of bedding/nutrient:
- wheat bran, or a 3:1 ratio of wheat bran to dried skim milk, or
- 4 layers: 1/4" layers of craven mash (non-medicated) separated by layers of burlap or newspaper, or
- 10 parts oat or wheat kernels, ten parts whole wheat flour, one function wheat germ or powdered milk; and ane role brewers yeast.
For moisture, add a small-scale wedge of cabbage or half a potato. Put information technology on peak of a plastic lid or newspaper to keep bedding dry. Supplant vegetable at to the lowest degree weekly or if moldy.
Ideally keep at effectually 80°F (room temperature is fine too) and around lxx% relative humidity. Utilise a moistened sponge in a baggie/ open up container (open side upwards above grain) for additional moisture.
Periodically (e.g., every 1 to 2 weeks) sift out beetles from bedding that will contain the eggs/tiny worms. (The beetles may eat the eggs.)
Once worms are large enough, sift frass (waste) and bedding out once a month, dispose of in garden, wash and dry container, return worms and add new food.

Jump to: timetable and life cycle , stock, container, ventilation, temperature, low-cal, moisture and relative humidity , nutrient, supplements, cloth/newspaper roofing, cleaning, separating out worms , colony cycling/maintenance, sifting, storage, freeze-roasting, dusting, uses, nutritional value, Problems: pupa or beetle die off | mites | moths, other worm species, raising superworms, and comments on my experiences so far.

Bluebirds bask mealworms, which are the larvae of the darkling beetle (Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus, also called yellow mealworm or gilded grub). Bluebirds will eat larvae (worms), pupae and beetles (before the crush gets difficult), but prefer the worm course.

You can buy mealworms from a pet shop (expensive - price depends on quantity but effigy most $25/ane,000) or post order (less expensive - about $half-dozen-16/ane,000 - run across list of suppliers). You lot can as well raise them yourself (possibly for as fiddling as $0.ten/i,000).

Raising mealworms is adequately piece of cake considering these creatures are the insect equivalent of a weed. It saves a lot of coin and is interesting, just I wouldn't classify it as long-term fun. Information technology requires patience as it takes months to get them started (about 3 months for your first beetles, depending on temperatures and the size of starter worms). It also requires bailiwick to do harvesting, separating, replacing food, cleaning out waste product, etc. Some people retrieve it is non worth the bother.

A mealworm colony does non smell if properly cared for. (Dead mealworms and crapped up bedding cloth reek.) Mealworms don't comport any diseases harmful to humans, although i study indicated that they may act equally an asthma sensitizing agent. One farmer indicated she experienced severe upper respiratory infections later handling mealworms and was concerned there might exist a connection. She then used a mask and gloves when treatment them, merely somewhen decided to abandon farming. Another had what appeared to be an allergic (respiratory) reaction to the farm - possibly the frass (but not to mealworms stored in a fridge.)

Timetable and Life cycle: Tenebrio molitor have an egg, larva, pupa and protrude phase. Depending on food and temperature, information technology takes nigh hundred to several hundred days for them to complete their life cycle. Therefore, if yous desire worms in the bound, start your colony in November or Dec. For each 20 beetles, you lot should get about 350 adult mealworms in 200 days. Hither is the life cycle if the colony is kept at room temperature (~72 F.) I found information technology took much longer for the pupa to convert to the protrude stage.

Stage	Fourth dimension*
Egg Incubation	four-19 days (usually 4-vii). Another source says 20-forty days
Larva	ten weeks. Visible later about a week
Pupa	6-18 (18-24?) days
Beetle and Egg Laying	8-12 weeks (followed by expiry). Egg laying starts 4-19 days (average 12) after emergence

* time depends on temperature, relative humidity, food, etc. Dissimilar sources report different time frames.

