# Medium live mealworms - keeping them



## ianinoz (Jul 9, 2011)

Bought a tub of medium worms today, this my first ever.

I've bought them to suppliment Lizzy the house skink's diet and to offer to her as treats and to make sure she doesn't go hungry if she can't find any cockroachs under the house furniture.

Separated them from the crumbly stuff they were in to count them, 200 +/- a few in a 50g tub. Will last Lizzy many weeks, probably a few months I think.

Split them into 2 lots, one lot to keep in the pantry in a bottle with 1/2 the crumbly stuff and one lot into the fridge in the remaining crumbly stuff for longer term storage.

My plan is to offer Lizzy no more 3 or 4 worms at a time and not every day, maybe 2 times a week in the cool months to make sure she doesn't starve, maybe 3 times a week in summer along with little bits of people food (diced chicken, lamb, fish, turkey, peas, grapes etc - all the things I know she likes) as treats two or 3 times a week.
She hunts down and catches her own food in the main.

IN STORAGE :

How long will the medium meal worms ones at room temp last ?

How long will the ones in the refrigerator last ?


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## damian83 (Jul 9, 2011)

i have kept them for weeks in a fridge out of the fridge unless its in a cool place they will probably spoil pretty quick


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## ianinoz (Jul 9, 2011)

damian83 said:


> i have kept them for weeks in a fridge out of the fridge unless its in a cool place they will probably spoil pretty quick


Thanks.

I'll try the first lot in the pantry - it's cool in there - I've dropped some pieces of raw carrot in with them.Someone on another board suggested this to give something to drink from.

The second lot I'll keep warm, again added some pieces of raw carrot the bottle - if they spoil - it's only a small batch (25 g or there abouts or about 100 worms).


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## ianinoz (Aug 5, 2011)

Bought another lot, a 100g tub this time and found 550 worms in the tub. 
Frozen 400 of them, the rest I'll keep for live treats. 

Found quite a few of the worms from the first tub were killed by their fellows, before I started adding carrot to tub for them suck on and munch on. A lot of them turned to pupii too. Kept the pupii , I'll feed the beetles to Lizzy when then emerge.

I wonder how mealworms work as bait for bream and whiting ? 

They are cheap enough and you get a stack of them to the tub.


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## D_flitton (Aug 5, 2011)

I put mine in the fridge and they keep for weeks and weeks


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## Jen (Aug 5, 2011)

What do you mean by 'spoil'? I breed mealies for my mice and gex, I keep them in deep oats mixed with corn cob bedding. I give them a slice of bread/hotdog roll, mouse pellets as well as carrot to drink from. Mice adore the pupae, and my female levis levis will take pupae from my fingers too.


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## GeckoJosh (Aug 5, 2011)

As Jen said they will be fine just on your shelf, but they will start to pupate within a couple of weeks.
If your lizard will eat them the pupae are imo actually better for them as they are easier to digest.
Also if you remove the pupae into their own tub of "crumbly stuff" (Bran) they will soon turn into beetles and lay eggs for you, just remember both the mealworms and the beetles will need a slice of carrot or broccoli on top of the bran as a water source.

I feel I should point out that sometimes when Iv bought a tub from a pet shop all the mealworms although looked fine for whatever reason were in fact dead.
Once brought to room temperature they went bad within a matter of a day or so.

Cheers Josh


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## bucket (Aug 5, 2011)

i got super worms from herp traders there twice the size of large meal worms and there easier to look after than meal worms


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## Jen (Aug 5, 2011)

bucket said:


> i got super worms from herp traders there twice the size of large meal worms and there easier to look after than meal worms


Super worms or king worms? Superworms are mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) made bigger using hormones and generally can't be bred. Kingworms (Zophobas morio) are not just big mealworms, but a different species and can be bred.


