RSPB and Mealworms

[m1.carson]

Hi,

Thought we'd produce our own as they seem to cost 1p each, went to the RSPB site for instructions, use a biscuit tin and pierce some small air holes in it, done, then layer it with hessian etc, done, less than a week later the tin is really rusty.

The tin was new at Christmas filled with a well known brand of chocolate biscuits,[heard they're taking their chocolate production to Poland ].

It seems every site I've visited gives the same but different instructions, don't put a lid on them, put a lid on them, take the adult beetles out they eat the pupae, next site no mention of taking them out, and so it goes on.

By the way, they don't seem to move too fast, my wife transferred them to a new habitat, and said " don't they, HA" I told her she was slowing up.

I can't repeat the answer on this site, but it's my turn to move them next.

Max.

[sleipnerofasgard]

My sister in australia breeds her own and she uses a cardboard box and newspaper and empties them every few weeks as and when they need them with excellent results

[Blackbrook Eye]

I have mine in a couple of 1 kilo size ice-cream tubs, no tops just about half inch layer of porridge oats in the bottom and half a small potato for moisture. I have separated the pupae, as they have developed, onto a small plastic tray, so that I can see when they emerge as beatles and these I will put in another tub, with a small amount of flour, and cover them with a cling film lid with small holes as a breeding chamber, as I am informed that escapees can become a nuicence. All's fine up to now, so I can see no reason to change the system. Hope this is of some help, Keith

[honeybee]

Mealworm breeding kit:

January at Wiggly Wigglers


Not tried it myself though.

[Fixer]

Anybody know if the beetle can fly?

Jim

[Blackbrook Eye]

Originally Posted by Fixer

Anybody know if the beetle can fly?

Jim

The way things are progressing, I should soon be able to give a first hand answer to that, fingers crossed

[Blackbrook Eye]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Mealworm breeding kit:

January at Wiggly Wigglers


Not tried it myself though.

At that price I am not surprised you hav'nt tried it honeybee, My complete set up cost around four quid, and I got a few breakfasts out of the oats that were left over.

[m1.carson]

Originally Posted by Fixer

Anybody know if the beetle can fly?

Jim

Hi fixer,

I'm reliably informed,[ by website ] that yes they can fly but seldom do, how often is seldom ?. We've covered our pupae plastic tub with netting just in case.

blackbrook eye,
There's another discrepancy, mine say's " put bran in with the adults and a sheet of bread, they will lay their eggs in the bread", it gets worse.

Thanks,
Max.

[Blackbrook Eye]

blackbrook eye,
There's another discrepancy, mine say's " put bran in with the adults and a sheet of bread, they will lay their eggs in the bread", it gets worse.

From what is written about the subject, and the information given on websites, all I can conclude is that they are not too fussy about what conditions are provided, so long as they have food. Whatever works for you, is the right thing to do.

[Fixer]

Thanks all,

Mine are all beetles and have not seen any on the floor but I think I will cover them with a fine mesh just in case, also every few days I put a large slice of potato in that I have scooped out and pricked with a fork then drip some water in them when I look again later you can’t see it for beetles drinking.

I think I have seen one laying on some very dry brown bread but I heard they burrow down to lay their eggs?

Quote ”wikipedia“
Mealworm beetles (darkling beetles) are prolific breeders. It is more difficult to halt their breeding than it is to get them started. Mating is a three step process: 1) The male gives chase until the female relents. 2) The male then mounts the female and curls his genitals (aedagus) underneath himself and inserting it into her genital tract. 3) The male then injects the female with a packet of semen. Dependent on incubation temperature, Just days after mating the female will burrow into soft ground and lay between 70 and 100 eggs.

Jim

[Fixer]

Took this a few weeks back to show on my forum, some call it the Alien at this stage of their life cycle and I would say it does look a little Alienish lol

Jim

[jamie_from-kent]

I know that there are loads of different ways to do this but if I want to start breading meal worms can someone give me a step by stepp guide of what to do and what equipment I will need and things.

[jamie_from-kent]

Just read the RSPBs advice and where can i get hessian from?

And if i start off with a few hindred mealworms how do you know if they are male of female and so on.

[Fixer]

I got my worms from the pet-shop you will only need about a £1 worth, put them in a large bucket with whatever bran-oat meal-cornflakes crushed-whole meal flour you mum as lol, keep them warm they will grow faster and change to the next stage the “Pupal” what some people call the Alien, I did put a picture up but its gone must have broke the rules again L, not much goes on here till the next change “the Beetle” feed as before if it goes down add more and add some potato peeling so the beetle can get some moisture and just let them do their own thing, I find if they are in the dark they are more active, this is as far as I have got, I have seen them mating for a week or more so I am going to take all the live stock that I can see out of the bucket and place them in another one so if there are eggs I don’t want them to be eaten too, will keep an eye on the tub and if there are eggs in there I should see them soon as young worms.
Jim

[m1.carson]

Hi fixer,

You must have a really cheap petshop, mine cost nearer £2-50 for a very small tub, hessian can be bought from almost any fabric shop, but we got ours from Hobbycrafts.

Max.

[honeybee]

You should keep them cool as well as in the dark but i presume they don't mulitply if too cold.

[Elizabeth B]

Originally Posted by honeybee

You should keep them cool as well as in the dark but i presume they don't mulitply if too cold.

We bred mealworms for many years until fairly recently, and kept the "breeding chambers" (ie plastic buckets) on top of the central heating boiler, which we found to be ideal. However, a couple of years ago we had to replace the boiler as it was found to be unsafe at the annual check - the new one is much more efficient, but the utility room is now cold. In the new conditions, the breeding process slowed down so much that we've almost given up. Our gas bills are much lower now, so we spend some of the savings on buying mealworms. Monkfield Nutrition UK | Live Reptile Food

We followed the method desribed in Chris Mead's excellent book "Robins", apart from using buckets instead of biscuit tins - and realising that the proof reader had not spotted the error in the depth of the wholemeal flour and porridge oats mixture which was described as 100cm, topped with a 50cm layer of bran!!!

We didn't use any hessian, but just put a couple of pieces of kitchen paper on top. This makes it easy to "farm" the mealworms, as they gather in the paper (and nibble it) - and you can just lift it out and shake the mealworms into a container, ready to feed to the birds.

[ColonelBlimp]

Sorry to bump an old thread but I've just started the ColonelBlimp 2008 mealworms expedition.

Got an old honey bucket+lid, and drilled a 32mm hole in the top, covered with glued on nylon to stop mites getting in (the glue was rather strong and hasn't really set so I reckon the worms will be rather dizzzzzy).

Filled it up to a depth of about 4 inches with mixture of rolled oats and the next best thing to bran I could find which was some really terrible ready oats mixture which looked/smelled/tasted like bran, with some kitchen paper and cabbage leaf for good measure.

Introduced what I thought was about 100 worms but which turned out to be 100 plus the 2000 that were seeking to escape the robin-orchestrated genocide by hiding in some kitchen roll.

They seem to be happyish, so I'm just going to leave them now and report to HQ WAB if my method works or no. Indeed they seem to be shedding their skins and turning into pupae already so I must be doing something right.

[naturelover]

Sorry thats not for me,gives me the creeps even though i am an all creature lover.

[honeybee]

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

[ColonelBlimp]

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

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.