Eggs hatch into larva.
Larvae couch below the surface of the grain and undergo a series of molts (10-20, average of fifteen), shedding their exoskeleton (looks like Cornflakes).
The last molt occurs about iii months later the egg stage. Newly molted worms are white, and the exoskeleton has not hardened so they may be more digestible.
The fully grown larvae (worms) are golden brown and 0.98-1.38 inches long, with about 200 to an ounce.
The larvae come up to the surface. They turn soft and plump, stop moving, coil into a "C" shape, and and so transform into naked white pupae that turn yellowish brown afterwards a 24-hour interval. They look sort of like alien grubs. The pupae don't eat or move much. If you purchased your worm stock adequately big, this transition may happen in a few weeks.
Afterwards vi - 18 days (7-24 days or more), the pupae metamorphose into beetles. At first the beetle is white/calorie-free beige with a soft shell, and then information technology darkens and hardens to red, brown, and finally turns dark brown/black after most 2-vii days. The protrude is about a half to three quarters of an inch long and slightly flat. Males and females are indistinguishable. They can not fly, but they can move very quickly. I've noticed some do non develop property (e.g., wing covers) and wait ragged. You might want to utilise these as bird nutrient.
Beetles lay their eggs 9 - twenty days subsequently emergence. They lay for ii or 3 months, and then die. Each female beetle lays about 275 tiny, edible bean-shaped white eggs - about 40 per day. The eggs are seldom seen because they are sticky and rapidly become coated in substrate. They are about the size of a period at the terminate of this sentence - you would demand to line up 20 to equal an inch. [Note: Birds may eat live beetles if offered.]
Egg incubation takes 4-19 days (average of 12.)
The bicycle begins once again as the eggs hatch into tiny whitish larvae, which may not be easy to see for several weeks.
In 4-6 weeks they will be about 0.five" long.

Stock: Go at least 100-1,000 large mealworms from a mail gild supplier or pet store; or from feed, grain, or meal in a barn/granary.

Do not buy "behemothic" mealworm for breeding, as they may have been treated with an insect growth hormone to discourage them from morphing into beetles, so they will grow larger. If giant mealworms do morph into beetles, they volition be sterile.

To jump-start your subcontract, enquire you local pet store if they accept any developed beetles you can get.

Container: As long as the larvae are ane" or more beneath the top of the container, they tin't leave. Mealworms may thrive more in a container with a large surface expanse. Some people go along the container(s) in a laundry room, garage or basement.

A clear container will allow you encounter how much frass (waste material) has accumulated. Use a shallow (e.grand., two-five gallon capacity, six-ten" deep x 24" long, or 10" x 17" x 6") plastic container. A shoe box size or sweater storage container (Rubbermaid, Sterilite, etc.) volition suffice. A pail tin can besides be used. If you are going to separate the stages, a iv drawer container like the kind found at Wal-Mart or Target tin can be used. A 64 quart Rubbermaid container holds 50,000 to 100,000 larva. L Cooksey found that a smooth bottomed container doesn't get as moldy every bit a container with ridges on the lesser.

Some people use wooden containers, but if the sides are too crude, the worms may be able to climb the walls.

A larger surface surface area may improve survival by dissipating oestrus. Too many worms stored in too modest a container will overheat and dice (e.g., 5,000 worms in a 2 gallon pail=dead worms.) The mealworms should probably be merely 3-4" deep.

Ventilation and Cover: Ventilation prevents mold growth. Darkling beetles do have wings, but tin can't fly. Some commercial farmers practice not cover their bins. Since mice, rats, cockroaches and some spiders will eat mealworms, the container should be kept airtight. (Ane bluebirder in Texas constitute a scorpion in with her mealworms!) A tight fitting cover volition also keep flour and grain moths out. Options:

If the container comes with a plastic cover, drill holes in information technology. If condensation forms on the inside of the lid, you need more holes.
Cut a section out of the heart of the lid and use a hot mucilage gun to glue some fine window screening material to the inside of the chapeau, effectually the hole.
Brand a encompass for the container out of window screening.

Temperature: The ideal temperature to maximize growth is 77-81ºF, but ~ 72-74ºF is likewise Mealworm stages. Photo by Bet Zimmerman good. Mealworms practise reproduce in temperatures ranging from 65-100 F, just temperatures to a higher place 86ºF negatively impact growth and evolution (inhibiting pupation). The duration of the pupal stage will depend on temperature. It is half dozen days at 91.4ºF, seven days at 80.6ºF, 10 days at 75.2ºF and thirteen days at 69.8ºF.

Temperatures below 62ºF may halt reproduction. In common cold temperatures the larval stage can terminal two years. Chilling worms and so re-warming them may significantly delay pupation. Prolonged exposure to temperatures beneath 40ºF may kill the worms.

I am using a 500 watt rheostat controlled ceramic reptile heater suspended over the container to keep temperatures high enough in my drafty domicile. The heater is in a metal hood, and sits on top of the Rubbermaid container, on a circular metal window screen hole. Because information technology dries everything out, I put the cabbage/potato wedges underneath fabric, and take several plastic containers filled with water sitting on top of the bedding.

