Growing mealworms

[Viksceeks]

I'd like to try growing and raising my own mealworms
Does anyone have tips? Where to order initial batch from?

 

[1muttsfan]

Many pet shops sell mealworms, used to feed birds and reptiles.

Here is a link to the BYC article on raising mealworms - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-to-raise-mealworms.48416/

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I'd like to try growing and raising my own mealworms
Does anyone have tips? Where to order initial batch from?

Oh, they are SO easy to grow!
Where are you located? While you can get them from pet stores, there are great direct vendors all over the place offering better stock and much better prices...plus some pet store stock has been produced for feeding only, they are hormonally treated to never pupate, which makes them useless for propagation.
Do you want to do self sorting or rotational bin style farming?

 

[Viksceeks]

Oh, they are SO easy to grow!
Where are you located? While you can get them from pet stores, there are great direct vendors all over the place offering better stock and much better prices...plus some pet store stock has been produced for feeding only, they are hormonally treated to never pupate, which makes them useless for propagation.
Do you want to do self sorting or rotational bin style farming?

i'm in washington. I'm wanting to do the easiest way possible. I read cheesecloth helps the eggs drop through so the adults won't eat them

 

[mosse71]

I've raised them in shallow trays and just let them do their thing. never screened or anything and they did well. id feed of half the worms every few months and they just keep reproducing have them in chicken crumble. i also raise dubia roaches from s. america which breed/ grow a lot faster than mealworms. they are a forest roach and can't survive loose in a house. i give them dry dog food, flour and veg. scraps. funny to watch the chickens run them down. i keep a heat mat under their tote to encourage breeding.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Oh, they are SO easy to grow!
Where are you located? While you can get them from pet stores, there are great direct vendors all over the place offering better stock and much better prices...plus some pet store stock has been produced for feeding only, they are hormonally treated to never pupate, which makes them useless for propagation.
Do you want to do self sorting or rotational bin style farming?

i'm in washington. I'm wanting to do the easiest way possible. I read cheesecloth helps the eggs drop through so the adults won't eat them

Pnw mealworms (www.pnwmealworms.com) is local, ships, has great service and great stuff....

 

[Old-clucker-55]

You can try critter grub.com I'm sure they can take care of you.

 

[rehdancer]

I got mine at a feed store in fridge with the other bait. Don't know if they were treated or not, it's all an experiment at this point. I deliberately didn't get very many so as to reduce my losses if it didn't go well. They're kept in a plastic bin the size of a shoe box, under a large footstool to reduce light. They just started molting (?) so I'm seeing little skins in amongst the wheat bran, and a lot of white ones, which tell me they're the newly-shedded ones. Good luck to you, and let us know how it's going !

 

[PetuniaAcres]

I grow my own and supplement it with mealworms purchased at the pet store. I started my farm to feed my sugar glider and will be enhancing the farm to feed the ladies.

I use a small 3 drawer Rubbermaid setup. The top tray houses mature beetles and the bottom is lined with window screen so that eggs fall through to the nursery tray underneath. The third tray is a grow out tray. Each tray is filled with organic wheat bran and I feed the worms and beetles carrots, potatoes and Thirsty Cricket. Thirsty Cricket will gut load the worms to provide calcium. I do this because my sugar glider has high calcium requirements.

I put around 1000 worms in the third (bottom) tray and as they begin to form pupa I place them into the top tray to become beetles and start the life cycle over again. On the whole, it takes about 3 months to go from egg to mealworm to beetle. After a couple of months, I like to switch out the nursery and grow out tray. I started my farm last May and I have added more worms in when production slowed down in the winter. Just google mealworm farm and you will find tons of great tutorials. Good luck!

 

[Dominicker Esquire]

I couldn’t find wheat bran? Will whole wheat flour work? Or should I add some starter feed to the whole wheat flour? Thanks