Mealworm Colony 2015! [Picture Thread]

These post are from an old Archive!

Day#10- September 13/2014
I had these to feed the Salamanders but they pupated so I collected the pupae!
Lid for ventilation:

250-300 giant mealworms:

Food:

My secret stash of pupae:

I don't think I have posted any pics of the beetles here yet so here you go:

Might as well make this into a journal:

So I moved the beetles out of the mealworm substrate as there is a ton of babies, I can't wait till they are this size:

Here they are in their setup:


Here is their carrots:
(They have already reduced them quite well!)

I've setup a new Mealworm Beetle Flow Through System, I will share more in the future. It allows mealworm "frass" fall into the second tub but keep mealworm beetles in the top and always me to add food to the top. It should be fun to test the limits of it with a few mealworm beetles [about 20 the rest are still in the 2L setup!]

Finally some Pictures of the Setup!
The Setup itself:

In action:


I will get more and better pictures as we progress with the system.

Frass Level:

More Food!

Here are those pictures! Everything is going smoothly!
1 Day after being in the System:

Frass Level:

New Food:

Here is what things look like today:
Carrots:

Frass:

Here is the Flow Through:
Top:

Bottom Catch Bin [I don't keep It in there it's just to show how much they've made, it's full of babies]

Babies:

Something weird is happening, i found my first pupae already:

The mealworms themselves aren't even that big [or plenty]

Few pics:



Here is their food i will take another pic 24hrs later from that one.

These posts are from an old Archive!

So I've decided to start a little project, Mealworm Composting! I haven't exactly gotten the System up and running yet but I will get that started hopefully soon. I am going to use only beetles for this project since I need the mealworms for feeders at the moment for my Myrmica Colony. Here is the plan so far:

1- Get the mealworms into a Composting Container
2- Start slowly feeding them food wastes, such as Carrots, lettuce and such
3- Keep a tally of what goes in the bin [Sort of like an O.F.C. but not really]
4- Eventually find a way to make it work on a smaller scale [this one will be more medium sized]

Keep you guys updated!

O.F.C. Rules:
Rules
1- Once I start I can't Stop until Deadliest Catch is over! [It's tradition!]
2- If I get mold or other Issues I can't stop, even if the Mold wipes them out!
3- Must feed them every 3-5 days, If I miss a Feeding I have to do a Double Feeding for the next two Feedings!
4- No Cleaning out the Bin at all!

Day#3 May 5/2015- Season Opens! I have started Feeding the System, which Locks in place our rules. There was already considerable amounts of Frass for just a few days in the System, can't wait to see what it looks like at the end! I will be taking pictures and eventually posting Video Slide-Shows every Month or so to show the Progress. First feeding was fairly large for an O.F.C. 11 Pieces in Counting.

Total: 11 P.I.C.

Just in case anyone wanted to know I ended the Over-Feeding Challenge around July 14 2015. I did in fact end up getting to my Goal of 700+ Pieces In Counting!

Day#1- July 19/2015 I have just finished my First Over-Feeding Challenge with this Colony and have decided to do another one and keep complete track of what goes into it! Here is a short Photo-Slide Show of the Colony that I will be using for the Over-Feeding Challenge:

Link
I have already started feeding them, fed them 10 Carrots!

Total: 10 P.I.C.

Will keep you updated!

Day#4 July 23/2015
Fed the Colony another 10 Carrots they have been eating tons lately!

Total: 20 P.I.C

July 25/2015
Got some super bad news I have had a problem with condensation and now a bit of mold growth. I have to get all the mealworms out and restart. I think I have added too much carrots.

Here are a few Pictures of the Colony: