I'm officially a micro-farmer!! ([WARNING:] creepy crawly factor)

[HollyHamster]

I would post a very long and detailed post about my newest adventure, but I think I'll just cut a long story short and say that I have decided to set up a micro mealworm farm.

Mealworms are the larvae of the darkling beetle (Molitor tenebrio). They are essentually grubs. They live in and eat stuff called bran. Its usually wheat bran. That's the sawdust looking stuff live mealworms come in at the store. They also need moisture, which can be supplied in the form of slices of carrot, potato or other semi juicy fruits/veggies/tubers (potatoes are actually tubers, the startchy root parts of the potato plant).

Mealworms go through a lifecycle much like a butterfly: egg, larvae, pupae, and adult. However, being little black beetles, they are noticeably not as colorful, or magical looking, hence the creepy crawly-ness that butterflies don't have.

Now, I must warn you, the next bit I am going to divulge to you is a little hard to swallow, no pun intended, so the squeamish might not want to continue reading.

Mealworms are used in several places in the world as human grade protein sources. Yes, that's right, some people actually willingly ingest these little creepy crawlies as part of their everyday diet. Not something I am brave enough to do, nor do I think that anyone on here is either, but its done. I've read that when fried up (which I think would make the whole kitchen smell just awful btw), they supposedly taste like peanuts. Just makes you want to throw a handful of chocolate coated mealies in your mouth, right? Didn't think so.

I think I'll stick to feeding the little beggers to my hamsters, thankyouverymuch.

Anyways, not to get to the whole point of this post. I bought a nice little setup to farm these little suckers, and will use the constant supply to feed my hams fresh live mealworms every now and again (and on the off chance that I get too many mealworms, I'll sell a few of them on Ebay or something).

I'll post pictures of my setup, to share with the few remaining brave souls who are still reading this thread, mostly because I don't have anything better to do, and just in case anyone else has the odd notion to set up a mealworm farm of their very own.

[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

[DrKMcK]

Nope. Nope. Not gonna do that...ever! It's bad enough that the dwarfies like the dried worms, and I'll even go so far as the occasional can of moist Flukers mealworms. But living worms and beetles. Nope.

[CPalmer]

bleeughh *shivers* good luck! *backs out of thread quickly*

[Colby and the Dwarfs]

I'm doing this too! Of course, mainly for the gecko and turtles

I'm not squeamish, if it was dead I'd eat one, haha!

I have 14 beetles, how many did you start out with?

[Munchalot]

Eeew. :3 Good luck with it though, I've heard they're not as easy to breed as most people think? Be a nice way to feed your hammies, fresh mealies can get pricey when you feed quite a few.

Not my thing personally. xD I think they stink, and I couldn't cope with escapees!

[DrKMcK]

Originally Posted by Colby and the Dwarfs

I'm doing this too! Of course, mainly for the gecko and turtles

I'm not squeamish, if it was dead I'd eat one, haha!

Why would you eat one?

Originally Posted by Munchalot

Eeew. :3 Good luck with it though, I've heard they're not as easy to breed as most people think? Be a nice way to feed your hammies, fresh mealies can get pricey when you feed quite a few.

Not my thing personally. xD I think they stink, and I couldn't cope with escapees!

Escapees??? Escapees??? I hadn't even thought of that! OMG. Holly, you are a brave soul.

[HollyHamster]

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.

[HollyHamster]

Originally Posted by Colby and the Dwarfs

I'm doing this too! Of course, mainly for the gecko and turtles

I'm not squeamish, if it was dead I'd eat one, haha!

I have 14 beetles, how many did you start out with?

I've just started, so all I have now is roughly 100 mealworms. That's why the first and third drawer are empty.

[Colby and the Dwarfs]

Originally Posted by DrKMcK

Why would you eat one?



Escapees??? Escapees??? I hadn't even thought of that! OMG. Holly, you are a brave soul.

I think it'd be interesting. If someone offed me one I'd take it. I'm not going to eat mine though, lol!

Bet the gecko and hammies agree!