Mealworm Colony Innovation Needed!

[Grond]

For the last couple of years I've been breeding my own mealworms.

I have four colonies which I seed with 1000 mealies and these keep me amply supplied.

There are two things, that I've been struggling with however.

The first is cleaning out the colony. Eventually, they eat all of the oats and I start topping up. The problem is that the faeces/moults/dead beetles etc keep accumulating until there is a three to four inch layer of fine faecal matter.

Now I can seive this out, but this also seives out most of the eggs and small mealworms(I mean the micro mealies - 3mm and less). The larger rubbish stays in the sieve and still needs manually removing from the larger mealworms.

I have resorted to having 4 colonies and just ditching one every 3 months and starting again. I wondered if anyone had any ingenious ideas for how to separate the large rubbish from the mealworms, and how to get rid of the faecal matter without losing thousands of eggs and babies?

[freekygeeky]

when the poo shed and all the matter gets to much i seive it all out, lleave it by its self in a tub, wait a month or so , by that time anythign that was in there (ie eggs) would of hatched. SO i sift out the baby mealies, and throw it away.

[JRoss]

I dont believe there is an effective way. I have had this problem so i just leave it there letting it accumulate, all i do is take out dead beetles. Throwing the excrement away would result in loads of eggs being lost. Sieving tends to disrupt my colonies but when i leave them alone, everything is bustling with activity.

[Grond]

Originally Posted by freekygeeky

when the poo shed and all the matter gets to much i seive it all out, lleave it by its self in a tub, wait a month or so , by that time anythign that was in there (ie eggs) would of hatched. SO i sift out the baby mealies, and throw it away.

Originally Posted by JRoss

I dont believe there is an effective way. I have had this problem so i just leave it there letting it accumulate, all i do is take out dead beetles. Throwing the excrement away would result in loads of eggs being lost. Sieving tends to disrupt my colonies but when i leave them alone, everything is bustling with activity.

I thought that there would be no stunning solution, but you have to ask!

Actually Freeky's suggestion is a good one and I will definately try it.

By the time I throw my colonies and reseed, there is however about 10kg of excrement and dead beetle parts so it's not fun!!

[froggsong]

Hi there folks. Just thought I would share something I read recently when looking for an easier way to harvest my mealies.

Mealies will run from heat, so if you put them in a funnel with a bit of cotton wool (or something they can get around) in the bottom of the funnel to hold back the dust, you can hold a light over the funnel and they will run for the bottom very quickly and crawl around the cotton and out the bottom.

I tried it, and it worked pretty well, but I held the light too close and cooked some of them.

If you wait until all the eggs would have hatched but before they are large enough to pupate (somewhere around halfway through the larval stage), you can sift out the largest mess, then put the dust and mealies in a bowl and take them outside (it's going to be messy, lol). Stand in a place that's breezy (or in front of a fan on low), with another bowl at your feet. Slowly pour the mealies into the bowl at your feet, letting the dust blow away with the wind. The mealies are heavy enough that they will fall straight down, while the dust will go to the side, mostly missing the bowl at your feet. You may have to do it a few times, and I recommend wearing a mask, but it's a fairly easy way to sort them all out of the dust.

Hope this helps out!

EDIT: Also, all of that mealworm waste is pretty good to mix in with your compost (if you compost). I save some of it to mix in with the soil for my potted plants, works pretty well as a fertilizer.

[Grond]

More useful ideas and very ecofriendly!

Will have to get experimenting!

[zoe6660]

i clean my meal worms out using a cieve and all that go though it is the crap, but when i was breeding some of the tiny babies would fall though.

[Grond]

Originally Posted by zoe6660

i clean my meal worms out using a cieve and all that go though it is the crap, but when i was breeding some of the tiny babies would fall though.

Yes, that's the problem!

[zoe6660]

Originally Posted by Grond

Yes, that's the problem!

you could do that but dont get rid of it, keep it in a bigger tub and feed the small ones up for a week then do it again and u should have them all.

[Grond]

Originally Posted by zoe6660

you could do that but dont get rid of it, keep it in a bigger tub and feed the small ones up for a week then do it again and u should have them all.

Yes, I think that's a good idea. It's similar to what Freeky suggested.

Don't know why I didn't think of it sooner! It seems so obvious now!