worms, mealworms and crickets

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We're thinking of raising these for feeding or fish in the summer and our chickens in the winter.

For the worms, I think we'll get the european nightcrawlers.

It seems like we could easily go through a lot of these every day. And with the new chicks, the tempation to use all of the incoming breeding worms/mealworms/crickets is pretty big.

If we toss, say, 50 breeding worms into a bucket with everything they need and then we care for them properly, how long until we have, say, 500 that we can feed to the animals? How long does it take a worm to get to full size?

Anybody know similar information for mealworms and crickets?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), June 13, 2001

Answers

There is a major cashe of info on worms at the bottom of the "old answers" list as vermiculture, also if you type in ATTRA there is a site supplied by the fed ag dept. fer free!! As for the crickets or mealworms try the "google" search engine.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 13, 2001.

Raising crickets isn't very hard. I buy small ones shipped in live, put them in an old aquarium with sticky tape around the top to keep them in, and a secure screen on top. They will eat a lot of finely chopped vegetable produce, or the fines off of dog kibble, rabbit chow, etc, along with some fruit and some water in a sponge configuration (so they don't drown, they do that really easily). There is an outfit that sells large scale breeding set-ups for them, but you could probably rig your own once you've seen it.

I believe that it is one of the sites off of this page -- http://www.net1plus.com/users/edgoss/supplies.html

In any event, there are lots of cricket,& mealworm suppliers there to choose from. Crickets only take a few weeks to mature with a good diet. If you supply the adults with cups of potting soil, they will lay eggs in them and pinheads will soon be hatching out of it for the next generation.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), June 13, 2001.


I started with two bait cups of red wigglers last year and now have about 40 to 50 lbs of worms consistantly. I cull some for bait use and garden duty.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), June 13, 2001.

What kind of beetles do mealworms turn into? Anything that might threaten a crop?

We're thinking of abandoning the crickets because we're worried that we might be accidentally contributing the cricket population here - which eats our stuff!

So we're gonna concentrate on the nightcrawlers. What temperature do they thrive with? I would guess something pretty cool.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), June 13, 2001.


I raise mealworms for our lizard it is way too easy, dump raw coarse wheat bran into a container of choice a lid is good but it must have air holes add a cut potato and meal worms. The worms will do the rest. check the potato every few days replace it when needed, the worms will shed their skin and pupate into adults which will lay eggs. I some times toss in some fish food for extra vitamins. At first check for excess moisture and mold which means more air holes or less potato.

-- Thumper (slrldr@aol.com), June 13, 2001.


This company is on an organic feed supplier list. They have more than just mealworms:

Rainbow Mealworms

126 E. Spruce St.

Compton, CA 90220

1-800-777-9676

Contact: Fred Rhyme

E-mail: rainbowm@earthlink.net

http://www.rainbowmealworms.com

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), June 14, 2001.


Thumper,

When the mealworms turn into adults, are they anything that might be a danger to crops if they got loose?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), June 14, 2001.


Paul,

Mealworms are the larvae of Darkling Beattles of which there are over 15000 different species. The larvae are a threat to graincrops and the beetles are a pest to various plant life including plants trees etc. The beetle used for Spanish Fly aphrodesiac is a type of darkling beetle.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), June 14, 2001.


Sorry about the misspelling in line 1. I guess it's a Freudian slip. I was thinking "darkling beetle" sound like a cool band name. :>)

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), June 14, 2001.

Paul, I have lids and raise them in the house under the aquarium in the cabnet/stand, the adults don't live very long and have never gotten out.

-- Thumper (slrldr@aol.com), June 14, 2001.


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