Mealworm Colonies

[RoxieFaye]

Hi guys! I have a few questions for those of you that raise your own mealworms.

Okay, I bought 1,000 mealies from www.reptilefood.com (http://www.reptilefood.com/) about a week ago because I wanted to start my own colony. I put about 1/2 of the worms in the fridge to save and feed to Quillson and our turtles and then put the other half in a large fish bowl with plain, dry oatmeal. Sound good so far?

I have been putting potatoes, carrots, and an occasional celery stick in there to keep moisture in the colony. I noticed a few of the worms turned white and started to mutate and then today I saw that the white worms were morphing even more. They are no longer worms, but little "alien" looking things. LOL. Do I take them out now and put them into a new enclosure or do I leave them in for a while longer? Also, they (the morphing ones) do not move very much... Is this right?

I also noticed that the mealworm colony STINKS! It has a really foul smell, but I also seem to be more sensitive to smells than most people so maybe it's just me (my brother and his friend said that it just smells like oatmeal), but I wanted to see if anyone else has noticed this or if I'm just being paranoid?

So far, my colony seems to be doing very well, especially for the first time. My worms have gotten HUGE compared to the ones in the fridge and they already seem to be morphing. I just needed these few questions answered

Thanks guys.

[ATL Hedgehogs]

Hello,

Sounds like you've done everything right. The mutated ones are pupating. They will turn into beatles which will breed, and lay eggs which hatch into more worms. The worms do have their own unique smell to them, just make sure there isn't any rotting or moldy food left burried in the meal.

[Sarah+Sonic]

Roxie, I have read that decomposing potatos can release toxins..I heard this from reptile people but I havn't verified/falsified ;) it. It cant hurt to remove the potato, though, and the carrots/celery are good choices of food/water

If anybody knows about the potato, let me know..thanks

[TYT]

I am researching this subject currently and most of the sites I have found say potato is ok. I am doing more research though to see if this is something I actually want to do. :)

[Sonic Da Hedgeh]

yup...there fine. They ain't mutating, that's just a type of cacoon.

[RoxieFaye]

Thanks so much guys. There isn't any rotting food in there, so I guess it's just the way the wormies smell. :)

I'm going to go to the store today and buy some bran cereal and see how that works for bedding.

I'm not sure about the potato... Everything I've read says that it's okay, but if you find out something let me know. :)

[TYT]

I just wanted to know what you are using for the primary "bedding" for the mealworms. Am I understanding right that they will also eat this bedding as in the oatmeal or baby cereal.

[PrettyHate]

I use bran cereal for my crickets (and the odd mealworm). I find it works very well.
The only problem I found when I was using it to keep mealworms in, was that it was often hard to distinguish the mealworms from the sticks of bran!

[RoxieFaye]

I want to try bran, but right now I'm using oatmeal and that seems to be working perfectly. I keep seeing more and more pupating wormies every day!! :)

I still need to know if you are supposed to take out the morphing ones now or just when they turn into beetles?

[Astis2Moms]

My understanding is you want to remove the little aliens (morphing ones) or the other mealies will munch down on them. Personally, we have a bin of oatmeal with mealies in it and Murf goes through it every night or two and seperates out the "aliens." Asti gets to eat some & some we leave to finish out as bugs. Now, once they become bugs, they've got to be back in the oatmeal mix for food & moisture. Personally, we don't do the whole life cycle thing, we just buy more mealies because Asti loves eating the buggies. I also read that throwing in a few peices of whatever hard food your hedgie eats (the dry cat food) to the oatmeal mix will make the mealies healthier. That's just what I read, I dunno for sure! LOL