Raising Mealworms

[wolverine]

I have raised mealies for around 15 yrs. now. Get a start from a buddy, bait shop, or pet store. Put them in a plastic 5 gal.(I use 2 1/2 gal.) bucket. Put a container of dry oatmeal in it and a few handfuls of some grain feed for livestock. Take a rag and wet it then squeeze most of the water out and lay on top for them to get some moisture. Not too much as you don't want to get mold started. An apple or potato sliced in half every 3-4 weeks will really fatten them up. It takes months to establish a good colony and have some in every stage of life cycle. Eggs-worm-larvae-beetle. After laying their eggs the beetles will die off so just pick them out as you see them after they die. I've never had any get out of my 2 buckets over the years and my buddy that I got my start from has had his going since the early 70's with no escapees. We both keep them in our basements with no covers on them. Just have to watch out for any spiders to set up home in your bucket. Good luck.

[SPADED]

i have seen alot of threads on wax worms and here and vids on youtube.com but i have never seen any set ups on mealworms... would you be able to post some pics? i think it would be good to have a batch of both growing at once! next year i am goingto start both i hope. too late in the season to try now, i would just have a house full of bugs in the summer if i tried now!

[Waynesburgjay]

I started a batch back in late spring and I'm on my second go-around in the life cycle.  I was hoping I would have some of the pupae for ice fishing but it might not happen for another month soI'll try some of the worms instead.  They are easy to raise and I use them all summer to catch gills for catfish bait.

[wolverine]

I'll try to get some pics. As I said it takes 5-6 months to get a decent start going. I mostly use the worms as I would guess there is probably close to 6000-7000 min. in my 2 buckets. I've never had enough pupae to just use them for bait as need to save most to keep my breeding stock going.