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## K3nny (Aug 5, 2011)

Zophobas mature slightly slower compared to mealies by memory as they require higher temps in general compared to normal meallies.

i've never fridged them, however pretty resilient things at room temp... as long as you remove dried out carrots/other veg once in awhile and possibly change abit of their substrate/feed as the moisture from their veg can create mould

if you want to feed something with less chitin, in addition to pupae newly shed meallies work a treat (cream-white grubs)

without a constant feed/water source i'd give em abt 2 weeks tops, which is pretty impressive considering... That is if their mates dont eat them first for moisture/food


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## Sofoula88 (Aug 5, 2011)

Hi everyone, I have a container I puchased about 3 weeks ago ..most of them have gone into the pupa stage..I also have a few questions, anyone know how long they will be like this for and can you feed them once there in the beetle stage or is the exo skeleton too hard? I wanna keep them as long as possible and possibly try breeding jst for fun..but I haven't really kept them cool or anything..I would of thought putting em in the fridge would kill them? =/ so best way to prolong life and let them tech there full stage is keeping em cool?


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## Jen (Aug 5, 2011)

Sofoula - putting them in the fridge slows growth. I have tried feeding beetles to my gex (newly morphed and still soft) but they spat them out, I think they might be too bitter. Mealworms are basic to keep and breed. Pupae stay pupae for about a week to 2 weeks, depending on the temperature.


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## Sofoula88 (Aug 5, 2011)

Oki dok, well I have them at room temp in a tub of bran,95% are pupa so I'll see how this goes as it's all new to me..I'll try feeding the beetles to my beardies once they emerge and see how it goes,if they don't like em then well..err I guess I'm gonna have alot of beetles =/ lol.. Thanks Jen


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## Jen (Aug 5, 2011)

Keep the larvae well supplied with fresh carrot or they will eat the pupae - as will the beetles. I keep the different stages separate.


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## GeckoJosh (Aug 6, 2011)

Sofoula88 said:


> Oki dok, well I have them at room temp in a tub of bran,95% are pupa so I'll see how this goes as it's all new to me..I'll try feeding the beetles to my beardies once they emerge and see how it goes,if they don't like em then well..err I guess I'm gonna have alot of beetles =/ lol.. Thanks Jen


If your going to feed them as they morph your better of just feeding them as pupae, much easier for them to digest and lizards love them!!


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## ianinoz (Aug 6, 2011)

D_flitton said:


> I put mine in the fridge and they keep for weeks and weeks


Our refrigerator is excellent at keeping meat and other perishables fresh, but I''ve discovered with my previous batch of mealworms it's too cold for them, most of the worms I put in it came out dead (it runs at <5 oC). Apparently under 10 oC is lethal to mealworm.
Plus my boss lady (wife) says she doesn't want live worms living in the refrigerator...so I guess that's that !!.

My first batch of worms that I kept at room temp (21-25 oC in my house) lasted a month, I still had about 50 left when I got the fresh batch , froze the last of them.


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## Sofoula88 (Aug 6, 2011)

Jen- yep am seperating them as soon as they start changing and will seperate the beetles once they change..I hear they can fly! o_o.. Gulp! Goldmember- yes I have fed most of them off but I would liketo keep them and try breeding a batch so I'm not feeding em all off.. My beardy loves them tho


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## Reptile_Lover (Aug 6, 2011)

Jen said:


> Super worms or king worms? Superworms are mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) made bigger using hormones and generally can't be bred. Kingworms (Zophobas morio) are not just big mealworms, but a different species and can be bred.


giant meal worms are the 1's feed on hormones, super worms are different to meal worms


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## Morgwynn (Aug 6, 2011)

When I was breeding mealworms for my birds, they seemed to thrive on neglect. I kept them in a 15L plastic tub (basically a click clack), filled the bottom with bran and tossed in vegetable peelings every few days. Didn't separate the beetles or pupae from the worms, I didn't seem to lose too many to cannibalism. If I had too many I stuck some in the fridge. They're incredibly easy to breed, mine went really well until I dropped the colony for winter (no baby birds to feed in winter). The pupae were awesome for teaching young birds to hunt live food. I'll probably get the colony going again in spring.

I never managed to get my giant mealworms (Zophobas morio) to breed. They need more space than I had. But my kookaburras had lots of fun with them! Also, giant mealworms can't be refrigerated and need to be kept warmer as they are a tropical species.


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## Sofoula88 (Aug 6, 2011)

I'm kind of curious why they become pupa so early on..I was expecting them to grow alot more before changing but they are still very small,and if mine are become pupa this small then how do you get em to grow really large?


