Medium live mealworms - keeping them

[ianinoz]

Bought a tub of medium worms today, this my first ever.

I've bought them to suppliment Lizzy the house skink's diet and to offer to her as treats and to make sure she doesn't go hungry if she can't find any cockroachs under the house furniture.

Separated them from the crumbly stuff they were in to count them, 200 +/- a few in a 50g tub. Will last Lizzy many weeks, probably a few months I think.

Split them into 2 lots, one lot to keep in the pantry in a bottle with 1/2 the crumbly stuff and one lot into the fridge in the remaining crumbly stuff for longer term storage.

My plan is to offer Lizzy no more 3 or 4 worms at a time and not every day, maybe 2 times a week in the cool months to make sure she doesn't starve, maybe 3 times a week in summer along with little bits of people food (diced chicken, lamb, fish, turkey, peas, grapes etc - all the things I know she likes) as treats two or 3 times a week.
She hunts down and catches her own food in the main.

IN STORAGE :

How long will the medium meal worms ones at room temp last ?

How long will the ones in the refrigerator last ?

 

[damian83]

i have kept them for weeks in a fridge out of the fridge unless its in a cool place they will probably spoil pretty quick

 

[ianinoz]

i have kept them for weeks in a fridge out of the fridge unless its in a cool place they will probably spoil pretty quick

Thanks.

I'll try the first lot in the pantry - it's cool in there - I've dropped some pieces of raw carrot in with them.Someone on another board suggested this to give something to drink from.

The second lot I'll keep warm, again added some pieces of raw carrot the bottle - if they spoil - it's only a small batch (25 g or there abouts or about 100 worms).

 

[ianinoz]

Bought another lot, a 100g tub this time and found 550 worms in the tub.
Frozen 400 of them, the rest I'll keep for live treats.

Found quite a few of the worms from the first tub were killed by their fellows, before I started adding carrot to tub for them suck on and munch on. A lot of them turned to pupii too. Kept the pupii , I'll feed the beetles to Lizzy when then emerge.

I wonder how mealworms work as bait for bream and whiting ?

They are cheap enough and you get a stack of them to the tub.

 

[D_flitton]

I put mine in the fridge and they keep for weeks and weeks

 

[Jen]

What do you mean by 'spoil'? I breed mealies for my mice and gex, I keep them in deep oats mixed with corn cob bedding. I give them a slice of bread/hotdog roll, mouse pellets as well as carrot to drink from. Mice adore the pupae, and my female levis levis will take pupae from my fingers too.

 

[GeckoJosh]

As Jen said they will be fine just on your shelf, but they will start to pupate within a couple of weeks.
If your lizard will eat them the pupae are imo actually better for them as they are easier to digest.
Also if you remove the pupae into their own tub of "crumbly stuff" (Bran) they will soon turn into beetles and lay eggs for you, just remember both the mealworms and the beetles will need a slice of carrot or broccoli on top of the bran as a water source.

I feel I should point out that sometimes when Iv bought a tub from a pet shop all the mealworms although looked fine for whatever reason were in fact dead.
Once brought to room temperature they went bad within a matter of a day or so.

Cheers Josh

 

[bucket]

i got super worms from herp traders there twice the size of large meal worms and there easier to look after than meal worms

 

[Jen]

i got super worms from herp traders there twice the size of large meal worms and there easier to look after than meal worms

Super worms or king worms? Superworms are mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) made bigger using hormones and generally can't be bred. Kingworms (Zophobas morio) are not just big mealworms, but a different species and can be bred.

