Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Tonight while I was taking out my dead beetles, I noticed some tiny mealworms waaaay down at the bottom of the substrate. There are a ton of them! So I guess I'm on my way to keeping my own colony. Woo hoo!

My question is this. Is it possible for me to run a colony in a single enclosure without having to separate the aliens and beetles? How big would the enclosure have to be? I've heard of people doing this using kritter keepers, but I don't see how. They make it sound so easy, and here I am cleaning out the substrate every couple of weeks and separating the aliens and beetles into shoeboxes.

I'm only asking, because my mom will be taking care of my leos while I'm overseas next year. I want to make things as simple as possible for her.
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chickabowwow

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

Bathtub.
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-Marcus The Great
Owner, 1.1 Leopard Geckos (T^2)
Master, sotik.com
Photographer, imesho.com

>>Bathtub.
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>>-Marcus The Great
>>Owner, 1.1 Leopard Geckos (T^2)
>>Master, sotik.com
>>Photographer, imesho.com
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Andrea A.

Hi Xelda, I raise my mealworms in two 12 quart tubs for the most part though my number of leos is completely out of hand. As long as the colony doesn't go more than a day without a water source they seem to be fine without looking for 'aliens' etc. I do give a thorough going-over every 2 weeks and out of habbit I throw out dead beetles etc. every few days.

My mealworm colony is more a supplement than primary food source though. I'm ending up ordering 10k mealworms every 5-6 weeks now. Little piggies!!!

The only reason I really try to sort is so I don't throw out tiny mealworms along with old substrate. I try keeping beetles and aliens in the same container, with the second for growing mealies.

Now that I"m thinking about it, I shouldn't even be posting since I don't have a specific orderly system down yet! Bah!

One thought - If another family member will be caring for them for a long period of time it might be simpler for them to just buy a container of 500 mealies every so often and simply take care of the leopard geckos, rather than taking on your leos AND the mealworms.

Just out of curiosity, what will you be doing overseas?
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Andrea A.

I was thinking about using small superworms as a substitute for the mealworms, since they grow so much more slowly. I think I might just buy a few thousand superworms (the really small ones that're less than an inch long), then by the time they reach medium size, even my youngest leos should be able to take them. But it's still an idea. Frankly, I'd like to have the mealworm colony and the superworms available.

I'll be going to China on a study abroad program. It lasts four months, but I might stay a little longer to tour the country. I'm minoring in art history, so it'll really be fun to check out the museums there.
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chickabowwow

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