Setting Up Your Own Mealworm Farm

There is nothing that a chicken loves more than a nice fresh juicy mealworm. Don't believe me just drop a few in the pen and witness the happy clucking, manic chases and charming gallantry first hand!! Best of all, when kept right, they are a fantastic source of protein and nutrients for your birds especially when forage is more limited in the winter months. Also anyone who has had the pleasure to keep reptiles or amphibians knows that mealworms are a vital food source and can become quite costly when bought from the pet shop all the time.

Setting up and maintaining a mealworm farm couldn't be more simple. All you require to get started is the following kit....

3-4 good sized plastic tubs (I used ice cream tubs to get my colony started)

2-3 smaller plastic tubs (always worth having some spares)

Some big elastic bands

Some fine mesh fabric

Tweezers

Wheat Bran (or ground chicken feed as long as it doesn't contain diatomaceous earth) Some Carrots

Toilet Roll Tubes

Some Live Mealworms (I started with a kilo as I was using them as feeder items as well as growing my colony but I'd recommend no less than around 500g to ensure you get off to a good start)

OK so before you get going some important things worth noting...

1) Some of your mealworms will not make the full transition in to adult beetles. Its just nature and doesn't necessarily mean that you are doing anything wrong.

2) Mealworms are unfortunately cannibalistic they will eat almost anything and if there isn't enough fresh food they will quickly turn on each other as a new source of food/water. The same it true if there is over crowding in your mealworm farm. Why struggle through a mass of other worms to get to a carrot when your 7th cousin Sidney is sat within easy chomping distance and looking particularly juicy today?!!

3) mealworms don't drink. They get all their required moisture from the fresh food that you provide so no water dishes as they will only drown. Some people provide insect gel for water but from what I've seen the overall opinion is that this isn't necessary and can cause more problems than it solves in the long run.

4) The warmer it is (within reason - too hot and you will cook them) the faster your mealworms/pupa/beetles will develop so if you keep them in a nice warm room (somewhere you are comfortable to sit at length in normal indoor clothes) this will probably give you the best balance for developing a colony. The reverse is also true in that if you want your worms to stay worms for longer (as a feeder item) keeping them in a cold place like a fridge will keep them live and fresh for months (and doesn't harm them at all as it only simulates natural winter temperatures) as long as you remember to take them out once or twice a week to warm them up a bit so they can feed (this is not only kind but also keeps the nutrition levels high making them a far better food source for your pets)

5) You only get out what you put in! if you don't feed your mealworms enough nutritious food then they won't contain all the nutrients that make them so good for your pets. Rotten food does not contain as much nutrients and mold and dampness can quickly wipe out your colony. Fresh kitchen scraps and/or excess produce grown on your homestead work great.

6) Please remember that, although not cuddly or pretty to look at, mealworms are still living creatures in their own right. By using them as a feeder food you are simulating a necessary natural process of predator and prey (reptiles and chickens etc. in the wild eat bugs all the time as part of their natural diet) but it doesn't mean that your mealworm farm should provide anything less than ideal living conditions for your worms i.e. clean, dry, warm and with reasonable space and ample food/moisture. Their needs are so few after all it would be shameful not to give them at least that considering all the good and cost savings they give back to you.

OK so back to setting up your farm...

The way I have found works best for me is to separate each of the stages to minimize accidental loss. You will see what I mean by this as we go along. There are 5 parts to my mealworm farm...

1) The Worm Tub

*Optional Extra* The Pupating Tub

2) The Pupa Tub

3) The Pre-Hatch Tub

4) The Beetle Tub

5) The Grow Tub

As I said this is just what works for me and many people stick with just tubs 1,3,4 & 5 but i find that i have less losses this way and if you have kids at all (or this is a school project) it is a great way to visually teach them about all of the different stages of development in the life cycle of a Darkling (Mealworm) Beetle.

THE WORM TUB

Step 1. Make sure all your plastic containers are clean and dry before filling the first one with around 1-2 cm of wheat bran/chicken feed.

Step 2. Place a fresh carrot (whole or in pieces) in to the substrate.

Step 3. Add your worms (enough so they don't look lonely but not so many that you can no longer see the substrate - I normally aim for a half and half split of worms and visible substrate to give them enough space to move about)

Step 4. Cut a piece of fabric big enough to cover the container and secure in place with a large elastic band. (mealworms don't climb as such but their waste product (frass) is a very fine dust and over exposure to it can cause a severe allergy in some people so having the mesh lid creates a barrier to help keep things clean.

OK so this is your basic first set up of your 'worm tub' (feel free to pick a more creative name!!) Your worms will happily exist in here and only expect cleaning every couple of weeks (best done outside and with a sieve) until they have grown enough to make the transition to the pupa state.

*Optional Extra* THE PUPATING TUB

The pupating tub is the place where i put all of the sleepy worms that are on the brink of making the transition to pupa. You can tell a sleepy worm apart from the others as it curls up in to a loose C shape and almost stops moving completely. At this stage the sleepy worms are more vulnerable to predation by other worms as are the newly formed pupa before they develop their tougher shell. By separating the sleepy ones off I have managed to reach around a 75% success rate for healthy well formed pupas.

For this tub I just use a smaller pot like an empty cream cheese pot as is the case above. Sleepy worms don't feed as all their energy is on pupating but it is wise to put a little food in anyhow just in case you mistake a full worm for a sleepy one!!

When the pupas first form they are very pale white in colour so they are easy to see. Sleepy worms don't move around much so they require less space but it is still a good rule of thumb to stick with a thin layer of worms so you can find the pupas easily.

THE PUPA TUB

Once they become pupas they basically require nothing at all from you. Aside from the odd wiggle to show you they are still alive they don't do anything. They don't have mouths so feeding isn't necessary and other than taking out the unfortunate ones that die before they can hatch in to beetles its just a case of waiting and checking their progress.

THE PRE-HATCH TUB

As i explained above the pupa start out as a very pale white colour and as time goes on they turn darker. When they are about to hatch their eyes and legs take on an almost purple colouration as in the picture below and eventually just before hatching this purple darkens to almost black.

In my experience when you finally see the first purpling happen your pupa will hatch some time within the next 24 hours at most so at this point i move mine in to the pre-hatch tub. This is to ensure that any newly hatched beetles cant chow down on any of my new white pupas before I have a chance to move them over. This is also the reason I line this tub with a layer of food and place a piece of carrot in there just to be safe.

As you can see from the picture above when newly hatched the beetle has the same very pale colouration as the newly formed pupa and will over the next day or two darken to black.

THE BEETLE TUB

Once your beetles have hatched out their requirements when it comes to food, space etc. need to be looked to. I use a large approx 80-100 liter clear plastic box with wheels for ease as i have the space available to go for the larger option but as a rule of thumb you can have around 20-30 beetles in a plastic shoe box (remember they can easily chew through cardboard) quite comfortably. To the box you will need to add around 3-4 cm depth of substrate (chicken feed/wheat bran) this provides both food and bedding for your beetles.

Add to this a few empty toilet roll tubes and some scraps of fabric or tissue (for them to lay their eggs on as well as in the substrate itself) and a couple of carrots and your beetle tub is complete. In my experience it is better if you use the toilet roll tubes to raise the carrots up off of the substrate as this stops the substrate from becoming damp while still providing easy access for your beetles. Also remember that you need to provide a little ventilation at all times so the box i chose has some small high up ventilation holes already in it to save having to drill holes in the lid. These beetles are nocturnal so they don't at all mind being kept in low lighting (I keep mine on the top of my 'animal food' fridge downstairs so they are up out of the way as well)

THE GROW TUB

In time (approximately 2 weeks depending on temperature) nature will take its course and your beetles will start to reproduce. A female darkling beetle can lay 500+ eggs in her lifetime (1-200 per batch) Your beetles will live for between 1-3 months with their only focuses being feeding and reproduction before their life cycle is finally completed.

During this time you will need to change the substrate out once every 1-2 weeks both for the beetles health and to make sure that all of the eggs aren't consumed by the adult beetles. each time you clean them out tip the old substrate, tissue and tubes in to a large storage 'grow' tub. It takes between 1-4 weeks for the eggs to hatch but for the first few weeks of life the lava will be very hard to see as they are so small so just keep occasionally gently turning the substrate in your grow tub and keep a fresh carrot or two available for the little worms and over 8-10 weeks your lava will grow to feeder food size and eventually begin the cycle again providing fresh adult beetles for your farm.

A well tended to mealworm farm can last for many years and see countless generations of beetles so good luck!! :}

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