>>What do I have to do to setup a mealworm breeding colony.

>>

>>Does anyone know???



I have one set up in 5 1/2gal tank....though I am gonna move it to something bigger as it is now a necessity.

I tried starting my own colony but found I was committing a cardinal sin....I was cleaning the darn thing. So I got the colony started that I have now from a friend. But I have since worked it out.

What he did and I continue. Start with a good number of mealies so you aren't feeding off what you want to breed. I started a second colony by getting 5000 mealies from Reptilefood.com and dumping 1000 or so of them into their own tub (about 12X15X8d" and feeding from the rest. The breeders I gave a layer of eggcrate and some layers of papertowel that I mist down. I added a good healthy layer of stale breakfast cereals...(cheerios seems to work very well) and I add rolled oats and dog kibble and various others as it seems to need. I also toss in the stems from greens or a leaf of greens ever other night. DON'T clean it out! Let the layers build up and let the beetles do their thing. You will start seeing little babies in maybe a month or so after you have a good number of beetles. Don't let them get cool or too damp and you should be in business.....easy as roaches almost...not nearly as PITA as crix.
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Sonya

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• HOW CAN I SET-UP A MEALWORM BREEDING COLONY??? - cv768, Thu Nov 20 22:38:47 2003
• RE: HOW CAN I SET-UP A MEALWORM BREEDING COLONY??? - Sonya, Fri Nov 21 09:34:01 2003
• RE: HOW CAN I SET-UP A MEALWORM BREEDING COLONY??? - kenneth, Fri Nov 21 19:44:31 2003
• THANKS a bunch! n/p - cv768, Fri Nov 21 23:26:12 2003