# how do i breed meal worms



## cueball (May 24, 2005)

good day mates,,

ok here's the deal my oscar loves meal worms,,so i would like to try breeding them i was to the pet shop yesterday and this place sucks, they had half the meal worms they was trying to sell turning into beetles so i bought them..2.00 for like 3 doz,,, i got the rubber made boxs, now what do i do?

rember iam just doing this for fun( a little side hobby maybe)


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## blackmaskelong (Aug 18, 2007)

take a black one and a red one and stick them in the same box? lol


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

I'm not familiar with the breeding of mealworms, but from what I remember reading it's incredibly simple... Pretty much just throwing them into a container with the right substrate.

Take a look on Google. I did a quick search for "breeding mealwroms" and got tons of hits. I'm sure you'll find useful info.


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## tison 30 (Feb 29, 2008)

im not sure if u already started it or not but i got bored so

http://www.wormman.com/mealworm_breeding.cfm

http://www.chameleonsdish.com/insects/breedmealworms.htm


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Just move them to a seperate container and as long as it is warm enough they will breed but it will just take a bit before you get into the cycyle and start gettign babies to noticable size

you could also try super worms since they grow larger. I bred them last summer and it was easy. The only difference is you have to seperate the worms in order for them to pupate then turn to a beetle (then you reintroduce them to breed). You only have to seperate the ones you want to turn into beetles so the food supply can be kept together


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## cueball (May 24, 2005)

so about these super worms

could someone post a pic of the beetle they turn into i have never seen them


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## tison 30 (Feb 29, 2008)

idk how to post pics or i would


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## ChilDawg (Apr 30, 2006)

Mettle said:


> I'm not familiar with the breeding of mealworms, but from what I remember reading it's incredibly simple... Pretty much just throwing them into a container with the right substrate.
> 
> Take a look on Google. I did a quick search for "breeding mealwroms" and got tons of hits. I'm sure you'll find useful info.


Imagine if you'd searched for "breeding mealworms"...you would have wound up with tons more!


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## tison 30 (Feb 29, 2008)

get a 10 gallon aquarium or something with slick surfaces put like 2" of oats on the bottom add you worms feed them some carrots, sweet potato or apple every other day for the worms & beetles to feed and drink from (be sure to replace often to prevent mold). after a while it will turn into a beetle and she will lay several hundred microscopic eggs in the oats. They will continue this cycle as long as you keep them at room temperatures and provide the veggies when needed. There it is short and simple and i hope you understand that!


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

ChilDawg said:


> I'm not familiar with the breeding of mealworms, but from what I remember reading it's incredibly simple... Pretty much just throwing them into a container with the right substrate.
> 
> Take a look on Google. I did a quick search for "breeding mealwroms" and got tons of hits. I'm sure you'll find useful info.


Imagine if you'd searched for "breeding mealworms"...you would have wound up with tons more!








[/quote]

OFF TOPIC!!


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## ...Jay... (Nov 2, 2006)

I'm going to try this. I order crickets by the thousands for baby beardies anyway, so its no extra shipping to get a few worms. I got the small count ones though, so its gonna take forever to get a decient amount going. I got the regular ones, and the bigger ones ordered from lllreptile.com, and they should be here wendsday.


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## Mettle (Dec 29, 2003)

Don't be feeding mealworms to your baby beardies. Mealworms are not good for baby anythings. Too much of a risk for impaction. No where near guanrateed... But... It isn't worth it in my opinion.


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## ...Jay... (Nov 2, 2006)

^ nonono. Those are not for the babies. Those are for the adults, on occation, and me fishing. I think I ordered 30-50 of each.

I've read about how they have a "shell", that can be hard to digest, especially for young ones.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

cueball said:


> so about these super worms
> 
> could someone post a pic of the beetle they turn into i have never seen them


There really easy to breed and get much larger then meal worms (as well as having a thinner shell) making them ideal. In all their stages they look pretty much the same as meal worms with the exception of size. A super worm beetly will be about 1 inch long while a meal worm beetle isnt even half that

link to breeding page
I followed this method except not on nearly as large of a scale since i only need to feed a single bearded dragon. I only hatched about 50 worms to beetles to start then hatched more later (beetles dont live that long so you have to keep hatching more into beetles. You could probably easily get away with 20 beetles to start if its just to fees a single fish. You need somethign like film cannisters to seperate the worms. One worms per cannister. You can get them for free at a walmart camera section since they always throw them out.


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