Light: Consistent with the proper noun darkling protrude, they prefer the night. Keep the container out of direct sunlight. Nevertheless, one source indicated that if mealworms develop faster when provided with light. To obtain a supply of adult beetles in the autumn, the usual hibernation period of the dark mealworm (a dissimilar species) can be prevented by exposing the fully grown larvae to continuous light.

Moisture and Relative Humidity: Mealworms practice require moisture. Besides piffling wet slows growth and reduces size. Also much can produce mold. If larvae are provided with dry food, they can survive and produce one generation a year. If they are provided moisture, they will undergo six generations per year and volition be fatter.

Beetles lay more eggs when the relative humidity is higher - ideally seventy% (55-80% is adept). In ane experiment, at a relative humidity (R.H.) of 20%, beetles laid an average of four eggs each, but at 65 percent R.H., they laid an average of 102 eggs each.

Adult worms also become more active between 90 - 100% R.H. Keeping the culture moist also prevents cannibalism. More is not amend. If y'all put too much in, or leave information technology too long, it will become moldy or go a gooey mess.

Add together a chunk of cabbage, raw potato (half a potato, or a chunk about 1"x3"), a slice of breadstuff (which the mealworms will besides eat), romaine lettuce, kale (high in calcium and inexpensive), yam (also nutritious) or apple tree slices (1/4 of an apple is enough for 1,000 mealworms, once or twice a week - I find apples get moldy besides quickly). Some people use celery (e.1000., bottom end of agglomeration), broccoli stems, carrots (grated carrots on a plastic hat), assistant peels, or asparagus chunks. Cabbage leaves do not get as moldy as some other choices. Cover cabbage etc., with a cloth to keep it from drying out if you employ a rut lamp. A crust of bread (replaced when dry) can also be laid face down on the bedding. You lot may wish to launder/peel vegetables first to prevent the introduction of pesticides.
Identify potato/apple slices cut side upward, fifty-fifty with top of bedding. Past putting the pare side downwards, you keep the bedding/dry out food from getting too moist.
Try kiwi peel with about 15% of fruit still in information technology (after scooping out the rest with a spoon for your ain enjoyment). A.M. Prendergast establish that it made mealworms grow about 3 times fatter and 30% longer in just 2-3 weeks versus wheat bran alone. The worms too use the skin as a "cave" every bit it stale and curls up.
To brand them easier to replace (every 2-3 days or weekly), put vegetable on a little plastic hat, tinfoil pie plate or a piece of cardboard, or stick a toothpick in it. Replace immediately if mold appears.
If yous use burlap or paper, you can spritz it lightly with water on a daily ground. Practice not soak, and exercise not wet bedding. You can likewise put in a moist (not wringing moisture) paper towel, changing information technology daily. You can put downwards a piece of aluminum foil under the dampened burlap/newspaper to prevent grain from getting wet.
You may not want to utilize Fluker's "Cricket quencher," a gel polymer that insects suck water out of - ane person raising mealworms experienced a massive beetle dice-off afterwards introducing information technology, merely the issue may likewise have been a bawl log tunnel she introduced (purchased a PetSmart.) Fluker instead recommends a Fluker Orange Cube.
Small-scale amounts of moist cat nutrient (like Tender Vittles) tin can also exist used, and volition provide actress protein.
Placing adult beetles on moist blotting paper overnight may increment egg production.
Put a moist sponge Within a plastic baggie (open) and lay the baggie on the bedding.
Place a small simply tall (then they don't drown) bowl filled with water in the middle of the farm to increase relative humidity. A sponge can be placed in the bowl to increase the moist surface area. Fawzi Emad uses a moist sponge wired to the container lid. Yous tin besides put the lesser of the sponge in a plastic baggie (to prevent the repast from getting wet and moldy) and stand it upright in the corn or oatmeal. Re-moisture the sponge weekly, and wash information technology when needed.

Food/Substrate/Bedding: The more nutritious the food, the more nutritious the mealworms will be. Layer it in two-3" inches deep. Replenish the food oftentimes, as the worms swallow a lot. Change the nutrient out virtually in one case a month. Feed the beetles too (same stuff). I mix up a big batch with supplements and store in information technology a plastic bin with a spiral top lid so I don't have to worry about flour moths and other critters getting into it.

Fine particles (fine wheat bran, corn meal, chick starter) make it easier to sift out large mealworms. Larger particles (e.g., rolled oats) with larger worms brand it easier to sift out frass so you lot don't waste material food. Newly hatched worms are and so tiny that they will go through a screen with the frass. Meet cleaning.

