I've been breeding Mealworms and I didn't even know it. Apparently a few mealies escaped my Savanah last time I fed him the worms and burrowed into the substrate. Well now, a few weeks later when I'm doing the deep cleaning, I remove all the substrate to find one beetle and a ton of mealworms of all sizes. From newly hatched to full adults and some that are turning white. (pupating?) Took em all out and seperated them accordingly. Put the beetle in one container and the white one in another until the white one turns into a beetle, then I'll put em together. Or maybe I'm stupid, is there different sexes in the beetles or if I put two males together by accident will one change into the opposite sex? (majorly confused here.) or are they A-sexual ?
Reptile & Amphibian Forums
Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.
Haha, Cool!
Replies (3)
you might need to wait for more beetles to grow/transform.
Not sure if they are able to change genders or if they need to but i know most sites have said that you need to have a lot of beetles for a good amount of breeding to happen.
But the white one is pupating (spelling sucks sorry) so somehow unwittingly you are doing something right.
-----
Later,
WhisQuila
Well, the shipment I got in today, of 1000 Mealies, has roughly 50 or so that are pupating, so it won't be long til I have alot of beetles handy.
If these "white ones" look like little alien things and wiggle their tails when you pick them up then yeah.. those are pupae cases.. If they're merely worms that are white and very soft.. those have just molted... As to the rest.. No.. the beetles do not change sex.. however.. there is no way to tell a male beetle from a female...but I'd hazard to say that the chances of more females than males is very good....Just wait a few days with those thousand mealworms.. and I'd say you'd have quite a few pupating on you. I ordered 2000 mealies to start my colony off and now produce over 2000 a month. Of course.. feeding off a little over 500 a week I have to. (leopard geckos get at least 10 a night...my rats get, between them all, the other 290 mealies. My females love them and they're good for extra protein)
-----
Lucien
1.0 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)
2.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzard and 1 het Blizzard)
0.1 Savannah Monitor
13 rats
12 Gerbils
2 Dogs
3 cats
1 Albino Corey (fish)
