r/mealworms

TLDR: I tried leftover cooked rice instead of veggie scraps. The larvae just didn't like it.

1. Bedding: wheat bran, leftover bread
2. Normal feeding regimen: carrot ends, apple/pear cores, leafy greens on an irregular basis
3. 3 bin system - beetles lay eggs for 1 month in bin 1; small larvae in bin 2; large larvae in bin 3 (these go out to feed the wild birds). pupa removed from bin 3 and placed on egg cartons in bin 1.
4. system is in the garage, so highly variable temps - 50F to 80F and humidity swings from 20% to 80%. Bins 1 and 2 sit on top of heated seed mats that turn on overnight.

Normally I give my red wigglers the cooked rice that's been sitting in the fridge too long. I thought maybe the mealworms would like it since it has so much moisture in it. So, I took a small amount and put it on a Kleenex tissue in bin 3 with the big larvae. The second picture is from a few hours later. You can see larvae are curious, but they haven't swarmed it like they do with other things. The next day, I tried to entice them with a small bit of carrot in the middle, but that didn't seem to do much.

Has anyone else tried old, leftover cooked rice with success?

Este besouro é puro, porém agora que entrou no pote dos outros besouros foi apresentado ao mundo da luxúria onde até mesmo a luz do dia e lanterna ficam produzindo outros besourinhos.

note: I am not professional and just keep these things as food for my leopard gecko. and now they're a ravinous horde that will eat practically everything I feed them.

this substrate is just DG sand, oats, and some forest based mock mulch (for the springtails), their humidity is about 68(same as my Leo) (trying to follow rules btw)

I've got some exisitng trays that's are 320mm x490mm x70mm they have lids but I was gonna remove those and make a stacking shelf so they have airflow, I aid bought boxes that were 150mm deep but misjudged how massive they actually are and they don't fit where I wanted them, is 70mm good enough? I see professional farms using simailr but I assume they are sifting and turning over alot more than I would be most Likley. I'd tried drawers in the past but found all the issues with tbsg quite quickly so want to start this time as strong as possible with a system I can extend when needed, if I can save money by using these exisitng boxes /trays then awesome

loss

All of my mealworms and beetles are doing great, but I found this one today. There are bubbles on the sides. I've never seen this before! I feel bad, what should I do? I separated this one from the others, just in case.

Its almost 3cm (1,1 inches). I separated it, so I can monitor it. Lets hope for a male, so it can produce more magnificent offspring 🤣

My general setting:

Bedding: mainly oats

Feeding: Greens all the time (I just trow out the old greens every 2 days). In the last few weeks mainly salad, cause I had to much xD

Seperation: Yes, the tiniest ones are also in their own container.

Temp./Humidity: i dont measure, they are in my kitchen. I'd guess 20°C and 50-55%?

I've been doing this for a long time. Directly pouring water in the larvae trays with garden watering can. How much to pour it depends upon how heavy your larvae tray is. The bedding material is wheat bran.

What would cause the size difference? Also, this was a few days ago, and the pupa that has the skin stuck to it, I was able to help it out already.

I use the fluker's high calcium mealworm diet as bedding since I have such a small farm going for a jumping spider, I know it's expensive but I don't use much.

I have a few pieces of dog food in there, along with mainly feeding sweet potatoes right now, I tend to rotate depending on what vegetable I'm eating, but I don't eat a lot of vegetables lol

Because Mocha has suuuuchhh a strong love for her mealworms, I have decided to start breeding them as it doesn’t seem too difficult. I’m definitely going to need to pick up a separate bigger container to separate the pupae from the worms and just to give them more space BUT here is the first batch of Pupae!!!!

Is it safe to put them all together like this? Are these enough to have a self-sustaining colony? I had around 150 superworms and plan to turn them all into darklings.

Are they just gonna cannibalize each other the moment the first beetle emerges?

I'm feeding them oats and chicken feed for protein (and carrot/potato for moisture)

I don't know what to do anymore. I'm not abusing on water source and my farm has no lid, good air flow. Anyone knows why my wheat is gluing? I change water source every two days, small pieces, I dry it befor handing to them. Windows always open, no rain can come from it, not more than 4 fingers of substract. Yes, it is all glued softly, some looks like hair shaped

Giant mealworm tried to pupate but the skin got stick a little but I was able to remove it after putting the beetle in the fridge for a while, because the squirming made it hard to remove the skin without hurting it.

What should I do about the wings that did not develop currently that are sitting by the legs?

My fear is that they will stop the beetle from being able to walk properly, should I cut them off?

First I want to thank for all the replies and also how quick they were, looks like this really is a big comunity. Now I just did what some people told me in the previous post I made, and wanna know, what do you think about it. It is a box, I think you can see air holes in the picture, also there is this elevation from the bottom on the right side, which I dont know why it is there, but whatever : D

question: Do you think there is enough substrate? Should I add more substrate on the right, where the bottom is higher than on the left? If you had any suggestions, Id be thankful for writing them down, but I really hope there isnt much to worry about with these guys and that all they need is really that constant food supply and sometimes hydration through cucumber or something.

Ps: really thanks for replies on the previous post! Also this is the second time im doing this post, because it disnt send the picture before, so hope it works now.

my beetles finally made some babies!!! dozens and dozens!!! yay!!!