raising meal worms

[notacoshells]

I tried raising some mealworms. I have them on oats with a potato for moisture. I got alot of pupa and get a few everyday. They have already turned to beetles and are in another container with the same setup. I have had them for 2 weeks or maybe close to a month. I have not seen any larva and the beetles seem to be eating each other and some of the pupa. what should I do?

 

[sandrachameleon]

I tried raising some mealworms. I have them on oats with a potato for moisture. I got alot of pupa and get a few everyday. They have already turned to beetles and are in another container with the same setup. I have had them for 2 weeks or maybe close to a month. I have not seen any larva and the beetles seem to be eating each other and some of the pupa. what should I do?

Perhaps they are not getting sufficient moisture or nutrients? Consider an expanded substrate and using things like carrot, apple, and more in addition to the potaote.
Like this: https://www.chameleonforums.com/blogs/sandrachameleon/443-superworm-substrate-gutload-one.html

 

[jdog1027]

I use carrot as opposed to potato. Apple seems to be ignored- they just end up shriveling up before anything seems to be eating them. They like yellow squash too. You won't see any larva for a couple of weeks. They are super tiny. After about 3-4 weeks, you can take a tea strainer like the ones from a grocery store that looks like window screen and sift some oats out over a piece of white paper and you should see tiny mealworms about 1/8" long crawling on the paper.

 

[DavidBuchan]

The beetles love green leaves, and they live for ages if they get enough.....they will eat dark green leaves ahead of any other food except maybe meat........they won't canibalise if they have lettuce instead though
You should notice some tiny almost invisible worms soon, unless the beetles have eaten all the eggs, (but I'm not sure if they do that)...