Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently decided to breed my own mealworns and did plenty of research. I bought 500 (instead of the usual 1000) because I didn't want so huge of a colony. I only have 2 leopard geckos right now.

Anyway...to the point....

I didn't notice until later, but there were a couple dark spot on the walls of the plastic tub. As I was pulling out the worms, there were a couple that were very dark brown and squishy. Some were still alive and had dark brown spots. I threw out all the ones that had the spotting or were squishy...maybe 2 1/2 dozen. The next day I checked the worms again in their new home, and there were several that had turned dark brown and squishy...and some that only 1/2 the body was brown (nearly black). So I pulled those out...about 1 dozen. Today there are more...don't know how many.

I've never seen this in mealworms. Is the whole colony bad? I haven't feed any to my geckos. The feeder mealworms I have in another container have never had this problem.

The black mealies sound like normal die offs but the black spots on the side of the container makes me think you have mold. I had the same problem when I bred mealworms and accidently left some old fresh fruit in the bottom of their rubbermaid. I threw the whole batch out which was dissapointing because my colony was going really well.

When you do breed mealies again make sure to have enough ventilation and remove food every day and replace with new stuff to prevent mold.

good luck.
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1.0.0 Double Het Patternless Albino Leopard Gecko 'Yoshi'
0.1.0 Patternless Albino Leopard Gecko 'Miso'
1.0.0 Beagle 'Tigger'
0.1.0 Jack Russell 'Roo'
2.0.0 Guinea Pigs 'Millhouse and Ralph'
1.0.0 Hamster 'Fluff'
1.0.0 Husband

The black spots on the container were about the size of a pea, and didn't look like mold - they looked liquidy. It was in the container I bought them in. I have about 1 dozen die per day...does that seem normal? All the mealworms I've had prior had very few, if any die-offs. I'll increase the ventilation, and I already replace the fruit/veggies every day.
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Official Leopard Gecko Freak
My husband can barely keep me from bring home every one I see!

1:1 Leopard Geckos - Gilean and Aurora
2:0 Cats - Troi and Mitsu (shhhhh...don't tell them they're neutered!)
1:0 Husband - He's more work then all the others combined! Just about eats me out of house and home...but I love him anyway!

That's weird.. It never happened to my mealies, and they were never in the most ventilated of containers.

What do you have them feeding & bedding in?

Have you contacted the supplier and let them know what's going on with the mealies? It's quite possible that, since it's in the container the mealies came in, that it followed them...

~~Dusty Windom
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So Many Alleles, So Little Time...!
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~~The Gecko Barn~~