Hey everyone,

I haven't posted in awhile but believe me I am always on here reading the other posts.
Sunday I got my first batch of live mealies I decided to try them on my little girl since she didn't like the canned mealies I got for her before. Well she loved them so now I want to start my own mealie farm. I have 2 questions about this. The first how many mealies does it take to start off and second what is the minimum size container I would need?

Thanks,
Racheal

Here are a couple of good post on mealworm farms:

More farm questions!
mealworm farm info

I don't know the exact answer, but I bought my first tub of 500 a short while ago. Hard to believe 500 can fit in this teeny (maybe cup-sized) plastic container.

www.wormman.com is a good site for finding out how to grow your own mealies.

I have been using aquariums with oat bran (found in cereal aisle at grocery store) and adding sweet potatoes, apples and other fruits/veggies to give the mealies the moisture needed.

I have a couple of pictures to show you.... these are rectangular shaped 'zip-lock' containers not quite the size or Party's which is shown in one of the links in that Katty posted for you...

Farm containers

Beetle container

By the way, I do not use any gut load, I feel that the extra calcium or herptivite interferes with the 'proven' diet ca:p ratios.... as one of those posts indicates, and also use only 'Oat' products for your bedding.

Yay! Another worm farmer! Farming is great! You'll save so much money.

cycy, I have lots of babies now! Thanks again for all of your guidance!

Man, Party you are an inspiration to even me!!!!!

Hey Racheal, I agree with Party, you WILL save lots!!

Wow just went to that site. I can't believe i spend $3 on 30 medium meal worms when i could be getting 500 for $10. I may have to look into this farming thing. So how many gliders do you all have? My only concern is that i just have my one little girl. Will i be swimming in mealworms up to my eyeballs?

I would say that 500 worms would be a great start! You'll want to keep some in the fridge for feeding. I found that my feeder worms lasted for months in the fridge. If you ever get too many worms you can always freeze them too. I started out with about 1,000 worms and only two gliders. I did not farm all of them, but I am all out now and I just ordered some more to keep my farm going. Hope this helps!

cycy,

Woo!! Party!! That's a lot to start for just two or even one!!! Phew!!

I now have 9 gliders, and when I started the farming, I only had four... I started with 100 in one bin, then about 4 weeks weeks later, I started another bin of 100.

The second bin were some of the mealworms that I placed in the frige that went into stasis or dormant where they did not grow or molt very much. When you place the worms in the frige, please take them out once or twice a week to allow them to hydrate and eat, leave them out for half the day, or longer. I place a piece of lettuce in with mine, as lettuce is of no nutritional value but is full of water.

Also, remember..... Female beetles can lay up to 275 eggs each..... That's a lot a mealworms!!!

I've had my farm going for a while now, through trial and error.... I have many many many mealworms!! I find it an interesting cycle of life they live... pretty short lives.. the longest cycle is the mealworm or the larvae stage. As they molt their exsokeletons, they grow each time, they will molt many many times, 9 to 20.... on an average...



Exactly!!!!

Can you EVEN imagine the size of farm I'd need to keep a dozen suggies happy???

Still and all the same, I'm going to start "growing my own" too. I mean I just ordered 3,000 from Grubco for $39.00, but I think I'll take a few hundred of them to start up my own farm.

Thank you, Cycy, for writing out the step-by-step "farming for dummies" instructions! Now all I need is a printer to make a hard copy for reference....that's what the Internet at work is for, right?

Thanks for posting that. I've been wondering. I haven't fed mine since I brought them home. I guess they're sound sleepers. They're on the counter now, waking up with lettuce.

I presume you dump them in another container to eat? Do they crawl out (up) the plastic walls of various containers? Mine are in a deep rubbermaid container, with plastic wrap on top, full of punched holes for air.

I just lay a piece of paper towel on top and the lettuce on top of that.. . and they seem to find the moisture from the lettuce... quick too, it's gone in no time!! It's sort of awsome to watch them eat all intermingled together on the same piece of lettuce....

Ah, okay. So not a wet paper towel, but a dry piece of paper towel, and the lettuce on top of that... No need to transfer to another container.

The pet store packed them in sawdust. I'm reading oatmeal should be used. Is there any danger with using the sawdust? Well, too late for me now, if that's the case! I'll switch over to oatmeal before I put them back in the fridge.

Okay, I haven't yet transferred them over, but I have their container ready with the oatmeal. They're all real squirmy now, after having been awake and feeding for almost a day.

Short of touching each one (which is not a viable option for me yet ), and I don't have worm-safe tweezers (that won't squish them), how do I separate them out of the sawdust they're currently living in so I can put them in their new bedding?

I use a plain old kitchen strainer like what you'd use for washing vegetables, fruit, etc. The sawdust sifts out if you shake it and your now-dizzy mealies are left.

Thanks! That's sort of what I figured, but wanted to make sure.

Yep, sorry Katty, I just read this..... I do the exact same thing that mattysmom does.. I have a couple of different sized strainers for changing out the smaller ones from the farm.....

I just wanted to say to everyone for helping me with my questions!! I am now definitly going to start my Mealie Farm within the week. I can't wait until my worms get here. I already have the containers and bedding. So now all I need is the mealies. I hope everyone has a Grreat week!!

Thanks again,
Racheal