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## Jen (Aug 6, 2011)

Reptile_Lover said:


> giant meal worms are the 1's feed on hormones, super worms are different to meal worms



Um, no. Check your facts.

Sofoula -my beetles have never flown, I keep them all in open tubs, they cannot climb the plastic sides and the only time I have found any loose in the house is when I left the sheet of cardboard I give them to hide under on a slant. They climbed it and several escaped.


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## GeckoJosh (Aug 6, 2011)

Sofoula88 said:


> I'm kind of curious why they become pupa so early on..I was expecting them to grow alot more before changing but they are still very small,and if mine are become pupa this small then how do you get em to grow really large?


When you buy mealworms from pet shops generally they are full grown and on the verge of metamorphose


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## Reptile_Lover (Aug 6, 2011)

Jen said:


> Um, no. Check your facts.
> 
> Sofoula -my beetles have never flown, I keep them all in open tubs, they cannot climb the plastic sides and the only time I have found any loose in the house is when I left the sheet of cardboard I give them to hide under on a slant. They climbed it and several escaped.


 i was always told giant meal worms are the 1's feed on hormones and superworms are different to mealworms, iv seen a few sites now all saying different, iv also read that giant meal worms wont pupate when together as they diff to a mealworm but i have some living together that are 100% giant meal worms and there have pupated together, didn't mean to say your wrong i'm just going off what iv been told and breeding them together witch imo would mean there are the meal worms feed on hormones.


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## Jen (Aug 6, 2011)

Reptile_Lover said:


> i was always told giant meal worms are the 1's feed on hormones and superworms are different to mealworms, iv seen a few sites now all saying different, iv also read that giant meal worms wont pupate when together as they diff to a mealworm but i have some living together that are 100% giant meal worms and there have pupated together, didn't mean to say your wrong i'm just going off what iv been told and breeding them together witch imo would mean there are the meal worms feed on hormones.



Not to be rude, but your post is really hard to read, try spell check and using more punctuation. As I have stated - mealworms = tenebrio molitor. Kingworms = zophobas moro. Superworms = mealworms made to grow larger using hormones which will generally sterilise them. Pet shops will tell you all kinds of drivel.


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## Reptile_Lover (Aug 6, 2011)

Jen said:


> Not to be rude, but your post is really hard to read, try spell check and using more punctuation. As I have stated - mealworms = tenebrio molitor. Kingworms = zophobas moro. Superworms = mealworms made to grow larger using hormones which will generally sterilise them. Pet shops will tell you all kinds of drivel.


super worms and kingworms are zophobas moro they are the same thing, giant meal worms are tenebric _molitor witch are meal worms, giant meal worms are the 1's feed on hormones, im not trying to start something hear i was just letting you know is all, i have found no facts on super worms being the 1s feed on hormones._


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## ianinoz (Aug 9, 2011)

Sofoula88 said:


> Oki dok, well I have them at room temp in a tub of bran,95% are pupa so I'll see how this goes as it's all new to me..I'll try feeding the beetles to my beardies once they emerge and see how it goes,if they don't like em then well..err I guess I'm gonna have alot of beetles =/ lol.. Thanks Jen



Just plain old unprocessed nothing added wheat brain OK ? 

(the same stuff you add to your cereal to get a fibre boost in your diet).


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## GeckoJosh (Aug 9, 2011)

ianinoz said:


> Just plain old unprocessed nothing added wheat brain OK ?
> 
> (the same stuff you add to your cereal to get a fibre boost in your diet).


Yeah the stuff that looks like saw dust


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## K3nny (Aug 9, 2011)

Reptile_Lover said:


> super worms and kingworms are zophobas moro they are the same thing, giant meal worms are tenebric _molitor witch are meal worms, giant meal worms are the 1's feed on hormones, im not trying to start something hear i was just letting you know is all, i have found no facts on super worms being the 1s feed on hormones._



perhaps you're both right? Common names ARE very easily confused, even more so when unknowledgable individuals are involved and they put them down as either one. As long as it makes a sale right?
Super worms tho is a term thats often used for both



Jen said:


> Sofoula -my beetles have never flown, I keep them all in open tubs, they cannot climb the plastic sides and the only time I have found any loose in the house is when I left the sheet of cardboard I give them to hide under on a slant. They climbed it and several escaped.



i should also point out that beetles do however have wings, even if they don't tend to fly i'd rather be safe than sorry



Jen said:


> I think they might be too bitter.



this comment made my day ^


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## Jen (Aug 9, 2011)

ianinoz - I personally prefer oats and corn cob mouse bedding as substrate - as this is very easy to sieve to remove worm poo, where the bran would mostly be lost through the sieve, the oats aren't.

