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I have about 100 mealworm beetles right now... and a lot more coming (I'll prolly end up with about 600 eventually). Anyway, How long does it take for them to produce mealworms? Is there anything I should be doing special BTW? I've raised mealworms plenty of times in the past, but this is my first time with trying to produce my own... Is there any special kind of medium I need for the beetles to lay eggs on/in or will they just lay them in the oatmeal?
thanks!
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0.0.3 Whites tree frogs
0.0.1 Blizzard leopard gecko
0.0.1 Argentine Black and White tegu
0.1 Tremper leopard gecko
0.1 Het. tremper leopard gecko

Hi how are you doing?
So your raising mealworms right well welcome to the club.. First of all what type of mealworm your raising plays an important role in what to feed them your standard mealworm which does not go over 1" and 1/2 keep them in a cracked wheat/barley substrate and you can put a layer of burlap over it and they will lay there eggs on that but a week or so after they turn into beetles and there shell is black they will start to reprodude and lay eggs which you will probably not see unless you get a magnifying glass. moisten the burlap occasionally.
The super mealworms /beetles need more moisture to survive off so when they are full grown beetles put a few pieces of potatoe in with them and they will eat that instead of each other. Microwave the potatoe for 3 minutes and 30 sec and cut it let it cool and put it in with them. thats the formula i use and it works great.
DoubleDS

so do the beetles go ontop of the burlap or between the substrate and burlap (burlap covering the beetles)?

these are standard mealworms...
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0.0.3 Whites tree frogs
0.0.1 Blizzard leopard gecko
0.0.1 Argentine Black and White tegu
0.1 Tremper leopard gecko
0.1 Het. tremper leopard gecko

I just put the beetles in a bin of chicken layer mash and let them go at it. I always have thousands of worms of all sizes. I feed them slices of apple, orange, summer squash, and carrots just like the worms themselves. They die off very quickly if you don't give them fruits & veggies so make sure they do have fresh foods and that they are removed before they mold.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

groups.yahoo.com/group/agamid/join
(click the link to join the agamid group on yahoo)

with that method, how long does it take to get visible worms?
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0.0.3 Whites tree frogs
0.0.1 Blizzard leopard gecko
0.0.1 Argentine Black and White tegu
0.1 Tremper leopard gecko
0.1 Het. tremper leopard gecko

I've really never tracked it but they are slow. I would guess 3-4 weeks you may see movement but the worms are so tiny that you have to really look for them. Since I have had my colony going for about 4 years I usually have worms of all sizes so I don't really pay attention to time frame.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

groups.yahoo.com/group/agamid/join
(click the link to join the agamid group on yahoo)