Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought some giant mealworms a few days ago, and for the first time, they were red. Normally they are the color of regular mealworms. what did i get?

chris

Giant mealworms are regular mealworms that have been treated with an IGR (insect growth regulator hormone). This hormone makes them shed too many times, and grow to an abnormally large size. This extra shed (called instar) also screws with their "biological clock" so they can't pupate and become adults. This process was originally done to try and contol insect populations on "food plants", without insecticides, by making one generation of insects unable to reach adulthood and reproduce. It also makes them red for some reason.

The mealworms you bought before were called Kingworms.--They are an entirely different species, though very similar in appearance except for size. People often confuse the two "common" names for them and buy a different species by mistake.

Rodney

Ok, this interesting I have been buying "Giant Mealworms" from LLLReptile for my leopard geckos. Are those treated with a hormone. They pupate but I have never seen a bettle. I have them in the fridge so that may be why I don't see them get to be beetles?

I just don't want to be feeding hormone treated food to my leos!

First of all, don't worry about hormones being fed to your animals. This is a wives tale!

Hormones are complex protein molecules. They get torn apart by the stomach acids, just like any other protein. In order for your animal to have a problem with them, you would have to inject them directly into the blood stream, to avoid the stomach acids from ripping them apart. Also, insect hormones should not effect you gecko. These very complex molecules are designed to work in insects, not geckos. To influence your geckos health, in any way, you would need Leopard Gecko hormones, not mealworm hormones.

This has been studied quit a bit with cattle. Cattle are frequently given hormones to make them grow faster, larger, produce more milk, etc. Cattle hormones don't even effect people, even though we are both mammals. (Though there are many alarmists and hypochondriacs that will say different). I understand that experiments have even been tried injecting these hormones directly into people, and no results could be seen/measured. Ingesting hormones is no big deal at all.

When was they last time you worried about eating a piece of meat, because of the molecule structure of that particular protein?--Never, would be my guess. (I can't eat fish, the protein in fish will make me grow scales! LOL ) Alarmists can't say things like this, and make people take them seriously, but if they mention hormones, people who don't know any better will listen and believe.)

These alarmists really make me laugh.--what a bunch of fools. They will make the same nonsensical arguments about eating genetically engineered foods. (Though they conveniently leave out the fact that virtually everything we eat is genetically engineered by crossing different species or strains. Farmers have been doing this for many generations. This crossing is totally random, and has never been a problem, but when scientists carefully change just one part of a gene, it is now terribly dangerous? Since when is completely randomly mixing anything totally safe, and changing just one part, on purpose, and controlled, dangerous?)

As for the worms you are getting, I don't know exactly what you have without seeing them. Unfortunatly, commom names don't mean much. (King worms are Zophobas, and regular mealworms are Tenebrio molitor.) I raise king worms and regular mealworms by the thousands. I keep them at room temps. and they always pupate fine--turning into beetles. I suspect you must have the regular mealworms treated with hormones as King worms don't do well when cooled down.

Kingworms can basically just be thought of as "tropical" mealworms. They are larger, like warmer temps. (refrigerating them kills them), and need a lot more water. In fact, regular mealworms will do fine with just good humidity, but king worms need a water source to feed on.

Rodney