K3nny - I'm glad to make you happy , and yep, the beetles do have wings and most likely can fly, I have just found that if they are given a sheet of paper or cardboard to live under, they don't seem to want too.

reptilewhatever - I see no point in arguing with you. In fact, there's a lovely quote about never arguing with you, try googling it....


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## ianinoz (Aug 9, 2011)

Jen said:


> ianinoz - I personally prefer oats and corn cob mouse bedding as substrate - as this is very easy to sieve to remove worm poo, where the bran would mostly be lost through the sieve, the oats aren't.
> 
> K3nny - I'm glad to make you happy , and yep, the beetles do have wings and most likely can fly, I have just found that if they are given a sheet of paper or cardboard to live under, they don't seem to want too.
> 
> reptilewhatever - I see no point in arguing with you. In fact, there's a lovely quote about never arguing with you, try googling it....



I'll try oats next time or corn cob gritty stuff if I can find it.

I hope the flowers like the old bedding stuff, it was getting a bit wiffy after a week and looked and felt like fine sand. I've sprinkled it all over the flower bed and plants there. (AFTER extracting the worms from it).


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## Jen (Aug 9, 2011)

ianinoz said:


> I'll try oats next time or corn cob gritty stuff if I can find it.
> 
> I hope the flowers like the old bedding stuff, it was getting a bit wiffy after a week and looked and felt like fine sand. I've sprinkled it all over the flower bed and plants there. (AFTER extracting the worms from it).


 The corn cob bedding I used to get from where I worked - it is lab grade rat/mouse bedding, but I only use it to bulk out the oats. I add a slice of bread or a roll along with the carrot and they love it, as well as a piece of cuttle bone - which is now gone. I sieve out my tubs onto the garden and it seems to grow like mad, so I haven't thrown a whole tub out, but I cannot see why the garden wouldn't benefit.


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## ianinoz (Aug 9, 2011)

That's interesting, never thought of tossing some bread or crusts in for them.

Wouldn't have thought they'd make any impression on a tough old bit of cuttlefish bone. I'll get some and break a piece off for them.


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## Jen (Aug 9, 2011)

Mine have eaten the whole cuttlebone except for the shiny bit. They love bread, wheatbix, etc, I also throw in mouse pellets, roses (from the garden when they are wilting) apple, old cereal etc.


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## GeckoJosh (Aug 10, 2011)

Be carefull using too much rodent pellets as I threw some in 1:1 with one of my old colony's and it killed them all within a few weeks


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## Jen (Aug 10, 2011)

Goldmember said:


> Be carefull using too much rodent pellets as I threw some in 1:1 with one of my old colony's and it killed them all within a few weeks



I only throw in a handful at a time.


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## Reptile_Lover (Aug 10, 2011)

Jen said:


> ianinoz - I personally prefer oats and corn cob mouse bedding as substrate - as this is very easy to sieve to remove worm poo, where the bran would mostly be lost through the sieve, the oats aren't.
> 
> K3nny - I'm glad to make you happy , and yep, the beetles do have wings and most likely can fly, I have just found that if they are given a sheet of paper or cardboard to live under, they don't seem to want too.
> 
> reptilewhatever - I see no point in arguing with you. In fact, there's a lovely quote about never arguing with you, try googling it....


 i was not arguing with you at all i was just telling you what i have read from over 10 different sites.


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## cwtiger (Aug 10, 2011)

I keep mine in the fridge they last for ever in there. Also feed them bran they love it. I used to have a axolotle until he passed away with old age and I forgot his food was there would have been there for like 6months and they were all alive and well. I fed them to the baby quails they loved them.