You can buy some of the food items from an fauna feed store or bulk food store. Commonly used food sources are listed below. They will as well eat corn cobs (hiding inside):

wheat bran, crimson and/or white (near $vii.00/20 lb. bag at a feed store) or chaff. Fibroid or fine. Put it in 1.5-two" deep. Preferred by some breeders.
rolled oats (oatmeal - uncooked, one-time fashioned - non instant. I don't like using oatmeal as information technology is hard to sift out the worms).
oat bran
cornmeal (not cornSTARCH)
chick (poultry - chicken or pheasant & turkey) starter/brew - very nutritious. Bachelor from a feed shop. Get NON-MEDICATED. You can put it in four layers each of 1/iv" of mash covered by burlap. Piece of cake to sift. 55 lb. bag costs well-nigh $eleven.
ground dry out dog or true cat food encourages pupation. It can as well be given to worms prior to offering them to birds to increase protein content.
leftover depression sugar cereal
birdseed (east.one thousand., milo)
wheat flour (whole wheat for added nutrition)
grain mixture:
- ten parts oat or wheat kernels, 10 parts rolled oats (oatmeal) or whole wheat flour; one part wheat germ or powdered milk; and 1 part brewers yeast.
- 10 parts wheat feed, 10 parts rolled oats, 2 parts brewers yeast
  rolled oats 10 ounces.

A few scraps of cloth or wrinkled paper layered with the bedding will prevent the meal from packing besides solidly.

Supplements: You can add the following to the dry out food/bedding: wheat germ, finely ground egg shells or cuttlebone (for calcium), soybean repast, Wombaroo insectivore mix, fish flakes, fine mouse cubes, bone meal, graham (whole wheat) flour, and dry brewer'southward yeast (provides proteins and trace elements essential to the insects' growth and makes larvae grow more. Brewer's yeast can be obtained at health food stores. Information technology's pricey, so you might want to purchase it in bulk at a feed store or online. Yous can sprinkle the vegetables/fruit with calcium and vitamin supplements to add nutritional value. Experiments where skim milk (calcium source) was added to wheat bran (1:3 or ane:two ratio) yielded better growth than wheat bran alone.

Textile or newspaper covering: You tin can partially comprehend the food surface (virtually 2/3) with several layers of newspaper, brown grocery store bags, paper towels, or a folded piece of cloth. Go out infinite betwixt the paper and edges of the container.

Worms will clamber between the newspaper layers to pupate, which makes information technology easy to collect them.

The beetles volition lay eggs on cloth. Still, information technology is difficult to go the beetles off the cloth when maintaining the farm. Beetles will besides lay eggs directly on the nutrient source. Or you could put thick, clean, dry hunk of bark on top of the bedding. The beetles will lay eggs on it.

Separating out worms : To remove worms to offer to birds or to separate them from eggs and beetles you can:

use a stainless steel sifter
put a canvass or paper or grocery store bag or a plastic lid on top of the colony. The worms will crawl under it in a few hours. Repeat until you accept taken all worms out and then replace the bedding.
hold back on moisture for a couple of days. So put a lettuce foliage, moistened piece of bread, or damp Bounty paper towel or blueish paper store towel (rung out - re-wet and ring out every bit needed) in the container on top of the bedding. The larva will encompass the staff of life or lettuce. Milk shake them into a container until yous get what you need.

Cleaning: Remove dead mealworms or dead beetles. Dead larvae turn blackness. Expressionless pupae turn brownish and shrivel upwardly. Deformed beetles die early on. Other dead beetles stop moving and their antenna cockle upwards.

Frass: Equally the mealworms swallow the bran, a fine, dusty or sandy residue will settle out on the bottom. Eventually, shed exoskeletons and waste material products (frass) will build up, and a slight ammonia odor may be detected. That ways it'south time to sift the grain to split up the worms and adult beetles (don't throw out tiny larvae or eggs); launder the container, add new grain, and return the worms to the container. You'll probably need to do this at least three times a yr. If the frass builds up as well much, mealworms may plough grey and get black stripes then die.

The frass (waste) can be used every bit fertilizer for flowers or vegetables. You might desire to save the frass in a split container for a flake and put some lettuce/cabbage to come across if at that place are whatsoever mealworms y'all can dissever out.

The reason you demand to sift out the beetles is they may eat the eggs.

