Raising meal worms as feed supplement

[BarredBuff]

I'd like to try this one day.....

 

[Dawn419]

Me, too, BB! Not happening here until we get the cabin built, though, I've got the camper loaded to max capacity with my milk kefir and just added kombucha...need more room!

 

[DianeS]

I've done mealworm farming before - super easy. My experiences mimic everyone else's. My beetles never tried to climb out. Never even walked on the side of the container, at all. I used a plastic bin, not sure if they'd walk on something else like cardboard. The beetles don't fly at all.

I used oatmeal (or little bits of whatever else I had laying around, like the crumbs from breakfast cereal) for bedding, and fed slices of solid veggies/fruits for food. (cucumbers, apples, etc) It's true some people get away without offering food, but then they tend to have lower yields of worms because the beetles can turn cannibalistic.

The chickens went crazy over them!

 

[Denim Deb]

You don't need to worry about the beetles flying away. While they have wings, they don't fly. They prefer to run for cover if an enemy approaches. And, as far as I know, they'll only mate once after becoming an adult. Once they've done that, they've completed their life cycle. Most insects spend more time in the larvae stages than the adult.

 

[so lucky]

Raising mealies is a great project for kids, too. My grand daughters were able to handle the worms easier than the beetles, just based on the "eeww!" factor. In pupa stage they usually don't move at all, but occasionally one will start gyrating wildly, possibly as it starts to morph. Pretty interesting to watch. I think lots of kids do mealies for science projects. Would be a cheap one, with profit making possibilities. ('Bout time those kids started paying back for the cell phone! )

Just as a comparison, I find mealies a lot easier to keep healthy and reproducing than the red wriggler worms. I have nearly killed off my whole colony of red wrigglers several times, and I have to coax them back to some semblance of health.

 

[~gd]

Yes, the beetles will attempt to escape I have heard, haven't experienced it yet. I did read they have a nasty little bite on them in the beetle stage too, but again, no experience yet. SO glad others have chimed in on this subject!! My box isn't stanky yet I keep it pretty clean right now with so few though. That could be an issue later on. We shall see I suppose

WBF, I think it is only the giant breed of mealworms that bite. Those can even bite the intestines of whatever just swallowed them! And I have never experienced any of my beetles flying either. They can't crawl out of a slick-sided plastic bin. The beetles are only intent on eating and mating, as far as I can tell. Lots of people do cover their bins, but be careful you don't cover it with a solid lid, because moisture will build up and cause problems. If you have cats, you will probably want to cover the bins.

There are two different beetles that are sold for mealworm production tenebrio molitorCommom mealworm and zophobas morioSuperWorms. Like chickens they have been bred to be larger by man to produce more meat, their bodies are bigger but the wings stayed the same so the ability to fly has been almost lost. some chickens can still roost in trees while others have trouble making it to a roost bar. The same with the beetles, they didn't spread by walking in the wild! The two different beetles are different enough that they can not cross breed. the common mealworm beetle has much smaller mandibles [biting parts] than the superworm they will try to bite but can't get their jaws around Human fingers stick a thin straw in and see for yourself. Super worms will bite.
one word of warning from s grower''s site. excess moisture will allow mites to get established in the worms which can cut production and the mites can even attack the creature that the worms are fed to. another trick used by feeders is to load the worms with high protien feed and vitimims & mineral the day before feading to the pets/livestocks. getting calcium into snakes is one problem treated this way. ~gd

 

[Bettacreek]

I hate to rain on the parade, but I'm going to say that if you have them turning to worms right away, that it's more likely that the eggs and larvae that the breeder sent is what you're seeing. Even in warm temperatures (80F) they won't breed that quickly. Usually when you start, you won't see larvae for quite awhile, and then all of a sudden, you'll start noticing the larvae swarming around in the bedding. As for the shed skins, you can leave them in there, as they will eat them. As for the newspaper, the worms themselves do not need humidity, but they do need to drink something. Root veggies (carrots, potatoes, etc) are typically the recommended drinking source, though I like the newspaper idea better, lol. You can do absolutely nothing with them for a few months and still have a source, but their production will drop, as they'll prey on each other for water, but will still have a good breeding colony with absolutely no care/water. Thinking of that experience, if you're a very forgetful person, do not shove them out of sight, because you might well forget about them for a few months, like I did, lol.

ETA: You don't want to use them as your main source of protein. There's something in them that inhibits calcium absorption. I forget what it is, because it was about five years ago that I raised them and did the research on them. I think they're also about double the ratio of one thing as compared to protein, which, for some reason makes it a bad protein source. I'd have to see if I could find the pages I read way back when to remember exactly what it was, lol.

ETA II - It's calcium to phosphorus if I remember correctly, but let me look again. For some reason, I'm thinking that the calcium is supposed to be a certain percent of the phosphorus (1:2 or something?!)

ETA III - Ok, you should, at the very least, have a 1:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorus, BUT, ideally, it should be about 2:1 calciumhosphorus, in normal critters, because in order for the body to metabolize the phosphorus, it needs a like amount of calcium, and if the consumption of calcium is not at least equal to phosphorus, the body will leech the calcium from stores in the body (calcium is stored mostly in the bones/teeth of an animal/person). Since the phosphorus is taking the same amount of calcium, you also need extra for other functions that the body needs it for (for repairs, for muscle, basically everything needs a spit of calcium, plus in chickens, it's even more necessary, since calcium can be depleted via egg laying as well. Looking at egg shell only, for one gram of eggshell it's apparently:
Calcium - 900mg
Magnesium - 24mg
Phosphorus - 8.4mg
Potassium - 8mg
Sodium - 9mg

(I just looked that up) So, you need to be very careful on the phosphorus amount (which, in mealworms, it's from 0.7:1 to 0.33:1 calciumhosphorus). So, if you want to feed meal worms as a large percent, make sure that you also really load them up on straight up calcium supplement, and make sure that they have enough Vit D. From someone else's research, I remember reading that when they tried to feed a larger amount of mealworms, that their chickens' feed consumption didn't go down, but in fact soared way higher, which I assume to be because they were eating more to make up for the lack of calcium?

 

[Wannabefree]

Very interesting, thanks for that information!

 

[Marianne]

Yes it was, thanks.

 

[the funny farm6]

wow! it does NOT take long for them to get to the beetle stage. i dont see any little ones yet.