Hi, I want to start raising mealworms and some of my pupas have just started turning into beetles, I have about 14 beetles now I think but half of them are squirming around on their backs everytime I check. They dont really move around when their on their backs and when I turn them over they're alive but all the beetles are very lethargic and dont seem very active, compared to the mealworms atleast. They have oat bedding and I provide moisture with veggies. Is their unactive behavior normal? Thnaks., NAte
Mealie beetles do tend to be a bit clumsy. Once they turn fully black, they seem to get better at moving around but still have a hard time getting onto their stomachs. As long as they have a good food supply, www.cricketfood.com is the best, adequate moisture, space and temps (75-85F) then it all sounds perfectly normal to me.
Ya, the darker bettles definitly arent on their backs as much. One other thing, on many of the bettles the wings dont seem to be all he way developed, they're either short, dont cover the whole thorax or seem almost totally absent, while some are fully covering their backslike I see in the pictures. They dont seem to be having trouble, but it seems this would be a sign of a lack of moisture, though I'm putting in plenty.
Just out of curiosity, did you start your colony with Giant Mealworms? The last batch of mealies I ordered in were Giants despite what the company told me. I wasn't going to go through the trouble of fighting their claims. So I kept them anyway just to see what would happen and they took forever to molt. About 90% of them came out with the deformities you are describing.
super worms are different. mealworms can breed with many different foods/substrates. superworms liek higher humidty and do best in a soil substrate with a log for egg laying. for your mealworms. just keep in a couple vegies and a bunch of grains/seeds or whatever your using. be sure not to put too much veg in cause moisture leads to mold which becomes very unhealthy to us people.
Nobody said anything about superworms. I said Giant Mealworms, not King Mealworms aka superworms. Giant mealworms are regular mealworms that have been given a hormone to prevent pupating. But superworms need the same setup as mealworms, the worm bedding from cricketfood.com is the best, soil provides no food for them.
oh haha, my bad. superworms do far better on soil bedding for breeding purposes. soil and wood make for some super fast breeding superwoms, add the food to the enclosure.
No, I'm pretty sure they were regular mealworms, they pupated in about 1 week after I got them and they dont seem larger than the descrbed average sizes. The ones with open wings dont seem to be having much trouble, they just keep falling on their backs, which wouldnt even bug me accept for the fact that half of them dont squirm to try to get back up, which makes me think they're dead, but when I turn them back over the are alive. They just arent as active as expected they'd be after watching the always moving mealworms.
Well thats certainly odd, the wing deformities that is. I even had some that came out half beetle half pupae with no wings and super long abdomens. The ones I got in were over 1.5" inches long and as thick as pencils. Definitely not the average mealworm. But I'm totally stumped on the wing issue now. I wouldn't worry about yours though, just keep them hydrated and in a few weeks you should have tiny mealworm babies crawling around everywhere.
i am having the same wing issue.... it doesnt seem to bother them any, but it is a bit odd... .i def. know what you mean about them just hanging out on their backs and not doing anything... then being fine when u right them. Odd. I dont know.... also, I have a good 1000 beetles now... and a really dont see any eggs... i actually had to order more mealies which bugged me since i started off with 2000.... bah! lol. I still have yet to see any "baby" mealies... i wonder what is going on...?
Now that is very odd. Three different people experiencing the same issue. Now I'm curious as to what's going on since it's the first time I've ever seen it myself. The eggs you probably won’t be able to see unless you are really looking hard. The baby mealies are pretty tiny themselves but with that many beetles, you should have tons. You'll get the best breeding results when you keep them around 80-85F but they'll still do ok at room temps. They babies will just take longer to grow.
it seems to happen pretty regularly. i dont know but some of the reasons i thought it may be are touching and sqeezing the larva (i have seen many deformities in other beetles i pupated when i touched or handled them a fair bit. i assume that was the cause anyway. the other was as said perhaps humidity. and other mealworms/beetles biting disturbing the pupating beetles. just some guesses.
hm.... the beetles and mealies biting the pupae might be it.... where did you all get ur mealies from? maybe its a problem with the breeder we got them from? i recieved all of mine from wormman.com.... I am not buyign from them again for other reasons..... o! i have been finding quite a number of smaller superworm babies forming with the mealies.... wish the farm could keep them accurately seperated..... maybe the supers have been going around and irritating my pupae.... hm... lol, and cerus... they are being kept at room temp.... which at the moment... IS around 85! bah! lol. We have had a good 2 weeks of 80+ weather.... SO uncomfortable! lol. Hope the mealies are likin it!