Sifters: You lot can make a sifter with #8 (1/8") hardware material or nylon reinforced screen tacked onto a wooden frame. If a sifter is made to fit in the bottom of the mealworm container, the frass will fall through the sifter, making it easier to clean the container. The fine hardware cloth may be hard to locate (try a hardware store), but yous can also buy a wire mesh basket from an office supply store, or use a device like a Double Over-the-Sink Colander with extendable arms (available at Linens N Things).

Colony "Cycling" or Maintenance: Some farmers leave worms, beetles and eggs all together in one container. If you practice not separate them, do not change the bedding after the worms plow into beetles, as it contains eggs of futurity worms. Get out the bedding until yous can run into and sift out the small mealworms. You really should go through the entire farm about 3 times a year to divide out the beetles into their ain container and add fresh bran. Too many adults in the container can eat eggs and reduce the colony'due south production.

Others farmers separate them out, since larvae and beetles might chow on the inert pupal stage, and beetles may eat pupa/eggs. If you starting time a new culture every two-four weeks, you lot will e'er have all life stages, they will be nigh the aforementioned historic period, and you won't run out of worms.

To separate the beetles out, you tin grab the live ones easily by providing apple slices. They swarm to the apple - merely lift information technology and shake off swarm after swarm. The handful that are left are easy to pick up/spoon out as they surface.

Set up-ups:

The best fix upwardly may exist to take two containers that fit within one another. Put the beetles in Container A, and put minor holes (smaller than beetles, bigger than bran) or screen the bottom of that container. Sit Container A within Container B. Every 2 days to 2 weeks, shake out the bran (with eggs) out of Container A into Container B. The beetles stay behind. Add together more than food and moisture sources as necessary to A as necessary. Once yous've nerveless enough bran and eggs in the B, transfer the contents to a "nursery" container (Container C) with a source of moisture and let information technology sit down for 30-40 days, and start once more. You tin can embrace Container C bedding with a piece of newspaper or material that is spritzed lightly with h2o on a daily basis. I don't know how well this set upwardly would work if you accept a cloth with the beetles on information technology, equally they may exist laying eggs on the cloth.
Employ three or more than containers. Container A can be a big Rubbermaid bin with a lid. Containers B and C tin exist open shoe box size containers that sit within of Container A. Or you can use the multi-drawer stacked containers, or simply three separate containers.
1. Pull pupae out by hand of Container A (it only takes a few minutes if yous do it every 2-3 days)
2. Put pupae in Container B (no nutrient needed.)
3. Let adults emerge before disturbing. Pick out the beetles out of Container B every couple of days (you lot can use a spoon) and put them in Container C with some bran and folded cloth they can lay eggs on. They are piece of cake to see considering dissimilar the pupae they have fluctuant legs.
4. Subsequently 2-8 weeks, have the beetles out of Container C and feed them to the birds/discard. Periodically remove any dead beetles.
5. Let the eggs in Container C hatch. For the first couple of weeks/months you can hardly come across the larvae. Tens of thousands fit in a shoe box size container. Disturb the culture equally piffling as possible during this stage.
6. When they are big plenty to sift out from the grain, split up larvae out with a sieve or by manus and put them in Container A or more containers if you want to sort by historic period and size.
One person has a uncomplicated ready in a collection of 12 used takeout containers, each about 5"x7"x3" deep. The beetles are in the first one. Every couple of weeks she sifts the egg-containing bran and beetles into two carve up clean empty containers. Iv or v months subsequently this provides a batch of mealworms that are pretty much all the same size.

Storage: Worms that you don't want to reproduce tin exist kept in a closed container (with holes drilled in information technology) in the refrigerator. Lay a paper towel on acme to forestall condensation. At 38ºF, or even 45-50ºF they volition final along time (months) in a semi-dormant mode. One source says larvae tin stay alive 80 days at 23ºF. They will not pupate in the refrigerator. See more information on storage.

Freeze Roasting: Here is the technique Jeff Kellogg uses to freeze dry mealworms. Roasted mealworms do not require refrigeration, and should last more than a year.

Become 10,000 large mealworms
Put them in two large plastic containers on arrival and put them in the freezer.
Once frozen and expressionless, rut upwards the grill on the lowest setting.
Put the mealworms into a large dispensable aluminum roasting pan, after sprinkling some corn meal into the bottom of the pan. This prevents them from sticking to the bottom.
put them on the grill, shut the hat, and let them sit there for about iv-v hours.
Over again, put the grill on a very low setting (peradventure only one burner on low) and shake them up every so ofttimes. They will plow brownish, but once they're cooked, they won't turn blackness and disgusting if left out in warm atmospheric condition.
In one case cooked, put them back in the freezer and use them as normal. No smell, no feeding, no problem.

