CATDOLL : CATDOLL: I don’t want to keep mealworms anymore, what should I do with them?

1. What should I do if I don’t want to keep mealworms anymore?

1. You can use mealworms as feed to feed birds, scorpions, centipedes, geckos, snakes, turtles, bullfrogs, tropical fish and goldfish, etc. [Not only do they grow fast and have a high survival rate, but they also have strong disease resistance and greatly improve their reproductive capacity]

2. Edible, if you don't mind [it is a high-quality high-protein food, its content is much higher than conventional animal foods such as eggs, beef, mutton, etc., and it is easy to digest and absorb. It is known as the "king of protein" among insects.

2. What should I do if mealworms pupate asynchronously?

You need to breed worms from the same batch and sieve the smaller ones. The ones that come out will be basically the same. The emerged pupae will not eat or move. After they become adults, they will start to eat. You can feed them some mealworm skins, flour and a small amount of chopped vegetable leaves. I, Linzhou Changtong Mealworm Farm, hope that this will be helpful to you.

3. How to clean dead mealworms?

I usually let them crawl from the old wheat bran and insect feces to the place I prepared. What is left is the dead and the insect feces. If the host raises on a large scale, you may wish to take a look at the general disease prevention and control. 1. Soft rot disease This disease often occurs in the rainy season. After the disease occurs, the larvae move slowly, their appetite decreases, their feces are thin and clear, and finally they turn black and die. The cause of the disease is the damp air in the room, the stocking density is too large, and the excessive force during the cleaning of feces and transportation causes the insect body to be injured. When soft insect bodies and dead insects are found, they should be removed in time, green feed should be stopped, the leftover food should be cleaned up, and the indoor humidity should be adjusted. Mix 0.25 grams of chloramphenicol or chlortetracycline with 250 grams of wheat bran and feed them. 2. Dry rot disease After the insect body is sick, the tail and head dry up and develop into the whole body dry and die. The cause of the disease is that the air is too dry and the feed is too dry. Especially in winter, the air is dry and serious. Pupae are most afraid of dryness. With low humidity, pupae are very easy to die. The prevention and control method is to feed green vegetables in time during the dry air season, sprinkle water on the ground, steam, and set up water basins to cool down and increase humidity.

4. Where should mealworm pupae be placed and how to raise them?

The breeding and management technology of mealworm pupae

The development period of mealworm pupae is obviously affected by light and temperature. As the temperature rises, the development period of mealworm pupae shortens. In complete darkness, the development period of mealworm pupae prolongs. Under certain weak light conditions, variable temperature environment and suitable air humidity can shorten the development period of mealworm pupae and promote the early emergence time.

The pupal stage is the most dangerous stage for mealworms, and also the stage with the weakest vitality. Because the body is delicate, it does not eat and does not move, and lacks the ability to protect itself, it is easy to be bitten by larvae or adults. As long as the pupa's body is bitten by a small wound, it will die or emerge as a deformed adult, unable to lay eggs.

1. Hand-selected

Take an empty insect box and sprinkle a layer of wheat bran evenly on it; pick out the mature larvae (seed worms) from the breeding box, put them on the wheat bran, and feed them green fodder several times a day to supplement nutrition and water.

2. Tubing for pupation

Prepare a 6cm long PVC wire tube, or several small plastic cups, and put the selected mealworms into the pupation tube or cup to pupate together; during this period, the mealworms do not eat or move, but they are still consuming water in their bodies, so the pupation tray needs to be placed in a ventilated and dry place, not in a closed container, and it should be in a moisturizing environment, but not closed and too humid.

3. Concentrated feathering

When 70% of the insects in the pupation tray have successfully pupated, the pupae can be transferred to another breeding box for centralized pupation. When placing them in the box, do not place them too thickly, and it is appropriate to lay them in 1 to 2 layers. In addition, about 1 cm of wheat bran should be laid in the box. Because wheat bran is relatively soft, it can protect the pupae from being damaged, and it can also provide food after the pupae emerge as adults, reducing the chance of biting other pupae.

Do not turn or squeeze the pupa during the entire process of emergence. Pupae have strict requirements on temperature and humidity during emergence. The suitable temperature for pupae during emergence is 25-30 degrees Celsius and the air humidity is about 50 to 70 percent.

4. Sorting of Adults

Under the general temperature of 25-32 degrees Celsius, 90% of the pupae will emerge as adults after 7-10 days. Because the emergence time is inconsistent, if the pupae are not picked out in time, the adults that emerge first will bite the unemerged pupae, so the pupae and insects need to be separated as soon as possible. It is best to put the selected adults into a tray every 2 days to make them develop and reproduce synchronously, which is convenient for breeding and management.

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