3 tier meal worm breeding method

How to breed meal worms using the 3 tier method

What you will need (every thing listed is inclueded in the kit i am selling on ebay)

The top trey is cut out and meshed so the beetle eggs will filter down into the lower trey. This stops the eggs from being eaten by the beetles.

1- secure 3 tier unit
2-mealworms
3-oats
4-tweezers
5-gloves

Setting up the tower
If you are not using one of the kits im selling on ebay you will need to cut out the bottom of the top trey and replace it with a strong mesh and use a glue gun to secure the mesh.

If you are using a kit just pour some oats in the top and middle treys for sub strait and food. also add a moisture source. This can be a vegetable or fruit like apple or tomato, you can also use bug gel.


Beetles go in the top draw

 Each female beetle will lay around 500 eggs! Eggs hatch after 4 to 10 days depending on temperature.

Mealworms in the middle

The mealworms will pupa within 3 weeks if given enoth food and warm temperature.

Pupa at the bottom

Pupa will take around 5 to 10 days to complete metamorphosis and become a beetle!.

Now your set up is ready. When you have enoth beetles laying you will have mealworms in no time. They are very hard to spot when just hatched but can be seen with the naked eye. They will grow very fast when fed a good diet.

This set up and easily supply all the mealworms 1 to 3 bearded dragons need.

You can also selectively breed your own type of mealworm beetles as is is not uncommon to get a beetle that's extra large or small or differently coloured.

You can alternatively rotate the middle and bottom trays every 2 weeks for more mealworms! Just keep the pupa in another container till they hatch.

Guide on how to easily pupae morio worms (Zophobas Morio) (Lots of beetles)

Zophobas Morio

Intro

To get Zophobas morio larva known as superworms or morio worms to pupae, They have to be separated from each other before they begin the process. They also have to be at least 2 months old.

The process takes around 3-4 weeks to complete metamorphosis from adult larva to beetle once separated.

Below is a cheap and easy way to do it.

What you will need

1-Tape (any tape will do)

2-tweezers (optinal)

3-plant seeding trey (must be deep) 

4-adult morio worms.

The process

The holes must be patched on the inside and taped over on the outside both longways and width ways to secure the planting tray.

 Put each worm in there own pod. Feeding is not needed as they have all the energy they need to complete metamorphosis at this size.

When done each worm should be secure in its own pod. i have only done 8 but it is very easy to scale up this system to produce 100s or more!

After 5 days

some of the worms are starting to curl up, this is how we know its ready to pupa and will look like a white alien in a few more days.

2 Weeks 

The worms will be mostly pupa.

they darken and there legs and eyes become highlighted as they near the beetle stage of there life cycle.

When they have pupated they have to be put in a more secure container as beetles might be able to climb out of your trey! 

3 weeks+

Your beetles will start hatching.

They will be light colored for a week or so before turning black.

Mealworm diet (what do mealworms eat) (mealworm diet)

DIET
The diet of a mealworm beetle is wide and varied and they are not fussy eaters requiring a specific diet. Darkling beetle and mealworm diet can be broken down in to 3 sections. Carbohydrates protein and moisture.

Carbohydrates- Bread oats and nuts are recommended as the main source of carbs for the insects. They should also be fed vegetables for extra carbs and micro nutrients.

Protein- The most overlooked part of any insect diet is protein. Many insect keepers make the mistake of giving no protein source whatsoever, this mistake leads to cannibalism and egg eating as well as less egg production and laying.
I would recommend dry or wet cat or dog food. If the food is dry it will need to be crushed first. You can also use nuts, soybeans and or milk powder.

Moisture- Insects can get all of there moisture from vegetables. I would recommend cucumber as the best source for this but almost every vegetable can be used but you should avoid citrus and acidic fruits. You could also mist to keep the insects more healthy. Bug gel could also be used but can be expensive. Bug gel will eliminate food moulding.

Mealworm and darkling beetle life cycle

LIFE CYCLE
The Tenebrio molitor beetle has 4 life cycle stages. The time spent in the egg, larva and pupa can vary widely depending to diet humidity and temperature.

Egg- The egg stage lasts between 4 and 20 days. If the eggs are kept in the fridge or at temperatures below 10c the eggs will remain dormant and will not develop until temperatures rise.

Larva- 4 weeks or longer. The larva stage is the longest stage of the beetles life cycle. The time spent in this stage is mainly dependent on diet and temperature. The larva are known as mealworms.

Pupa- Pupa look like white aliens and are immobile while they complete metamorphous. The pupa can wriggle. It can take as little as 6 days for pupa to hatch into beetles depending on temperature and the diet they ate in the larva stage. Pupa should9 be removed from larva and beetles to avoid being eaten.

Beetle- The beetle stage can last up to 8 weeks and not much longer. The beetles sole concern is eating and mating. They are most active at night. Each female beetle can lay serval 100 eggs in over the 8 weeks they live.

Basics of cricket breeding

Intro

A femail cricket will lay around 100 eggs over 20 days after mateing with a male cricket. The female cricket lays ueing its omniposter. The omniposter looks like a stinger but is completely harmless and only uses the omniposter to lay eggs underground where they are safe from predators. 

The male crickets are easily identifyed beacuse they have no omniposter and will rub there wings to gether to make the well known cricket chirping sound.

How do female crickets lay eggs?

After a femail cricket has mated with a male cricket they will find loose soil to lay eggs in. They will not lay in sand or compacted soil. When they have found a suitable spot to lay they will stick there omniposter in the ground and deposit a egg or 2, they will repeat this process until  they have layed around 10 eggs in 1 day.

