Thank you for waiting so long! At last, here’s how we raise mealworms, these little wriggly creatures.
A box with a vented lid
First, get a plastic box. With the lid simply closed, the air runs out, and insects need air, so you need holes. But with open holes, the adult beetles just walk out. They don’t fly, but they run fast. So I cover the holes with netting.
I drill holes here and there. (Ao, out of the way — it’s dangerous! …Oops, I made a mistake.) For the netting I use window-screen material sold in rolls. It comes in nylon and aluminum; mealworms are likely to chew through nylon, so buy aluminum. Don’t handle the cut edges much — they come apart.
To fix it on, I use blunt-tipped screws (machine screws, as they’re called in the US). The plastic is soft, so the screw pokes straight through; then twist the nut on from the back by hand. Do every spot and — ta-da! A well-ventilated lid. Ao, what do you think? Not interested.
Bedding and the life cycle
Here in the US, mealworms live in wheat bran — soft and fluffy. Keep it under 15 centimeters deep, or the ones at the bottom can suffocate. Tip in a store-bought pack of mealworms and they dive right under.
The larvae turn into white pupae, then into adults like these. One day pupae will just appear on the surface of the bran; leave them alone. I think the adults are a kind of beetle, and they’ll eat almost anything, including the bran, and they lay eggs. Adults need more moisture than the larvae, so I put chunks of potato on top, and they gather round to drink.
Since I already have colonies, I add about half of one, with every life stage. The little black specks are droppings; clean them out now and then, though a little is fine.
Then mostly leave them be
After that, it’s nearly hands-off. Root vegetables like potatoes and carrots reportedly work well: about two pieces a week for a box this size. Use a case that closes snugly, keep vegetable pieces small so they don’t mold, aim for around 25°C, and keep the box in the shade — in the sun they’ll all die.
Eggs keep hatching and growing up in the box, like a little ecosystem, so the mealworms never run out, and the bedding and food cost almost nothing. We started with a single pack of 50, and now we have about a dozen boxes and supply four stores. If you’re not scared of bugs, give it a try!
Thank you for watching Chicken Paradise! See you in the next episode.