Do mealworms show any signs when they're ready to turn into beetles? I mean, does their color change or do they bury themselves?
Dont they like go into puupas. down in the substrate and then hatch into beetles. I could be wrong though.
They bury themselves either way. If they're going to turn into a bettle they'll become a pupa and look like little white aliens. then in a couple of days or so they'll become a beetle. To prevent this just stick them in your frige and they'll go into a dorment state and won't pupalize. What I do to gutload them, because while they're in the dorment state I don't think they eat, 24 hours or so before I feed them to my leos, I take however many out I need from the frige and put them in a different container in room temperature. That container has all the gutloading stuff for them to eat. I also have the gutloading stuff in teh frigerator too though. Mealies can last up to around 3 months in teh frige, I think that's how long.
Yeah, they look like little aliens If you've got a lot of mealworms in the tub, often they will push many of the pupas up to the top so you can just pick them out, but if you do want beetles and want your mealworms to produce, you WILL want to take out the pupas, because otherwise they'll get eaten by the other mealies in the tub. If they don't die, you'll get a lot of deformed and messed up beetles (that probably would be unable to reproduce anyway). I usually setup 4 tubs... One is for my initial mealworm stock, then another just for pupas, then a third tub for beetles. Once the third tub starts getting really full and has 200-300 beetles in it, I start putting beetles in the 4th tub. By the time the 4th tub has 300-400 mealies in it, the first tub with my initial mealy stock is depleted of mealies, so I'll clean that out and start using that for the beetles, and start picking fresh pupas that just started in tub #2. So basically it's 1 tub that's constantly just pupas, then the other 3 cycle, starting a fresh tub once the current one reaches a 200-300 beetle population. Depending on the size of the colony I'm raising, I'll go with either 1gal or 12qt rubbermaid tubs. Obviously with 12qt rubbermaid tubs, you can have a much larger population than 200-300 beetles per tub (probably nearer to 800-1000 beetles per tub). If you're into MASS production, possibly for resale, or you just have hundreds of geckos, and are expecting babies, that you have to feed, the low 28qt rubbermaids work great. They're about the same height as the 12qt, but with a much bigger floor area. Those can house possibly 5,000 or more beetles, and 50,000 or more mealworms.
Here is a really good article on breeding mealies, it has pictures of each stage of developement so you will know what each stage looks like. http://chameleonnews.com/year2003/oct2003/.../mealworms.html
I usually keep them in the frige, but I'm trying to breed them. I only have one leopard gecko and I'm going to save up my birthday and Christmas money to get another one. I have all the mealworms in one container, so tomorrow I'll buy two more. I wish I had known that mealworms are white when they're getting ready to turn into beetles. I've seen a couple of them in the container, but I just fed them to my gecko instead of saving them. Thanks so much for all you help!!
Oh yeah, if you want to breed them, forget the fridge, hehe. Well, if you're only feeding one leo, and hoping to get one more, then you'll definitely want to be small scale on the breeding efforts If you end up producing too much, you can always sell them to reptile-keeping friends, or even a local pet store.
I think you misunderstood me when I said they were white. Mealworms are white after they shed (and the ones that are white are best to feed to your leo because they don't have as much chittin in them). It's the pupas that are white that are ready to turn into beetles. If you're only having two leos to feed and don't want to have any excess mealies, then it maybe best to just buy 1000 or so at a time. It's only 10 bucks online, and if you feed each leo only 5 a day (like I do) then it should last you 100 days (around 3 months). So if you want to just spend 10 dallors every 3 months and not have to do the work of breeding then that would probably be best. That's what I do. I buy my mealies online from grubco.com
I get it now, sorry! I was planning to sell some of the mealworms to petshops and baitshops. None of my friends own reptiles.
yes, putting holes in the tops of the tubs will help dramatically for air circulation. Otherwise it can just get too humid in the tub, and you start developing mould n' stuff in the substrate - and then you've basically just got to throw the whole lot out, worms n' all, because they've been eating it.
Quick question here, is it true that you can feed leos the beetles? Cus I used to buy mealies and my male wouldn't eat them (this is before I got the female) and I would get mad because I thought I had to let them all go when they turned.
You can feed leos beetles. Don't worry. leos have get digestion that can break it all down. You also can feed leos moths taht come from wax worms.
Just my personal opinion but if you feed the Beatles to your Leos, only feed the Beatles with the white or light tan shells. The darker the beatles get the harder their shells are. I just think it would be harder for the Leos to properly digest the darker ones due to the harder shell. Like I said, that is strictly my opinion. I have no proof or data to back up that opinion. Just my personal observation.
Are the holes in the lid like pinhole small? I don't want any of the mealworms getting out, my family doesnt really like them.
Just make sure you give them a lot of hole idf they're small. Mealies require a lot of air. And unless the bin is filled to the top the mealies wont be able to get out of the tub, tehy can't climb well... at all.
