Do mealworms need a moist substrate?

Discussion in 'Feeder Forum' started by jakewevers, Oct 10, 2011.

  1. jakewevers

    jakewevers New Member

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    I have been trying to breed them more almost two months now and out of the 20+ beetles I have, only 1 or 2 worms are growing into pupa every 1-2 weeks. I see many tiny worms, but none seem to be growing more than 1/8 of an inch before dying off. I have moist pieces of food available and they are on a dry substrate (wheat grain). I have a bag of calci-sand I will not be using (found out it was bad for leopards)... can I use that as a substrate and keep it moist?

    Not sure if this is a factor but I have the beetles in a 7x7 inch space.


     
  2. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  3. electrofelt

    electrofelt Member

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    Hi! As far as I know with mealworms, you actually want to have the complete opposite. You want the substrate to stay as dry as possible to prevent mold and bacteria from growing. So this may be your only problem which is a very easy fix. When I bred mealworms, I just used dry oatmeal for the substrate and threw the fresh food on top and they seemed to do just fine, so you could try that. Although I started out with a very large number of mealworms, so that could be a big factor. I have heard that very fine substrates can actually be worse for them because they can suffocate themselves in the sand, so I would probably stray away from the calci-sand.

    Usually the most common reason for mealworms to die is from dehydration. What do you use as a water source for them? Fresh veggies, water crystals, or something similar?

    Another quick question for you, do you know roughly what the temp is in the tank? When the mealworms are cooler, they will breed much slower then if they are warmed up. So it might help if you can find them a warmer spot to hang out in. I just stuck my mealworm bin next to the hot side of my gecko tank, so I didn't have to add another heat source in my room : )
     
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  4. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  5. jakewevers

    jakewevers New Member

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    Right now I am using the same orange cubes I use for feeding my crickets, but I will probably switch to carrots when I run out since they are much cheaper. As for the temperature, I do not provide any additional heat, but I will definitely try what you are doing. Perhaps I will should just give them more time to establish themselves.
    Just curious---Being so small, how do the newly hatched mealworms locate food? Do they need moisture to grow? I put food in the same location every time, but I imagine most of the tiny guys die off before finding food.

    Thanks for your help!
     
  6. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  7. electrofelt

    electrofelt Member

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    No problem! Sometimes colonies need some time to get situated, so don't worry. How many did you start with?

    I have seen the babies all over the carrots and veggies when I had the mealworms, so they find the food eventually. I tried to spread the food all over the top of the substrate, so wherever they are, food is not far away. I have a feeling the babies also eat the fecal matter from the bigger ones, so as long as everyone is hydrated and happy, they should be ok.

    Another idea you could try is to get a bigger container and "spread out" the substrate, so it is shallow, maybe a 1/2in deep. That way when the babies are born, they don't have to travel far to get to the surface where the food is. I'm not exactly sure if your set-up already looks like this, but that might help a little.
     
  8. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  9. jakewevers

    jakewevers New Member

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    I started with a container of small sized mealworms (50 count) and about half of them grew into beetles (Others were fed to geckos).
     
  10. JEFFREH

    JEFFREH Administrator

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  11. electrofelt

    electrofelt Member

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    You might want to invest in some more mealworms to really get the colony going. 50 is a small number so that might be why the colony is having a hard time getting started. You could buy another 100 or so of them and see how that goes, then once they start changing into beetles you could buy another 100 or so. If you continue this process, then you will eventually have a constant supply of mealworms, beetles, and babies and you wont have to spend any more money on food for the geckos.
     

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