Practice not utilise a microwave. If you melt them indoors in the oven, it gets a fiddling smelly.

Dusting: You lot can "grit" the outer office of mealworms with powdered mineral or vitamin formulations (eastward.g., Powdered Calcium [Ca2+] or calcium-vitamin combinations) prior to feeding it to an fauna. Put larvae or beetles in a baggie, and gently shake them to glaze them with the mineral-vitamin powder. Shake off excess before feeding to animals.

Uses: Mealworms are a good source of high quality poly peptide. Some people do "gut loading" (offering extra food or protein to the mealworms) two days earlier feeding to animals. Larvae accept a relatively difficult exoskeleton fabricated up of boxy proteins and chitin. Recently molted mealworms may be softer and more digestible.

Y'all might consider selling excess worms to a local pet store or a zoo. If you sell them, count out 100 mealworms past mitt and weigh them on an accurate postal scale. And so figure out what the weight is for whatever quantity you lot are selling.

Bird food - caged and wild. Includes many songbirds and chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, peafowl, quail, chukar, pheasant, and domestic ducks. Pocket-size birds similar finches adopt 0.v" size (worms iv-6 weeks former). One source indicates that considering of their high fat content they should not be fed as a main part of any nutrition.
Excellent fish bait. Mealworms last on the hook longer than many other kinds of live bait. They are i of the best baits for bluegill, perch, trout, whitefish and many pan fish, and for water ice angling.
Tropical fish. They peculiarly enjoy newly molted larvae.
Turtles (aquatic turtles of all sorts, box turtles, tortoises), reptiles (sailfin lizards, chameleons, fringe-toed lizards, basilisks, water dragons, basilisks, anoles), frogs (east.thousand., dart), toads, salamanders and newts. Run into dusting - it's a practiced idea to grit mealworms fed to desert or basking reptiles with a vitamin D3 precursor and a calcium supplement like Calsup®, peculiarly when D3 calorie-free lamps are non used.
Minor mammals, e.k. mice, hedgehogs, shrews, carbohydrate gliders, moles, voles, marmosets, bats, rats and other insectivores.
Scorpions, praying mantis, centipedes, large insectivorous spiders, etc.
Human consumption. Yes some people really consume them. Freeze for 48 hours first. They will continue in the freezer for a few months if they are properly wrapped in airtight bags or containers. Rinse under running water before cooking. They can also be dried in the oven, and used in place of nuts, raisins and chocolate chips in many recipes. See examples.
Scientific discipline experiments for school children. (Red Nova and Leaping from the Box)

Nutritional Value: (Source: http://www.dbs.nus.edu.sg/research/fish/livefood/mealwm.html)

Phase	Dry Matter %	Moisture %	Crude Poly peptide %	Crude Fat %	Ash %	NFE %
Larvae	43.05	56.95	48.31	forty.46	2.92	viii.31
Pupae	38.39	61.61	55.30	36.54	3.27	4.89
Adult	42.ten	57.90	59.43	28.33	3.xvi	9.08

Note: Grubco's analysis was 62.44% moisture, 12.72% fat, 20.27% protein, 1.73% fiber, one.57% ash, 133 ppm Ca, and 3345 ppm P.

Problems with die off:

I accept found that sometimes afterward the worms turn into pupa, they neglect to morph into beetles. I wonder if this is due to a wet or temperature issue.
Darkling beetles live about three months maximum. (See timetable). If many die all at in one case, maybe the colony population is synchronized (all almost the same historic period.)
If the moisture has been as well high, there is the gamble of fungal contagion. Continue putting beetles into two or three different containers, to ensure that at least ane batch is always under good weather and to minimize big die-offs.
(Thanks to L Cooksey for getting this information from Professor N. C. Hinkle, Dept. of Entomology, Univ. of Georgia)

Issues with mites: Sometimes a mealworm colony gets infested past grain mites (Acarus sp.) The mites may come from the mealworm supplier, in bran, or litter from poultry production, and may infest a colony that has been around for a long period of time. Excessive wet + rut may exist a contributor. They are prolific breeders (800 eggs/female) and can withstand temperatures of 0 degrees and even so hatch when brought to room temperature. (Another species that can exist a trouble is the mold mite, Tyrophagus sp.)