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## Klaery (Aug 10, 2011)

If you go into most Australian pet shops and buy "superworms" from a wide spread supplier you are buying hormone fed normal mealworms not morio


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## GeckoJosh (Aug 10, 2011)

danielk said:


> If you go into most Australian pet shops and buy "superworms" from a wide spread supplier you are buying hormone fed normal mealworms not morio


But the tub says no growth hormones are used?, is there a reason why I shouldn't trust them?


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## Klaery (Aug 10, 2011)

It says that on 'most' of the products, not all, Unless it has been changed recently  either way though you could claim it isn't a growth hormone haha, just a hormone that stops pupation. but yes they are definitely normal mealworms.


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## GeckoJosh (Aug 10, 2011)

danielk said:


> It says that on 'most' of the products, not all, Unless it has been changed recently  either way though you could claim it isn't a growth hormone haha, just a hormone that stops pupation. but yes they are definitely normal mealworms.


Yeah I agree they are normal mealworms but im more inclined to think they have been "line bred" to grow bigger than being influenced by growth hormones.
I have bred the "superworms" before and they have consistently produced mealworms the same size as the parents


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## Klaery (Aug 10, 2011)

Nope, I wasn't guessing  I'll pm you


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## K3nny (Aug 10, 2011)

Jen said:


> I'm glad to make you happy , and yep, the beetles do have wings and most likely can fly, I have just found that if they are given a sheet of paper or cardboard to live under, they don't seem to want too.



Very true, in fact most keepers who've kept meallies for years may never see them fly away. Only reason they ever do is if they need to search for food, and since we usually do feed them quite well there's really no point in investing the energy to do something pointless... just figured i'd throw in the info


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## Jen (Aug 11, 2011)

I just bought a 5 kilo bag of juicing carrots for my meal worms. I'm a little obsessed...


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## Sofoula88 (Aug 16, 2011)

Jen- a 5kg bag..jeez how many mealworms do u have..coz that's alot of carrots! Lolby the way guys.. Holy moly! My beardie Lola is soo fat,she totally loves the beetles!.. I think they prefer seinf the movement.. And that's what attracts them, I tried feeding off as many of the pupae as possible and now I have about 10 left..I also had about 8 bettles,some were barely classified as that..they were like half formed almost there but Lola ate em anyway..did I menchen she's so fat lol.. She's like a frigging garbage disposal..eats anything!.. She eats the fake plants,today she ate newspaper while trying to attack crickets..she ate all of those too.. And then I stupidly fed her the beetles thinking she may have 1 or 2..no she ate em all ,and then ate 2 pupae as well lol.. But she pooped before so I guess it's ok but I srsly think I need to put her on a diet.. And possibly build a little lizard treadmill lmao..

Oh also was wondering with the pupae if adding heat would speed up the morph process and if it's safe to give em some heat for an hr a day or if this is a bad idea..I dnt want to cook them lol


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## Jen (Aug 16, 2011)

I just have 2 tubs of mealies, 1 tub with beetles and 2 tubs of roaches. I also give carrots to the dogs - if I don't, they go and steal it from the tubs  Warmth should speed up the pupating process, a heat mat under the tub won't cook them. Or just keep them in a warm room. Just remember that mealworms and pupae are very high in fat and shouldn't be a staple but a treat, and as for the beetles, I would be careful of the chitin. (A lot of mine are munted too, they breed just as well)


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## Sofoula88 (Aug 16, 2011)

Chitin and munted?.. Gonna have to explain those ones for me... See everyone sys that fat thing but I dnt really think it's true,I mean they have more fat than a cricket but it's not an extremely high number..well I fed em mealies for a week and it didn't seem to have any effect, but now I'm back on the crickets thank god so basically jst been waiting for them to morph. I am feeding the beetles as soon as they emerge and are still white so there not too hard ..although I heard Lola eating em last night and it was jst crunch crunch! So I'll see how she goes with digesting em..depending how long it takes her to poop I'll know more how many I should feed


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## Jen (Aug 16, 2011)

chitin is the hard covering on the worms and beetles (pronounced kytin) munted means um, lets go with 'messed up'. I only feed the worms that are newly shed, since I have gex and not something larger


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## Sofoula88 (Aug 17, 2011)

