Raising Meal Worms Easy Peasy

Mealworms are SOOOOO easy to raise.

I have a leopard gecko at my daycare. I started a meal worm colony to keep fresh food available for him. I saw my son pay almost $40 for a bag of freeze dried insects at Feldman's several weeks back for his chickens and about had a heart attack.

I bought a large package of live ones off Amazon, threw them into a fish tank with a container of cheap oats and toss them some banana peels and apple cores every once in awhile. That's it.

Once you get some hatched into beetles, the cycle is self perpetuating. The beetles never try to get out of the container, they just bury into the oats. When the worms are at their peak growth, they move to the top of the oats to pupate. I pick them off at the large stage and send to the lizard or chickens. I highly recommend raising your own mealworms for your poultry.

What you need:

1. Shallow container. Size depends on how many you want to raise at a time. The commercial growers use tubs about the size of under bed totes. [Amazon Affiliate link]

1. Air vents in the container, cover with mesh or screen to keep out flies and fruit flies.
2. Fruit/veggie scraps like banana peels, pear and apple cores, carrots, zucchini peels
3. Meal worms, I bought this pack of 100 from Amazon. You really only need to buy once if you let the first batch pupate to beetles to lay eggs and perpetuate the cycle. [Amazon Affiliate link]

Questions I've been asked:

What temperature do they need to be kept at? Meal worms slow down growth the colder the temperature, so room temperature will keep them going at a good pace. I saw where someone had left them out on an uncovered porch over winter in a northern climate and had new worms emerge in the spring. You can pick off the bigger worms and put them in a container, with air holes, in the fridge until you want to give them to your chickens. This stops them from pupating and keeps them at the worm stage.

Do the fruit scraps provide all the moisture they need? YES. Some things about the fruit/veggies:

• If you don't provide enough moisture, the worms will not have enough stored to pupate properly. The pupae will die or the beetles that emerge will be deformed.
• If you don't remove moldy content, the beetles will die.
• If you don't provide enough moisture content, the beetles will cannibalize and drain the pupae.

So just make sure you toss them fresh stuff every few days and remove the old when it starts to mold.

I don't want to touch them to pick them out. Me neither. I use a pair of forceps or big spoon for taking out just a few for the lizard and a kitty scoop or other sifter-type thing to pull out big worms and beetles and just flick the beetles back into the worm bin with a chop stick. However, if you just scoop a section out of your container, the chickens will eat everything, worms at all stages and oats if you don't want to hassle with it. The bigger worms tend to congregate around the fruit/veggies as they moisture-up for the next stage.

How often do they need new oats? The oats are their bedding and their food. Make sure you keep 2-3 inches deep.

Why am I sneezing around them? If you stir up the waste that settles to the bottom of the container, some people have a mild allergic reaction to it entering their respiratory system. Just wear a mask when handling the bedding.

I actually find the meal worm colony more interesting than the lizard. If you've ever seen chickens with a batch of bugs, you know that is hilarious. So meal worms even provide some entertainment value! I highly recommend raising your own mealworms for your poultry.

If you have any questions or anything to add, please comment below.