The mites are tiny and round, whitish or tan in color, and have eight legs. They may cling to air holes and look like very fine sawdust. Mites can not fly.

If your colony does get infested, the mites will kill the larvae and adults. Destroy the colony (east.g. by freezing) and start over. To prevent mite infestation:

Jack Finch recommended sterilizing all bran/grain (by microwaving it or placing information technology in a subzero freezer for several days) prior to calculation information technology to a colony to preclude mite introduction.
Employ simply wheat middlings/hulls.
Create a moat. Place mealworm containers up on legs, and sit the legs within minor drinking glass or plastic jars filled with water or glycerine (which won't evaporate like soapy water does). This volition also keep ants out.
utilize a Vaseline band (a two" wide band on the outside of the container merely later you lot launder and dry it) to prevent mites from getting into a worm bed.
Blaine Johnson idea using apples and potatoes as a moisture source may take continued to a mite problem he had, and switched to carrots.
Store grain that volition be used in the future inside tightly sealed containers.
Kees Van Epenhuijsen (an entomologist from New Zealand) said they achieved 100% mite mortality past using an acaricide paint (Artilin.) Place mealworm containers on top of a piece of plywood painted with the acaricide. This production is Non available in the United States. Products used to protect beehives from mites (stinky strips put at the entrance to hives) and fumigants (which contain thymol, methol and eucalyptus oil) are as well volatile to be used indoors and have no residual action. (I wonder if eucalyptus leaves would work?)

Problems with moths: Brown moths (typically Indian Meal Moths, a mutual pantry pest that infests birdseed and cereal) may be attracted to the mealworm bedding. If they get into the subcontract, they make a sticky web about like cotton candy. To forbid this, some people store farms outdoors during warmer atmospheric condition. I put individual containers within a larger bin with a screen hot-glued to the top. A "pantry-pest" trap using pherhormones tin be used to trap adult moths. Microwaving cereals (e.g., 2 minutes), or freezing birdseed and cereals volition kill moth larvae that may come up in the packaged products. Run into more than control methods.

Other species: Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus larvae await like wireworms. At that place is some other species of mealworm called the dark mealworm or Tenebrio obscurus, which matures more than quickly than the yellow, and adult beetles lay more eggs. The dislocated flour beetle (Tribolium confusum) is sometimes referred to as a mealworm. The lesser mealworm (Alphitobius diaperinus [Panzer] is as well known as the Litter Beetle, Black Bug or Darkling Beetle. "Superworms" (also called King Mealworms, megaworms, kingworms. Sometimes called Giant mealworms, although these are usually T. molitor treated with growth hormones) are Zophobas morio (sometimes listed every bit Zoophorbas). They are not treated with hormones, merely are naturally larger (around ii-3 times bigger) than regular mealworms. They are native to Cardinal/S America.

Raising Superworms: Superworms (Zophobas morio) also chosen King Mealworms, King Worms or Megaworms, are used for feeding reptiles, birds, and for allurement. Apparently they have less of an exoskeleton than mealworms. Information technology is more difficult to breed superworms, but it can be washed. Here is some information that Larry Broadbent gleaned from the Net and experience. Note: Some sources bespeak that if an animal (like a bird) consumes a superworm without chewing it, it could bite them in the stomach. Therefore, the head should exist removed earlier feeding them to birds.

