Culturing Mealworms
Meal worms are an easy food to culture. Basically a start them and forget them for a while type of critter. Small ones may be fed to fish and small reptiles, larger ones and pupae to medium-sized carnivorous fish, reptiles and amphibians. They can be a great live food treat for small rodents like mice and rats, pet birds and a scratch food for chickens too! The fastest way to get more mealworms is to start with a mix of larvae (worms), larvae and adult beetles. The adults will start laying eggs immediately so you will have young sooner. The larvae will transform later and provide more eggs and finally, the larvae will metamorphosis last to provide an ongoing egg supply. The eggs, of course are hatching into tiny worms that eat continuously. Expect to start harvesting large-sized worms in about 3 months, smaller worms sooner. Starting with 50 worms, in 3 months you can grow about 200-300 (plus pupae and beetles) if you only harvest lightly. Container A plastic box with a lid or large