Picture borrowed from Enchanted Learning
Creating a colony of Meal worms
Just recently my husband and I got a bearded dragon who eats a lot of meal worms after many trips to the pet store and FWMA for said critters I thought how can I create a sustainable colony so we did not have to spend so much money. I started doing some research online and found out that meal worms is only the second stage of the Darkling beetle (Tenebrio molitor) and they are incredibly easy to take care of.
All you need is simple 2-3 stage set up right now I am using a 2 stage cage system. I started out with a tank that I filled with sand since the meal worms like burrow and hide. Their food source is just as simple I added potatoes (you can also use carrots) and newspaper for pulp (you can also use cornmeal, oats or wheat).
I did want to use a second smaller cage for the pupa stage but I have yet been able to catch them in that stage but you can use a small cricket cage such as the one on the right. When in the pupa stage they do not have to add sand and food to the cage this stage can last 2-3weeks up to 9 months in colder temps. My first 3 took less than a week and a half to break out of their shells. If you have the pupas separated from the worms you must keep a close eye out for the adults because when they break free they will start munching on the pupas who haven't emerged. Once you see the beetles you set up their habitat in the same way that you set up the worm cage and let them do their thing. The adults can start laying eggs as early as 4 days but could take up to 2 weeks to start laying eggs. A female can lay upwards of 500 eggs in her life time. The eggs can take 4-19 days to hatch you can transfer the new baby worms back into the first cage and let the cycle start all over.
As my colony expands I will add more information.
