# Breeding Mealworms



## CornSnakeLover (Mar 8, 2008)

Does anyone know of a way of breeding Mealworms.... 

Many thanks
Charlie


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## connor 1213 (Apr 6, 2009)

CornSnakeLover said:


> Does anyone know of a way of breeding Mealworms....
> 
> Many thanks
> Charlie


have a wee look at the sticky : victory:


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## CornSnakeLover (Mar 8, 2008)

I did and can only find 
"hot to breed waxworms"
&
"how to breed locus" 

or would it be under the careguides ?


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## kirstyink (Mar 6, 2009)

cant help a lot but i bred mine by accident.

i put them in a rub with a lot of bran and fresh cucumber i forgot about them and remeberd ... i looked a couple of weeks later and they were all beetles i decided to leave them and i check again another couple of weeks later and i had a lot of fresh lovley mealworms.


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## SleepyD (Feb 13, 2008)

CornSnakeLover said:


> Does anyone know of a way of breeding Mealworms....


some handy hints & tipe to be found here ~
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/feeder/143883-mealworm-life-cycle.html
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/feeder/372299-just-started-my-mealworm-breeding.html
and here ~
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/feeder/309321-how-breed-mealworms.html


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## Captainmatt29 (Feb 28, 2009)

I have been breeding mealies for a few months now, havent needed to buy any lately 

Although it dont half take a good few cycles to actually get a decent amount going...


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

kirstyink said:


> cant help a lot but i bred mine by accident.
> 
> i put them in a rub with a lot of bran and fresh cucumber i forgot about them and remeberd ... i looked a couple of weeks later and they were all beetles i decided to leave them and i check again another couple of weeks later and i had a lot of fresh lovley mealworms.


Where do you get these fast breeding mealworms?

Ii takes 2-3 months from egg to adult in all of my colonies!


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

messengermatt said:


> I have been breeding mealies for a few months now, havent needed to buy any lately
> 
> Although it dont half take a good few cycles to actually get a decent amount going...


You can get a good amount very easily. You just need to scale up.

When starting a new colony, I let a thousand mealworms turn to aliens, and then put them in a large rub with 8 kilograms of porridge oats.

In about three months, you'll be overrun.

I then just pick out what I need and the ones I miss turn to beetles and continue the cycle. 

I do use several hundred mealies/day though so this scale may be too much for a small collection.

You have however reminded me of something.....

*nips off to start his own thread....*


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## kirstyink (Mar 6, 2009)

Grond said:


> Where do you get these fast breeding mealworms?
> 
> Ii takes 2-3 months from egg to adult in all of my colonies!



ohhh got the claws out have we.

if you read it youd know it was just a tub of mealworms!

and like matt said it takes a few cycles to get a decent ammount its now been about 8 months and ive got loads on the go.


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

I got quite attached to my mealworm colony, till it was murdered :devil: Just leave them to it with some oats and bran, pick out the dead beetles, sorted. Throw a box of mealies into a 9l RUB and there we are.


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## Captainmatt29 (Feb 28, 2009)

Grond said:


> You can get a good amount very easily. You just need to scale up.
> 
> When starting a new colony, I let a thousand mealworms turn to aliens, and then put them in a large rub with 8 kilograms of porridge oats.
> 
> ...


Haha well yeah i am going to need a bigger scale one soon!, i must admit for me it took about 3 months to kick out enough for a weeks feed but now were doing well.

Got a good mix of aliens, beetles and mealies of several sizes and to think i almost chucked it out as it didnt appear to be doing anything.....

As mealies are like £2.95 locally here i am saving that every 2 weeks now....wait thats wrong i have 30 leos  so thats £2.95 every 3 to 4 days now


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

messengermatt said:


> Haha well yeah i am going to need a bigger scale one soon!, i must admit for me it took about 3 months to kick out enough for a weeks feed but now were doing well.
> 
> Got a good mix of aliens, beetles and mealies of several sizes and to think i almost chucked it out as it didnt appear to be doing anything.....
> 
> As mealies are like £2.95 locally here i am saving that every 2 weeks now....wait thats wrong i have 30 leos  so thats £2.95 every 3 to 4 days now


Yes it gets very expensive! That's why I started breeding my own.

Haven't bought any mealies for ages now!


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

kirstyink said:


> ohhh got the claws out have we.
> 
> if you read it youd know it was just a tub of mealworms!
> 
> and like matt said it takes a few cycles to get a decent ammount its now been about 8 months and ive got loads on the go.


Haven't got any claws!

I did read it and it doesn't make any difference whether it's a tub or not, the mealworm life cycle is about 3 months. You suggested 2 weeks from beetle to mealworm which doesn't happen. It was meant as a light hearted correction!

It _doesn't _take a few cycles to get a decent amount, you just need to start with a bigger colony. Starting with 1000 mealworms and 8 kgs of porridge oats, in 3 months you'll have thousands of mealworms!


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## Captainmatt29 (Feb 28, 2009)

Grond said:


> Haven't got any claws!
> 
> I did read it and it doesn't make any difference whether it's a tub or not, the mealworm life cycle is about 3 months. You suggested 2 weeks from beetle to mealworm which doesn't happen. It was meant as a light hearted correction!
> 
> It _doesn't _take a few cycles to get a decent amount, you just need to start with a bigger colony. Starting with 1000 mealworms and 8 kgs of porridge oats, in 3 months you'll have thousands of mealworms!


That explains the error i made lol, i got 1 tub and chucked them in there must have about 200 ish maybe less me thinks i need to increase yield and buy bigger porridge oats bags :whistling2:


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## kirstyink (Mar 6, 2009)

Grond said:


> Haven't got any claws!
> 
> I did read it and it doesn't make any difference whether it's a tub or not, the mealworm life cycle is about 3 months. You suggested 2 weeks from beetle to mealworm which doesn't happen. It was meant as a light hearted correction!
> 
> It _doesn't _take a few cycles to get a decent amount, you just need to start with a bigger colony. Starting with 1000 mealworms and 8 kgs of porridge oats, in 3 months you'll have thousands of mealworms!


like i said i did it by accident! i just put them in the spare faunarium i had and i forgot about them and a few weeks later when i rememberd i had a nice batch of fresh mealies.


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## Jill Glover (Jun 17, 2010)

*mealworms*

Hi - I have started a colony and I take out the pupae and transfer to another box and then when they turn into beetles I take out the beetles and put them in another box. After a week I sift out the beetle bedding and refresh the beetles. BUT the stuff from the beetle bedding has not yet produced any babies. Do I need to do all this? I was told that if I didn't do all the above the beetles would eat all the eggs. Can you help. Thanks, thanks, thanks 






Grond said:


> You can get a good amount very easily. You just need to scale up.
> 
> When starting a new colony, I let a thousand mealworms turn to aliens, and then put them in a large rub with 8 kilograms of porridge oats.
> 
> ...


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