I got my last batch from superwormfarm.com and won't be buying from them anymore because of the giant mealworm screw up. It's a shame since they had good prices but ignoring my direct question about them being giants...that's no good. My rooms temps are a cool 72F..brrrr...but it's dang hot outside though B)
My last order of mealies (from a few weeks ago) from superwormfarm.com seemed freakishly large as well. Most of them were a good 1.5 inches it seems like. And I too am having issues with my beetles. I started breeding mealies back in the middle of April. I had a ton of beetles from the initial batch, but I still haven't seen any evidence of babies. (I started breeding supers a few weeks after the mealies and I've started getting baby supers.) The beetles have even started to die off due to old age, which is what prompted me to buy more worms. The issue I have with the latest batch is the worms seem to be pupating before they should be. I'm finding pupae that are between 1/4 - 1/2 an inch, about half the size of my first batch of pupae. I also have 1 where only the front half of it made it to beetle form. The back half is still stuck as a pupa. All the caresheets I've read make it seem so easy to breed mealies, but I'm just not having much luck. I think I might try seperating the beetles from the worms when I have some free time, just in case the beetles are snacking on the babies.
Well it sounds like you're having the exact problem I did. Beetles that are half pupae, very large "normal" mealies and super small pupae. I don't think this is just random coincidences anymore. So either superwormfarm.com is trying to pull a fast one on us or there is an issue with mealworms in general like there was with silkies.
perhaps it is just changing over time, but i suspect it has more to do with chemicals and/or their environment. screwed up pupations are not uncommon among inverts. and we need to remmeber that we are inbreeding the stink out these beetles year after year....should it be genetic.
I've bred mealies for years and have never encountered this issue before. This is not how mealworms normally go through their life cycle. I don't know about others, but I know there are no chemicals or environmental factors that could have caused this in the last batch I received. Mealworms are one of the easiest feeders to breed, this isn't normal. If you actually read the past few posts you'd know that I and others have recieved mealworms far too large to not be Giants. Giants are given hormones to delay/prevent pupation and pupation issues is what we are having. Inbreeding doesn't affect insects like it does some mammals. Insects in nature breed in huge colonies and the chances of them even mating and reproducing with a relative is slim. You're talking thousands of parents producing 500 or more eggs over the course of several months. Take roaches for instance...you don't think they mate with an offspring? It doesn't seem to affect them considering how long they've been around, there's no reason to assume it would affect mealworms either. Even Leopard Geckos are severly inbred and there are very few abnormalities in them, at least negative ones. When several people are having the same issue with thousands of beetles, it's ignorant to just assume it's normal. I have no doubts that the deformed pupae and beetles are a result of the hormones given to make them giants. When a company specifically states that Giants should not be used as feeders and then tries to pawn them off on customers who didn't request them, they no longer deserve our business.
That is odd so many people are having the problem, but the ones with wing deformitites arent having any trouble, accept for the ones where the wing obstructs their walking, but I've only had about 2 like that. As more pupas turn to bettles I'm getting more normal ones, and they're all breeding, even the ones with the shortened wings. I think the bettles nibbling on them is definitly a posiblity, cuz temps and humidity are high, I handle mine only enough to move them from the worm container to the beetle container, and whether people say they think beetles eat the pupas or not they do. With the amount of beetles I have with the pupas I'm getting about 1 dead pupa a day and it usually has a hole in it. The other day I let the veggies go just one day without putting in new ones and when I looked in there were about 8 beetles crowded around one pupa and I could see their jaws eating it. However when I keep the veggies fresh daily the mortality rate is low so I dont worry about it. Krepoort, I'd definitly separate the pupas from the worms as soon as they pupate, cuz unlike the beetles the worms seem to prefer eating the pupas, I check for pupas every day and find about 1 or 2 which I move to the beetle contianer, if I dont check one day, I'll almost always find 1 or 2 dead ones along with the live ones.
"but i suspect it has more to do with chemicals and/or their environment." hormones being a chemical...i read your posts and that is why i think that they are pupating funny, you seem to as well. big mealworm breeders breed the same batches over and over for amny generations by the hundreds of thousands. its not like at home. but i still doubt it would be that, more than definatly chemical/environment.
