42 replies to this topic

[dermy]

Just a quick warning, my pictures are pretty huge

 

Thought since I was doing a bunch of things with my Mealworms I'd post about it here. Some are weird and some just plain didn't work out well.

 

Potato Time-Lapse Experiment

 

I wanted to see how long my Colony would take to eat a whole potato. After the 6th hour I chopped up the Potato. It still took them over a week to eat it all up. Here are the pictures of the process:

 

 

Then after that I lost my patience [among other things ] and decided to just chop up the potato:

 

Then after that I noticed something disgusting was happening in my bin

So I made them a new bin:

Lots more ventilation:

 

Shortly after that I "gave up" on this Time-Lapse but I left the potato in there anyway and in a few more days they had eaten most of the insides and left the skin. I then threw the skins into my Composting System.

 

Super sorry about the amount of pictures.... if it's too many I can figure out a way to maybe make it separate posts or something.

 

 

[dermy]

Here is what I'm working on right now, giving my Mealworms a break, from eating wet food anyway. Dog food time:

 

Mealworms before dog food:

After adding in about 1/2 cup of dog food:

And just because I love being weird and stuff here is a picture of Mealworm Beetles in an old piece of sock:

 

The sock actually felt like it weighted something when I was holding it because there was so many beetles, most ran away to the other side as soon as I opened it up

[William. T]

Man, that's a lot of beetles. Are you keeping them for feed? 

[dermy]

That's not many beetles to be honest. I have plenty more on the way. I have two colonies going, one for ant food/other food and this one for experimenting on. I need to get a good picture of all the beetles. Some ran to the other side as soon as I took out my iPod

[dermy]

Hey guys I had to sadly stop keeping them in the above setup, it worked fine but they are starting to pupate like crazy. In that setup they ate some pupae so in order to save them I had to move them. I've since started a Beetle Colony of them. I get about 2-5 beetles added to the Colony everyday. My guess is at one point I will have over 300+ when most of the pupae turn into beetles.

 

Here is a video of what I currently have about 50+

 

[dermy]

Just thought I'd post a few more Pictures of the Colony, I will get another video uploaded here soon as well.

 

[dermy]

Just in case anyone thought the picture of them on the sock was a lot now check them out:

 

 

 

[dspdrew]

You should get a camera with a flash so when your dark soul sucks all the light out of the room your pictures will still come out clear.

[dermy]

Yeah I need any camera that is better then the current one [iPod Camera] I had one but don't know where it went....

[AntsAreUs]

I'm still scratching my head to as of why I can't make mine turn into beetles!

[Crystals]

Give them food and occasional moisture, and a bit of space then they pupate pretty quick.  Don't let the pupae dry out, or let the mealworms eat the pupae and they eclose after several weeks.  Even stick the pupae in a test tube like an ant queen keeps them from drying out if that is major problem in your location. 

Superworms are a different story.

[AntsAreUs]

Give them food and occasional moisture, and a bit of space then they pupate pretty quick.  Don't let the pupae dry out, or let the mealworms eat the pupae and they eclose after several weeks.  Even stick the pupae in a test tube like an ant queen keeps them from drying out if that is major problem in your location. 

Superworms are a different story.

The problem is they are right about to hatch with their nice brown legs, but they don't hatch and then they die...

[Crystals]

 

Give them food and occasional moisture, and a bit of space then they pupate pretty quick.  Don't let the pupae dry out, or let the mealworms eat the pupae and they eclose after several weeks.  Even stick the pupae in a test tube like an ant queen keeps them from drying out if that is major problem in your location. 

Superworms are a different story.

The problem is they are right about to hatch with their nice brown legs, but they don't hatch and then they die...

 

That is a low humidity problem.  You see the same thing with some species of ant pupae when they eclose in low humidity.  Try putting a few in a moist test tube.

[dermy]

How are you setting up your Mealworms? Do you have a lid on with a few air holes or is your lid completely off/screened? I think if your lid is closed with enough air holes to prevent mold/moisture build up that will help with a little humidity.  Are you giving them carrots/potatoes, those help with humidity as well.

[LC3]

Speaking of humidity what is the ideal humidity for mealworms?

[AntsAreUs]

This is how I think of it, for a more large scale farm I can't keep putting them in test tubes. (they are for my ants) What would be another a way of increasing humidity?

[Crystals]

Open jar of water in the container.  It would raise humidity.  Just have a fairly tight fitting lid.

 

For mine, I have a regular lid, with tiny little air holes and I mist the bran bedding once every 2 weeks very lightly.  If you see any mold, stop, and let it air out a bit.

[AntsAreUs]

Open jar of water in the container.  It would raise humidity.  Just have a fairly tight fitting lid.

 

For mine, I have a regular lid, with tiny little air holes and I mist the bran bedding once every 2 weeks very lightly.  If you see any mold, stop, and let it air out a bit.

Thanks for the advice, I would love it if it works. It's just strange that I have bred these no problem before and now for about a year I haven't been able to breed them again. I'll give this a try though...

Edited by AntsAreUs, September 23 2015 - 6:36 PM.

[dermy]

Open jar of water in the container.  It would raise humidity.  Just have a fairly tight fitting lid.

 

For mine, I have a regular lid, with tiny little air holes and I mist the bran bedding once every 2 weeks very lightly.  If you see any mold, stop, and let it air out a bit.

 

I currently do not keep my mealworms on any bran at all...... just dog food. I wonder why I've never had many problems. I keep carrots and stuff in the bin constantly, so I assume that to be a source of humidity. Other then that I never really thought about humidity. Knowing my luck if I misted anything I'd have a big huge outbreak of mold and then fungus gnats again.

[AntsAreUs]

My mealworms have been at 60% humidity, I would think that is enough? What is it supposed to be?