Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi.
I've been raising mealies for a few months now, and have several 'generations'. I was starting to do another beetle cleaning this morning, and I've realized its quite the chore.

When I clean the beetles out, it takes forever to get all the live ones. Then the dead ones are very hard to get out

What does everyone do to get all the beetles out? What do you all do with the dead beetles/eggs?

Any help or advice with the beetles-eggs stage of breeding would help me out alot. Thanks

Michael

>>Hi.
>>I've been raising mealies for a few months now, and have several 'generations'. I was starting to do another beetle cleaning this morning, and I've realized its quite the chore.
>>
>>When I clean the beetles out, it takes forever to get all the live ones. Then the dead ones are very hard to get out
>>
>>What does everyone do to get all the beetles out? What do you all do with the dead beetles/eggs?
>>
>>Any help or advice with the beetles-eggs stage of breeding would help me out alot. Thanks
>>
>>Michael

I have to admit to just not cleaning the tubs. I tried it at first and wound up getting rid of eggs or just pissing them off and they didn't reproduce as well as if I leave them alone.
Sometimes when I want to sort out a couple hundred worms at a time I run them over a fine screen, but that is it.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

I have several different screen sieves with different size mesh and I use them to clean and sort the bedding and worms. I don't move the live beetles from one bin to another except to put them in the breeder bin. When it has lots of beetles and definitely once I am seeing tiny worms in it I quit adding the beetles to that bin and start a new breeder bin. I remove the dead beetles as I find them and eventually the breeder bin becomes the brooding bin for the tiny new mealworms and the beetles begin breeding in the new bin. Using this method I have one bin with beetles, one with nice sized worms and one with baby worms. I just keep rotating them through the bins. When the older worms start changing to pupae I sift out the fine stuff which removes the frass as well and this will eventually start the process over again when the last of the worms morph and this becomes the beetle bin.
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Marcia - FroggieB Dragons
www.froggieb.com/MHDHome.html

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