When will the eggs hatch?

If kept between tempritures of 20 to 30 degrees Celsius the eggs will take between 8 and 20 days to hach in baby crickets known as pin heads. Take care to not let the soil dry out by spraying twice daily. Incubate in a secure plastic tub to avoid crickets escaping. Crickets cannot climb plastic or glass.

Recommended breeding practices 

When breeding crickets on any scale I would recommended using tubs with loose soil in them with a mesh on the top of the tubs to avoid egg eating by the male crickets.

I add the soil trays to the cricket enclose and leave overnight. I then move the trey to a incubator.

Incubators are not needed but can speed up the process.

You can produce around 200 pin head crickets every 20 days with only 10 female crickets!

Intro to mealworm breeding set ups and kits

BY HIGHGRADEINSECTS10 @ EBAY

INTRODUCTION
The Tenebrio molitor beetle is common all over the world and can thrive in most environments.
The larva of this beetle are called mealworms.

Mealworms are one of the most common insects used to feed reptiles, birds, fish and for fishing bait. Mealworms are also very commonly ate by humans outside of western countries.

Larvae typically measure about 2.5 cm or more, whereas adults are generally between 1.25 and 1.8 cm in length.
The metabolism of the insects can be slowed down by keeping them in the fridge. This method is used to stop the larva from pupating into beetles as the larva are more nutritious than the beetles.Mealworms are high in protein and its nutrient content is comparable to beef.

Why produce your own mealworms?

Mealworms are very easy to breed and require almost no maintenance. They do not smell and are completely harmless.

Given the price of mealworms selling at 2.95 per box at big pet store chains there is big savings to be had producing your own. You could also make money off them if you scale your production up and sell them online.

Wriggling mealworms are also the beast way to lure birds and small mammals like hedgehogs into your garden.

Mealworms are also interesting to watch and are very active. They are also surprisingly good claimers, a fun thing to do with mealworms and there beetles is to put some honey on the end of a twig and watch them climb up for the honey!

Try our basic starter kit for only £9.99
I am selling a complete starter kit on ebay with every thing you need to start producing your own mealworms. The kit comes with a 3 tier meshed bin to separate eggs,pupa and beetles with tongs, gloves, food and mealworm care booklet.

See listing here!

Diet

The diet of a mealworm beetle is wide and varied and they are not fussy eaters requiring a specific diet. Darkling beetle and mealworm diet can be broken down in to 3 sections. Carbohydrates protein and moisture.

Carbohydrates- Bread oats and nuts are recommended as the main source of carbs for the insects. They should also be fed vegetables for extra carbs and micro nutrients.

Protein- The most overlooked part of any insect diet is protein. Many insect keepers make the mistake of giving no protein source whatsoever, this mistake leads to cannibalism and egg eating as well as less egg production and laying.

I would recommend dry or wet cat or dog food. If the food is dry it will need to be crushed first. You can also use nuts, soybeans and or milk powder.

Moisture- Insects can get all of there moisture from vegetables. I would recommend cucumber as the best source for this but almost every vegetable can be used but you should avoid citrus and acidic fruits. You could also mist to keep the insects more healthy. Bug gel could also be used but can be expensive. Bug gel will eliminate food moulding.

Thanks for reading! Please follow this blog for more posts daily.

Intro to cricket breeding setups for home production of crickets

Crickets can be easily bred in large numbers in a small space quickly and easily.

The main use of crickets is for the feeding of various pets including reptiles,

birds, heghogs, frogs, fish and many more.

Why breed your own crickets?

A box of crickets cost £2.95 at big pets store chains in the uk for around 20 to 30 adult crickets. 

These store bought crickets are not fed in-store and many are often dead in the box.

When crickets are not fed a good nutrishios diet they will not provide good nutrishion for your pets leading to health problems and shortened lifespans.

• Save money
• Make money
• Interesting hobby
• Learn about insect biology and habits 
• Fun project
• Crickets make interesting and active pets

Probloms with cricket breeding

The main reason people do not breed there own crickets is the maintenance 

and smell of the crickets. I have designed original products I am selling that solve these 2 probloms and save people time and money when feeding pets.

The smell can be elemenated by using mesh instead of plastic and using a trey to collect the cicket mess.

A set up like this will not need much matance at all, you will just need to add egg laying trey filled with soil for the crickets to lay eggs in and empty the mess trey once a week. Apart from that just add food!

Diet

The diet of a mealworm beetle is wide and varied and they are not fussy eaters requiring a specific diet. Darkling beetle and mealworm diet can be broken down in to 3 sections. Carbohydrates protein and moisture.

Carbohydrates- Bread oats and nuts are recommended as the main source of carbs for the insects. They should also be fed vegetables for extra carbs and micro nutrients.

Protein- The most overlooked part of any insect diet is protein. Many insect keepers make the mistake of giving no protein source whatsoever, this mistake leads to cannibalism and egg eating as well as less egg production and laying.

I would recommend dry or wet cat or dog food. If the food is dry it will need to be crushed first. You can also use nuts, soybeans and or milk powder.

Moisture- Insects can get all of there moisture from vegetables. I would recommend cucumber as the best source for this but almost every vegetable can be used but you should avoid citrus and acidic fruits. You could also mist to keep the insects more healthy. Bug gel could also be used but can be expensive. Bug gel will eliminate food moulding.

Please see my other posts for more info on breeding crickets and other insects!

All products featured and blog content original by High Grade Insects