URGENT! Mealworms - recovered (1 Viewer)

This is a thread I posted only one or two weeks ago that was lost in the crash:

tp20uk
I have bought 3 small tubs of mealworms from CJ Wildbird Foods and it is the first time I have ever bought live food for the birds. I have decided not to breed them until about April.

I have some questions as I am not clear about some things and get different advice from the different places I look!

1) As I am only keeping them to feed the birds and nothing else, can they be kept in the small tubs with bran that they came in? Do they need a slice of e.g potato as moisture or can I leave them to it?

2) What temperature can I store them? Is room temperature OK?

3) How long will they keep for?

4) How is the best way to collect them (I read somewhere about putting them into a different container and putting paper over the top as they collect in the folds - should I do this?)

5) If I can keep them in the tubs they came in, do they need more ventilation?

6) There are old skins of mealworms in the tub. Is this normal? Do I need to remove them? Also there are white mealworms among them. Do these need to be taken out or does it mean they are immature or something?

7) Can I tip the whole contents of the tub into the Multi Feeder - bran, mealworms, skins etc?


Thanks

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Anthony Brain
David

I've been feeding mealworm for about 2 year (always the first thing to go in the morning). I put them in the fridge this makes them dormant and so cuts down the need to provide extra food. I have found that in most cases they will be ok for up to 6 weeks and so come aornud once you take them out.

Anthony

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tp20uk
Thanks Anthony

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helenol
I used to store the mealworms in the fridge too. regarding the bran,you can either separate the bran from the worms when feeding them to the birds, or just put the whole lot in together. The birds certainly don't seem to mind.

Don't worry about the old skins. Also, I used to just keep them in the bran provided. You can also buy small bags of bran, very cheap at pet shops, so that if you decide to buy a larger quantity of mealworms, you can separate them into different tubs and add the bran.

It's probably best, if you don't store them in the fridge, to keep them somewhere cool, such as the floor of a garage etc.

Good luck

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Mary
hi David
I keep mine on the floor in the porch (faces north so quite cold even in summer) in a washing up bowl so the sides are smooth and they can't climb out!
The white ones are more mature and on the way to the pupa stage, so I pick them out first. Mind you, even when they pupate, they are good food. It all takes longer when you keep them cool.
Mary

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Touty
They will breed when the adults emerge from pupae. They're white just after the moult and darken over a day or two. They have a long life cycle of c. 6 months at room temperature. I've kept a colony of mealworms going for more than a decade. Stick 'em in a big tub (big as you have space for) with 15cm of pet-shop bran, deep enough so that the critters (including adult beetles) cannot climb out.. a vertical wall of 3 or 4 cm is enough. The less dense the population the more of the eggs will survive to wormhood. Chuck in the odd apple core as an when you remember (not more than once a week). Supplying water in this way will make the worms develop more quickly as less of the carbohydrate in the bran is used to make respiration water. They can live with no water up to 30C or so but grow very slowly without it. Removing worms (to feed to birds) will improve survival of those that remain. They can be cannibalistic on the pupae (especially the beetles). If you get a really big vigorous colony you can also clean small skulls and skeletons OCCASIONALLY - just chuck the thing in and they'll strip it to the bones. :eat:

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Jeff B.
Some very good questions here. So approximately how many worms are in a tub and what kind of numbers will they multiply to in a given time (say 6 months). How long is the breeding cycle? And - do birds go nuts over them?

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Touty
See above Jeff. Life cycle averages 6 months (4 months in hot conditions, 8 months in cold). Mealworms can multiply 150-fold between generations. The more space the egg-laying adults have (i.e volume of bran, but not too deep) the more your worms will get close to this figure. High density colonies just maintain their numbers if supplied with food because many eggs are eaten.

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tp20uk
Thanks for the replies everyone! That helps a lot!

I am now keeping the mealworms in a dish with bran and a slice of potato. They aren't moving though!! They barely moved when I put some out and I thought they were dead! Now when I shake the bowl they barely move!

Are they dead or just sleeping?

Where are you keeping them? Store them in a cool place.

They are stored in the shed.

They may be in a torpid state then, if it's cold in the shed. Usually as they warm up, they begin to move around a little more.

Thanks Helen. That makes sense! So they are still safe for the birds?

Absolutely. In fact, because they don't wriggle about so much, there is less chance of them escaping over the edge of a dish, or whatever

The thing to watch out for, is when they start turning black. You will always get the odd one or two, the birds ignore these, but if the whole tub turns black, discard them.

Thanks Helen! I have a couple that are black at the moment! I must get rid of them then!