RSPB and Mealworms

ColonelBlimp · #21 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 07:58 AM

My worms seem to be enjoying themselves rather too much as half of them have pupated already.

Quote:

sorry for being thick but what do you do with the adult beetles?

I think you just leave them to potter around the tub and mate with everything in sight. If not I shall soon find out!

Fixer · #22 (**permalink**) 03-02-2008, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ColonelBlimp

I think you just leave them to potter around the tub and mate with everything in sight. If not I shall soon find out!

Correct ColonelBlimp

not sure about "potter around" though mine move very fast

Keep us updated on the ColonelBlimp 2008 mealworms expedition if you would please. I'm not sure were all my worms are I would have thought I should have seen more then one or two and I had to use a magnifying glass to spot them they are very small, I have an idea that the beetles may be eating the eggs for mosture so will give them more water and another idea I had was to place lots of brown bread in placed on top of each other to make it harder for them to find the eggs.

Jim

ColonelBlimp · #23 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 05:53 AM

Wilco!

I'm rather hoping that if I put enough moisture in with them I won't have to do much in the way of separation.

I'll try and put a picture up if I get a moment.

m1.carson · #24 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 08:46 AM

Hi Colonel,

I've separated the beetles from the pupa as a site said the beetles will eat them, so we have three tubs now, worms/pupa/beetles, as we see the pupa we take them out of the worms, and likewise we spoon the hatched beetles out of the pupa, there must be an easier way, another site suggested we sieve them out, but didn't say what size grid was needed, any grid large enough for the bran would [I think] be large enough for the worms and pupa.

Max.

Paul mabbott · #25 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 09:24 AM

A sideline. Was picking up some seed the other day and noticed that the shop was selling a new mix of bird food which included dead mealworms. I thought that these wouldn't be attractive to the birds and perhaps not of much nutritional value but gave it a go. Despite there being very little "meat" to the larvae, a pair of robins appear every time I put some out and pick out the corpses .... must have some value.

m1.carson · #26 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 09:54 AM

Sorry Paul,

Seem to be following you around, but yes, we've used the food with dried mealworms in for months, robins and sparrows love it, along with a multitude of others, ours might even be called.... Robin food.

We did find a very small dried fish in the mix once, never asked how it got there.

Max.

Fixer · #27 (**permalink**) 03-03-2008, 04:20 PM

Hi all, It most have been a few weeks now since I took my beetles out of the container and last night I had a look in what I hoped would be the nursery and I saw movement of the food mix on the bottom so I put my finger in and moved it about and I have baby worms, if the bottom of the container holds the same amount as this little spot did there must be 1,000s yipee!! so now I will move all the beetles to a another container and hopfully this one will have worms in about 3 weeks time

EDIT
I will put some on a coin and take a macro shot of some lol

Jim