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Monday, November 23, 2020

Raising Mealworms

There are plenty of great guides out there on how to raise mealworms (like this! http://www.sialis.org/raisingmealworms.htm) so I won't make this a 100% guide, but rather a few tips on how I do it.


1) My trick is to use a 3-draw tray organizer. I put oats in all three trays. In the first tray goes the container of mealworms (minus the sawdust they're packed in, of course). I like giving them potato slices for hydration, as apples seem to rot and mold too much.


 


2) When the worms go to larva stage, I pick them out and move them to the second tray. Since the larva are the same color as the oats, and harder to see, I started putting them on a shallow dish inside the tray just so I don't disturb the larva for the next part.

 

3) After the larva turn to beetles, I scoop them up and move them to tray 3. This way they won't munch on anything they're not supposed to. Eventually the beetles will die after they've served their life purpose, so just pick them out and throw them away. After all the beetles are gone, tray 3 is about to become your new tray #1, the worm tray.


Eventually, the worms will consume all the food or the "trash" in the bottom of tray one will simply need to be tossed out and replaced.  With my system, this way you're not worrying about if you're tossing out any eggs because there were no beetles in there! Since tray 3 is rotated down to tray 1 position, now you can put some new oats in the new beetle tray, aka tray 1.

You now have a live colony of mealworms that will feed your pet while replenishing itself. :D

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