Mealworm Life Cycle

[LoveForLizards]

Only had this colony a few months and I am already nearly over run with them considering I started off with all adult mealies. Most are now sub-adult and I am having to start giving them to the wild birdies - got the rats, barn owl and ferrets eating them on a nearly every day basis yet I still have WAY too many.

I threw half of the aliens across the room aswell. I hate when you pick them up and they wiggle about like a hyper toddler in a sleeping bag.

[freekygeeky]

Originally Posted by LoveForLizards

I threw half of the aliens across the room aswell. I hate when you pick them up and they wiggle about like a hyper toddler in a sleeping bag.

lol!!!

[Mouki]

i have 100s of beetles and they've been in a pot with the bran stuff for about a month! i cant see any baby mealies. and i've got more aliens so im gonna set up another tub of them.

how long before the baby mealies can be seen? shall i move the beetles out and into a new pot??

[Esfa]

Mine wont bleddy breed!
I keep adding more adult mealworms in there from the pet shop, but they just transform into beetles after a few weeks and refuse to breed! i've got 1000s of beetles!

[LoveForLizards]

Originally Posted by Esfa

Mine wont bleddy breed!
I keep adding more adult mealworms in there from the pet shop, but they just transform into beetles after a few weeks and refuse to breed! i've got 1000s of beetles!

You probably have thousands of babies and eggs you just can't see them, try put them by a warm radiator or on a low heat mat
to help speed things up a bit.

[Babycakes]

Thanks everyone who has posted their experiances and observations. I have started a little colony of my own in probably the weirdest container yet - my daughter's old baby bottle steriliser. It holds 5 litres of water - hoping that will be big enough. I have mixed up porridge oats, crushed bran flakes, rice krispies, a grated apple, a grated potato and a good dusting of nutrobal. Dumped in the end of the old tub of mealies and a whole new one I got today. They are munching away in there - and I have a beetle already, it was in the old tub.
Am off to hunt out the aliens and put them in a tub of their own - when they turn into beetles can I just pop them back in the big colony??

[huwjun]

how do you control the colany? like how many you feed and keep to breed?

[louism]

mine don,t move at all

[Dom1991]

Hey all, 1st post.
I've had a mealie RUB set up for nearly 2 months now, but I've got a few questions:

The first few beetles I put in the RUB went fine with no problems with a oats/bran substrate and a few pieces of carrot, they munched on that for a while but as more beetles hatched and I put them in, some of the older ones started to eat the younger ones; was this because of hunger or are they territorial?

Also the substrate itself is around 2 inches deep, is this deep enough for now as there's only around 10 beetles and maybe some tiny mealies?

Plus around 3 days ago, some of the beetles have started to die, so I was wondering what's a beetle's lifespan usually? Or if it's starvation as I change any food weekly as I thought they were fine eating the bran?

Sorry about the long post lol, just wanna make sure I don't end up killing off my colony before it's even started

[LoveForLizards]

Comments in red/B...

Originally Posted by Dom1991

Hey all, 1st post.
I've had a mealie RUB set up for nearly 2 months now, but I've got a few questions:

The first few beetles I put in the RUB went fine with no problems with a oats/bran substrate and a few pieces of carrot, they munched on that for a while but as more beetles hatched and I put them in, some of the older ones started to eat the younger ones; was this because of hunger or are they territorial?

Probably territorial, they will eat the substrate. When you put the beetles in are they still white or do you let them harden up and go brown/black first?

Also the substrate itself is around 2 inches deep, is this deep enough for now as there's only around 10 beetles and maybe some tiny mealies?

Plenty deep enough.

Plus around 3 days ago, some of the beetles have started to die, so I was wondering what's a beetle's lifespan usually?

IME, anywhere from 2 weeks to a few months. The beetles that got fed fresh veggies more often didn't live as long.

Or if it's starvation as I change any food weekly as I thought they were fine eating the bran?

Yep, fine eating the bran alone, they won't starve if they have a grain substrate.

Sorry about the long post lol, just wanna make sure I don't end up killing off my colony before it's even started