![]() ![]() This stage will last for two to three weeks before hatching. While dormant, they are transforming into adult Darkling beetles. These critters will molt their exoskeleton several times before they reach the pupa stage at around three months of age.ĭon’t be alarmed – the pupas might look like dead mealworms. After an average of twelve days, the eggs hatch into larvae known as mealworms. They extract the nutrition and water they need from the grain that they live in.Īdult female beetles can lay up to five hundred eggs during her lifespan of five to six months. Mealworms are the larval stage of the Darkling beetle insect. These critters are typically found in dark, dry places like flour or stored chicken feed. You can grow your own mealworms for a fraction of the cost and know that you’re doing your part in the earth-friendly farm-to-table movement. Mealworms are a healthy, nutritious snack full of protein. ![]() Want to try your hand at starting your own home mealworm farm? Any dead or discoloured ones must not be used as they can cause problems such as salmonella poisoning.Are you thinking about growing your own mealworms? It is very important that any mealworms fed to birds are fresh. If you want to start new colonies, prepare another tin and transfer some bits of dry bread (these will carry beetle eggs) from the flourishing colony.Replace the bread, potato and cabbage as necessary. The beetles will lay eggs which hatch into mealworms and so on.After a few weeks the mealworms will turn into creamy pupae, then into little black beetles. Introduce two or three hundred mealworms into the prepared tin.Keep the tin at room temperature, not in hot sun. You can put a raw cabbage leaf on top if you like. Put a slice or two of bread and raw potato, followed by another two layers of sacking/bran/bread/potato, like a three-decker sandwich. Punch small holes in the lid for ventilation, place a layer of old hessian sacking in the bottom and sprinkle fairly thickly with bran.It can become quite expensive to constantly buy mealworms, so you might want to grow your own.įor a constant supply of mealworms, prepare a large circular biscuit tin as follows: ![]()
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