 

[K3nny]

Zophobas mature slightly slower compared to mealies by memory as they require higher temps in general compared to normal meallies.

i've never fridged them, however pretty resilient things at room temp... as long as you remove dried out carrots/other veg once in awhile and possibly change abit of their substrate/feed as the moisture from their veg can create mould

if you want to feed something with less chitin, in addition to pupae newly shed meallies work a treat (cream-white grubs)

without a constant feed/water source i'd give em abt 2 weeks tops, which is pretty impressive considering... That is if their mates dont eat them first for moisture/food

 

[Sofoula88]

Hi everyone, I have a container I puchased about 3 weeks ago ..most of them have gone into the pupa stage..I also have a few questions, anyone know how long they will be like this for and can you feed them once there in the beetle stage or is the exo skeleton too hard? I wanna keep them as long as possible and possibly try breeding jst for fun..but I haven't really kept them cool or anything..I would of thought putting em in the fridge would kill them? =/ so best way to prolong life and let them tech there full stage is keeping em cool?

 

[Jen]

Sofoula - putting them in the fridge slows growth. I have tried feeding beetles to my gex (newly morphed and still soft) but they spat them out, I think they might be too bitter. Mealworms are basic to keep and breed. Pupae stay pupae for about a week to 2 weeks, depending on the temperature.

 

[Sofoula88]

Oki dok, well I have them at room temp in a tub of bran,95% are pupa so I'll see how this goes as it's all new to me..I'll try feeding the beetles to my beardies once they emerge and see how it goes,if they don't like em then well..err I guess I'm gonna have alot of beetles =/ lol.. Thanks Jen

 

[Jen]

Keep the larvae well supplied with fresh carrot or they will eat the pupae - as will the beetles. I keep the different stages separate.

 

[GeckoJosh]

Oki dok, well I have them at room temp in a tub of bran,95% are pupa so I'll see how this goes as it's all new to me..I'll try feeding the beetles to my beardies once they emerge and see how it goes,if they don't like em then well..err I guess I'm gonna have alot of beetles =/ lol.. Thanks Jen

If your going to feed them as they morph your better of just feeding them as pupae, much easier for them to digest and lizards love them!!

 

[ianinoz]

I put mine in the fridge and they keep for weeks and weeks

Our refrigerator is excellent at keeping meat and other perishables fresh, but I''ve discovered with my previous batch of mealworms it's too cold for them, most of the worms I put in it came out dead (it runs at <5 oC). Apparently under 10 oC is lethal to mealworm.
Plus my boss lady (wife) says she doesn't want live worms living in the refrigerator...so I guess that's that !!.

My first batch of worms that I kept at room temp (21-25 oC in my house) lasted a month, I still had about 50 left when I got the fresh batch , froze the last of them.

 

[Sofoula88]

Jen- yep am seperating them as soon as they start changing and will seperate the beetles once they change..I hear they can fly! o_o.. Gulp! Goldmember- yes I have fed most of them off but I would liketo keep them and try breeding a batch so I'm not feeding em all off.. My beardy loves them tho

 

[Reptile_Lover]

Super worms or king worms? Superworms are mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) made bigger using hormones and generally can't be bred. Kingworms (Zophobas morio) are not just big mealworms, but a different species and can be bred.

giant meal worms are the 1's feed on hormones, super worms are different to meal worms

 

[Morgwynn]

When I was breeding mealworms for my birds, they seemed to thrive on neglect. I kept them in a 15L plastic tub (basically a click clack), filled the bottom with bran and tossed in vegetable peelings every few days. Didn't separate the beetles or pupae from the worms, I didn't seem to lose too many to cannibalism. If I had too many I stuck some in the fridge. They're incredibly easy to breed, mine went really well until I dropped the colony for winter (no baby birds to feed in winter). The pupae were awesome for teaching young birds to hunt live food. I'll probably get the colony going again in spring.

I never managed to get my giant mealworms (Zophobas morio) to breed. They need more space than I had. But my kookaburras had lots of fun with them! Also, giant mealworms can't be refrigerated and need to be kept warmer as they are a tropical species.

 

[Sofoula88]

I'm kind of curious why they become pupa so early on..I was expecting them to grow alot more before changing but they are still very small,and if mine are become pupa this small then how do you get em to grow really large?