Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If you reply to a specific question, please reference by number.

(1) Current mealworm substrate/food, from bottom to top: oats, honey nut cheerios (stolen from xelda), dry rice baby food, fish food. Carrots for moisture. Any ideas for improving this mix? Things I could add, for example.

(2) I really hate picking through the container, digging out dead worms, aliens, and such. Does anyone have any tricks or tips for more efficiently taking care of this? Work is quite busy, with current deployments and all, and that means less time to do the same stuff.

(3) Putting my worms in the fridge slows down their movements, but doesn't seem to slow down the rate they turn into aliens. Am I mistaken in thinking it should?

(4) The alien and beetles have their own container. Similar substrate/food as the mealworms, but I use bisquick (baking product) instead of baby cereal, since they have similar nutritional content..I use it with the beetles since I figure it's less wasteful than using the baby cereal on them. I also use carrots for moisture. All this seems to work a lot less successfully than with the mealworms. Any ideas on how to improve the quality of the beetle lives? (food/moisture) They ignore the carrots for moisture and choose to kill each other.

(5) Both the mealworms and beetles are in containers that're about 7"x14" (and 5" deep). It works fine for the mealworms, but I wonder if that's enough for the amount of beetles I have. How much room do beetles and aliens need? In the container I have about 35-40 beetles and about 30 aliens; I find about 5 new aliens a day, but about 5 are found dead in the beetle container, so it stays at about this amount. Some of the beetles are a little roughed-up, too.

(6) I found what appeared to be a brown-red mealworm beetle, except it was only 1/8"...is this a mealworm beetle?

(7) The beetles have this faint smell similar to spoiled peanuts. It's not strong, but faint smells bug me more than strong ones. What is this smell?

(8) Is this too many questions for one post? Should I have broken this up into several posts? lol
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-Marcus The Great

1) I'm replacing the baby cereal with 7-grain cereal, flax seeds, and amaranth seeds. You and I can take a trip to the natural foods store to see if they have 10-grain cereal, which will probably already include flax seeds. I still prefer to add more flax seeds than what's in the mix.

2) Get better at chopsticks, yo. It's a lot easier for sifting through the gutload for mealworms. That's what I use to pick up the mealworms, and it only takes me all of 10 seconds to refill one bowl.

3) I think the mealworms I gave you were already one or two molts away from pupating... so, next time I'll try to give you some younger mealworms. Or small superworms.

4) From my experience, it seems like the beetles are more interested in the fish food than all the grain-type gutload. I guess they'll have their meat even if it's by eating each other. Anyway, you only need to put a minimal amount of gutload in the beetle container. Keep in mind that you're gonna have a ton of baby mealworms in there.

5) I'm not really sure about this one. If the beetles had their way, they wouldn't be in such a small area. Then again, some types of bugs gather in swarms when it's time to mate. Just like that cloud of ladybugs I walked into that one day.

6) Show me the beetle tomorrow.

7) I don't know.

8) You know, you could've just asked me in person if you wanted to get me to talk. lol
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chickabowwow

3.2.3 leopard geckos (Rosie, Locke, Lisa, Caesar, Tommy)

(8) Yeah, like that works.

(7) Ok.

(6) Yes'm.

(5) Well, I gather that they wouldn't be together...at least not in that large an amount. Unfortunately, I'm not yet equipped to give them all their own separate beetle-condos. Unlike, say...you.

(4) I really can't tell what they're interested in, but I'll take your word. I have more than minimal, buyt I guess they'll have to deal with that. It'll give the baby maealworms something to munch on until I notice them.

(3) Yeah, the worms you gave me did seem to pupate quickly. But that's ok. Maybe I can get some baby mealworms outta the beetles. ^.^ Superworms could be the other option, if these beetles don't start makin' babies. :x

(2) I am better at chopsticks. > Getting them out and refilling the bowl isn't the problem. It's how long it takes to sift through and dig up dead worms, aliens, and whatever.

(1) You and I can take a trip to the natural foods store to see if they have 10-grain cereal, which will probably already include flax seeds. Maybe I can replace the baby cereal with something like 7-grain cereal, flax seeds, and amaranth seeds. *snickers* I dunno if I wanna get too complicated...it's gotta be at my level of comprehension, y'know.