So it's probz not a good idea to feed many?.. Do you think it will be ok to feed maybe 6-8 providing they have jst emerged.. I def don't wanna leave em til there black and their exo skeleton has hardened even more.. Lola really likes em and im thinking of getting more and doing the same thing all over again and basically feeding as a treat,but If ppl have had problems I don't wanna take the risk..I can def see the difference in feeding mealies as opposed to crickets.. When I feed mealworms there stomachs looks really bloated and they take longer to poop..and everytime they'd eat lots I'd have a massive panic attack after and proceeded to give numerous amounts of baths.. But I did feed em mealies for a week and they were ok ,I think thanks to the bathing but u can def see the negative impact it has on em..I dunno how ppl who only feed mealworms don't have Impacted dragons... Or maybe they do


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## Jen (Aug 17, 2011)

Maybe try sticking to the newly morphed beetles, and newly shed mealies, and keep the beetles that have hardened for breeders. Check also to see of the poop contains a lot of undigested chitin.


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## ianinoz (Aug 19, 2011)

I'm starting to get some pupae now, I'm fishing them out and putting them into a separate tub (the tube my first lot of mealworms came in - less the bedding).
Finding 2 or 3 pupae per day, I've got about 300 mealworms in the tub. I'm changing the bedding (Purina wheat meal) every week and putting fresh chopped up carrot in every few days (not letting the carrot go mouldy this time). Tried apple slices , don't think the mealworms liked the stuff. 

How long does it take for the beatles to emerge ?

I've not tried offering the pupae to Lizzy yet. If she turns her nose up at them no loss, I'll try offering her the beatles when they emerge or if I get enough viable pupae and beatles I'll use them to start a breading colony of mealworms.

What do the beatles eat ?


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## GeckoJosh (Aug 19, 2011)

The pupae take a week or two to morph into beetles.
The beetles I have found like to eat carrot and broccoli stalks


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## Jen (Aug 19, 2011)

You don't need to change the bedding, if you use a larger particle such as oats, then you can just sieve the worms waste out when you need too - I have several hundred in a 57 liter tub and sieve it out every few months.

Sofoula, there are a couple of pics of my set up on my fb page, if you feel like having a look


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## Sofoula88 (Aug 20, 2011)

Jen- yeh sure ,although I have originally bought like a 30g tub and now only have 5 beetles to use for breeding lol.. But I can still check it out coz if they breed I think I'm gonna have alot and need more containers.Btw has anyone got or does anyone use that 3 shelve plastic organizer thing.. I think I wanna get one o those..seems easiest

Jen- btw she digested the bettles well..she made a massive pooh lol but it was not err chunky and full of bettle parts that I noticed...actually seemed kinda better than when I feed her the worms,coz they always come out half digested.. I think it's because she dosent chew em she jst swallows and eats em up so fast..but with the beetles and other things she has more time to chew,so I still am only gonna feed as a treat I dnt wanna go over board but yeh now I kno what to expectalso what about feeding the larvae? They would be quite soft I imagine,and yeh pretty small but then again so are my pygmys..I might give it a go if/when there here..unless that's a bad idea?


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## ianinoz (Aug 20, 2011)

Jen said:


> You don't need to change the bedding, if you use a larger particle such as oats, then you can just sieve the worms waste out when you need too - I have several hundred in a 57 liter tub and sieve it out every few months.
> 
> Sofoula, there are a couple of pics of my set up on my fb page, if you feel like having a look



My wealworms are in a big round take away food tub (about 1/2 full of wheat bran), not progressed to a larger worm farm container yet. (Think I have about 300 worms in it, this is 1/2 my second batch, I took the trouble of buying a 100g tub and immediately separating and counting the worms (100g == 650 medium worms) and I froze 1/2 of them. 

I find that the carrots (that I cut into long chunks) start to go mouldy in about 3 days and since I think mouldy carrots killed a lot of my first batch of worms, I remove the carrots when they get wet/slimy to touch now. 

I'm keeping my worms at room temperature as my refrigerator is too cold for them, runs at < 7 C and I am not inclined to adjust the refrigerator's thermostat to enable me keep worms in the fridge (will mean food will spoil quicker and my wife does not want worms living in the fridge).

I find that the bedding gets smelly after about a week - 10 days and Lizzy doesn't like the smell of the worms when the bedding is smelly. She's got to be really hungry to accept smelly worms. I've had this batch with minimal losses at room temperature since the 4th.

