Quote:
Originally Posted by souffle
so where are they? Are you waiting for the eggs to hatch just now?
Will you be keeping adults to breed your next generation?
Looks interesting and some nice food for your hams  |
The mealworms are in the third picture via the attachments, the one with all the bran and carrot slices in it. They are just deep in the bran, as they don't like light very much.
I guess I should explain how the whole setup works. The first picture in the attachments section is the whole shebang, extra wheat bran, the three drawer system and all.
The second picture is the now empty drawer where the adult beetles will go once they are done pupating. The holes drilled into the bottom will allow the eggs they lay and any waste, called frass, to fall through to the second drawer, which is the mealworm drawer, the drawer that I have my first batch of mealworms in now.
If I were to leave the eggs in the same drawer as the beetles, they would eat the eggs as fast as they lay them and I would get nowhere fast.
When the mealworms are big enough, as the eggs themselves are microscopic and the newly hatched mealworms aren't much bigger, I'll feed some to my hams and leave the rest to pupate. That's where the third and bottom most (now empty) drawer comes into play. Its the pupae drawer, where I put mealworms that have pupated in until the emerge as beetles.
The whole setup doesn't smell very much, if at all, and the beetles don't fly so they can't get out and go elsewhere in my house. All mealworms and beetles will be contained easily within the drawers.
Okay, second science lecture is done for today. I hope you took notes, there will be a test later on what I've discussed. JK!! LOL.