I'd use bacon, if that worked. :f
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-Marcus The Great

My guess is that some part of your substrate is old or rancid. Oddly enough, some people lack the ability to smell rancid oil and so won't smell it at all. I'm curious now so maybe you or Xelda can post the answer tomorrow?

>>7) The beetles have this faint smell similar to spoiled peanuts. It's not strong, but faint smells bug me more than strong ones. What is this smell?
>>
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Andrea A.

I change the substrate every 2 weeks for both the worms and beetles, so it shouldn't be old or rancid; forther, since it's all dry I'm not really sure how it'd spoil. :/

I dunno. :$
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-Marcus The Great

Mealworn beetles are capable of secreting a foul smelling fluid when they feel threatened to discourage predation. If your beetles are killing one another the victim may secrete this in an effort to escape. Maybe this is what you are smelling? I don't know if you are familiar with darkling beetles (aka stink bugs), but mealworms are in the same family and the smell secreted by both beetles is similar.

-Alice

stink bugs? really? anyone else to verify this?

sotik - my mealworm bins also have that light smell... it's not strong at all but it bugs me too i also replace my gutload every 2 weeks and change the carrot every 3 or 4 days - everything's still dry... so i dont know what it is either

xelda & sotik - you guys are just too funny AND i agree with sotik that, whether you use your hand, a plastic fork, or chopsticks - it takes forever to sift through the gutload and work with what you need

[aimEe]

>>Mealworn beetles are capable of secreting a foul smelling fluid when they feel threatened to discourage predation. If your beetles are killing one another the victim may secrete this in an effort to escape. Maybe this is what you are smelling? I don't know if you are familiar with darkling beetles (aka stink bugs), but mealworms are in the same family and the smell secreted by both beetles is similar.
>>
>>-Alice
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0.1.0 Albino Leopard Gecko (Marlene)
0.0.2 Fire Bellied Toads (Norman & Forman)
0.2.0 African Dwarf Frogs (Hobo & Bobo)
1.0.0 Fighting Fish (Blue Balls)
0.0.2 Hermit Crabs (Kerby & Furby)
1.0.0 Black Lab / Pit Bull (Mikey)
aimee.i8.com

The family is Tenebrionidae, here's a webpage on them if you're interested; it gives identifying features and even lists mealworms as members:

http://eny3005.ifas.ufl.edu/lab1/Coleoptera/Tenebrionid.htm

-Alice

I'm glad I'm not the only one bugged by the smell, faint as it is. lol I clean every week or two, changing the carrots every couple of days, though they seem to disregard the carrots. I just wanted to see if it was normal, and was curious as to the source.

As far as xelda goes...she's big on the chopsticks-thing, and while that may or may not be easier for food, I think it'd be eaiser to use my fingers; I just wanted an easy way to sift the bottom stuff out. It's something to do, I guess. lol
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-Marcus The Great

That's interesting; I did not know that. It's not a stinky smell, and it's pretty subtle, but it could be the smell I identified, since the more there are the stronger it get. I wondered, briefly, if it was dead-beetle smell, but it didn't smell like decay, so I didn't think it was that.

Thanks.
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-Marcus The Great

Not sure if its any faster though I find it pretty quick - I use a strainer, large enough to go through all the mealworm substrate in 4 or 5 passes. After I filter a .. um... strainer full, I use hemostat clamps to sort 'dead stuff and trash', 'aliens', and mealworms to be returned. I only need to do a full cleaning every two weeks or so, and I spot clean every 2-3 days. Doesn't really take very long. Usually I put NPR on the radio and it goes pretty quickly.

>>2) I really hate picking through the container, digging out dead worms, aliens, and such. Does anyone have any tricks or tips for more efficiently taking care of this? Work is quite busy, with current deployments and all, and that means less time to do the same stuff.
>>
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Andrea A.

That's kind-of what I had in mind. lol I just felt silly asking if there was any sort of sieve or sifter I could use. lol

Basically I want something to separate the poder at the bottom from the good substrate, easily. As far as picking them out...well, using the fingers would probably be easier for me, than hemostats simply because I'm awkward with stuff like that. lol

I would never cut it as a surgeon.
(pun unintended)
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-Marcus The Great