I found I had a lot of cannibalism going on with my first batch of worms, they are like little vampires - sucked a lot of their mates dry. Only lost a few this way this time - nice carrot pieces seem to keep them happy.

So fsr I've fished out 12 pupae.

When my beatles emerge, I'll put them into a separate tub with some bedding (a thin layer) to lay their eggs in that I'll screen to remove all the fine wheat meal from - hoping that'll make it easier to extract the eggs, Else I'll just let the eggs hatch in that tub.

I've only one lizard to keep happy, my little house lizard Lizzy the Skink, and she'll never want more than 3 or 4 worms 2 or 3 times a week, she catches a lot of her own food under the house and inside the house and likes foraging on the kitchen floor for little bits and pieces. And I often put food treats on a take away lid for her to find (bits of diced BBQ chicken meat, bits of roast lamb, the occasional small seedless grape (cut in half), the occasional raw pea).
The mealworms and the occasional medium live cricket are treats and I am using them as a means of building my relationship with Lizzy (and to encourage her to stick around). So far so good and I've made a lot of progress with her, she now accepts food treats from my fingers, and allows me to stroke her and even hand surfs sometimes.

I've also plans on using mealworms as fishbait. Not sure how that'll go, but I suspect mullet, whiting, bream and yellowtail will like them, and I might find them OK for freshwater lake and river fishing species (bass and yellowbelly) ,so any surplus of mealworms wont go to waste. And they seem to freeze pretty good too.


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## Jen (Aug 20, 2011)

I can't understand why your bedding is going smelly, or your carrots mouldy - do you have a lid on the container? Have a look at the photos I put on fb (my profile is open so you should be able to). Also, the egg are miniscule, as are the newly hatched mealies, just chuck the beetles in a container with some rolled oats and when the worms are big enough move them over into a larger tub - this will take several weeks. As for the surplus - I feed extra pupae and worms to my mice, they go insane for them.


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## Sofoula88 (Aug 20, 2011)

Jen ur Fb is on private


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## Jen (Aug 20, 2011)

Huh, really? Bugger.


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## ianinoz (Aug 20, 2011)

Jen said:


> I can't understand why your bedding is going smelly, or your carrots mouldy - do you have a lid on the container? Have a look at the photos I put on fb (my profile is open so you should be able to). Also, the egg are miniscule, as are the newly hatched mealies, just chuck the beetles in a container with some rolled oats and when the worms are big enough move them over into a larger tub - this will take several weeks. As for the surplus - I feed extra pupae and worms to my mice, they go insane for them.



I kept my first lot with no lid, and a mouse or some mice raided them one night. Made a big mess. No it wasn't Lizzy who raided them, because they were on the kitchen bench (never seen Lizzy up there) and it happened overnight).

I have been keeping the lid on overnight ever since, even though I have not seen a mouse or any sign of a mouse in the house since Lizzy woke up from brumation.

Keeps the worms warmer overnight (they are very active at night and I've seen a few come close to escaping if the lid is off).

I'll have to get a bigger plastic container to raise and keep my worm farm in if I am successful at breading them.


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## ianinoz (Aug 25, 2011)

*First beatle*

25 aug

My first beatle "hatched" overnight. 

It's on a bed of ground then screened rolled oats (I removed the fines)and I'm going to try to keep my beatles separated from my pupae (in the same container but the pupae are in a smaller open container that I'm the beatles wont be able climb back into - someone here said they'll eat the other pupae given the chance).
I've some carrot chunks in the pupae / beatle container (in a low walled "dish" so I can avoid contact of the carrots with the rolled oats - hopefully if the carrot goes mouldy - it'll not effect the rolled oats if it's not in contact - I'll be taken the old carrot out and replacing it every few days to avoid mouldy carrots since I'm not sure if the beatles can tolerate mouldy carrots.


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## -Katana- (Dec 5, 2011)

I've had giant meal worms for a few months now and in that time i know they've gone through a few sheds as I'm always finding very pale individuals within the substrate.
It's actually a rare thing for me to find a shed skin unless I find a worm in the act of shedding so I'm left to believe that the worms eat them.

Has anyone else noticed this with their giant mealworms?


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