Superworms SHOULD Not BE REFRIGERATED every bit information technology will impale them.
A 10 gallon Rubbermaid bin holds three hundred worms. Figure that virtually one-half will dice earlier they plough into beetles.
1-iv" of bedding mix should be placed on the lesser of the bin. Wheat bran bedding mixed with some poultry mash works all-time. Some commercial growers add brewers yeast to increment growth and add protein content.
Like mealworms, superworms require wet - otherwise they will cannibalize each other. This is the dilemma. The worms need the water, simply too much water volition get into the bedding, and the bedding volition ferment, bacteria volition grow, and the worms will die. Potato, and/or apple slices work well. The worms "drink" from the slices, and the bedding stays dry out.
Superworms require warmth. Room temperature is fine for keeping the worms, but they need 70ºF and upwards to breed. Colonies should be kept at 70-fourscore degrees F, or eggs, worms, and pupa will die and beetles will not reproduce.
Similar mealworms, superworms have four stages: egg, larva (worm), pupa and beetles. The beetles are much larger than mealworm beetles, and change color as they mature. The beetle phase lays eggs.
To become superworms to pupate, identify them nether stress. Unlike mealworms, superworms should be placed individually in minor plastic containers such as 35mm motion picture containers (stacked on their sides like drums), in order for them to metamorphose. Egg cartons or covered ice cube trays might likewise work. Include a piffling bran, embrace the container with a cap, and bank check weekly.
Information technology will take a +/-30 days for them to pupate. The worms should curl up. This means they are morphing. If they are straight and still, they are dead. Dead Superworms stink.
Pupae do not eat. If touched or exposed to vivid light, they may jerk.
When they become beetles (turning from white to scarlet colour in 24 hours), place them into a bin with bran/chicken feed, and slices of tater or apple quarters. Place 100-150 in a 3 gallon Rubbermaid bin filled with 1-ii" of peat moss.
Most ii eggs would fit on the head of a pin. Motility beetles to a new container every 10-14 days to keep the beetles or newly hatched worms from eating the eggs. When the beetles dice in a few weeks remove them, and leave the bin at 70ºF.
New worms should be visible in well-nigh a calendar month or two after the death of the beetles.
Some farmers just feed newly molted (white) superworms to reptiles, as there accept been cases where adult superworms injured some herps such every bit chameleons.

Comments on my experience so far raising mealworms: I purchased 5,000 large mealworms in the wintertime, and it seemed like it took forever for them to pupate. I had to buy a heat lamp considering I think temperatures were also low. Every bit a event, the cabbage dries out quickly. Information technology took much longer than the literature said for the pupae to metamorphose into beetles. I made the error of not having "siftable" bedding to periodically remove eggs, and I recall the beetles ate them. I don't heed the worm or pupal form, merely the beetles gross me out. I notice the sound of them crawling around creepy. I have to separate the forms out in one case every calendar week or two, which is tedious. If yous are looking for a fun and exciting hobby, this ain't it! Only it will save money.

References and More Information:

Feeding/Raising Mealworms - Best of Bluebird_L Classified
Feeding mealworms by E.A. Zimmerman - includes DIY feeder instructions
How To Start and Maintain a Mealworm Colony by John Thompson
Mealworm links (some broken)
Raising Mealworms fact sheet past Ohio Country University
FEEDING MEALWORMS - Solving the Trouble of Mealworm Getaway Past Nola Aiken
The Smith Meal Worm Feeder by Katherine Smith
Feeding bluebirds past Jan Alhgren
Keeping and Raising Mealworms past Tricia
Raising mealworms or fishing worms, Academy of Kentucky
Raising and Caring for Mealworms - Bruce Johnson and Morgan Davidson
NABs fact sheet - Feeding Mealworms
Bluebird_L Reference Guide
Recipes for human consumption, Food Insect Newsletter
Mealworms, Fawzi Emad - caring for, training bluebirds to come up to feeder
How To Kickoff And Maintain A Mealworm Colony by John Thompson
The Bluebird Monitor's Guide to Bluebirds and Other Modest Cavity Nesters by C. Berger, Thousand Kridler and J Griggs
http://www.dbs.nus.edu.sg/research/fish/livefood/mealwm.html
Asthma caused past live fish bait by Siracusa A, Bettini P, Bacoccoli R, Severini C, Verga A, Abbritti One thousand., Institute of Occupational Medicine, University of Perugia, Italy.
Maintaining a Mealworm Subcontract by Carol Heeson
The Breeding of Mealworms, RSPB Birds
Mealworms (and Superworms) by RepVet
Superworms - Hanley's Herps with skilful photos
The Lifecycle of the Tenebrio Beetle by Ron Salem
Brewers Yeast supply online - diverse places - e.g. Omaha Vaccine or BulkFoods.com
Robyn's Mealworm Page - proficient info, also info on king worms
Larry Broadbent of Canada
Indian Meal Moths, Ohio State University Fact Sheet
Convenance Superworms by Tony W
Mealworm recipes from NY Entomological Lodge Banquet
Cheers to Liz Cooksey, who reported on the etymology of the scientific proper noun for mealworms - tenebrio molitor- "tenebrio" comes from "tenebrion -- ane who lurks in the dark;" and "molitor" ways "miller"

The mewo is a tasty worm.
I like it.
Information technology has a glabrous epiderm.
I like it.
I peck it 'til it'due south good and expressionless,
And pulp it up, and blast its caput,
Then feed my chicks and go to bed.
I like it.
- B. Burdett, of Sunapee NH, 1999

May all your blues be birds!

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Concluding updated

March 27, 2016

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