Mealworm help

[paul23]

I know mealworms aren´t good feeders and I have no use for them whatsoever. I got mine as a test really to see how things went. I started off with 80 something worms and ended up with 70 odd beetles. They bred and I have hundreds of worms and now they have started to pupate. Thing is I have no use for them.

All live feeders are very hard to get here, so I don´t want to ditch the colony just in case I ever do need them. What I am doing now is the filter system, which I am sure you are all familiar with. It works too well though. So my question is this, If I just leave the worms(and pupae) in with the beetles and let nature take course, will enough survive to keep my colony at more or less the same size? Or will all the pupae/worms get eaten?

 

[HKzForDayz]

why would you have a colony if your not going to feed them?

 

[paul23]

Because, as I said, feeders are really hard to get here. I saw some mealworms once, so I bought them while they were available.

If the time comes that I need mealworms for something, chances are that I wont be able to get them. So I wont to keep what have going but try and keep it more or less the same size.

 

[HKzForDayz]

hmmm. okay. i just find a bit ridiculous to spend the time breeding mealworms for the just in case I ever need them. Seems more like your feeding them but don't want to admit it? But to each his own, if you wanna breed em just in case you need them have at it. I was just curious.

 

[paul23]

I don´t have anything to feed them to. All I have is two Turtles and they don´t like them, so I have absolutely no use whatsoever for them.

The thing is, I live on island in the middle of the Atlantic, off the west coast of Africa. Nobody will ship live food here (or BD´s for that matter). I saw some Mealworms and Superworms in the pet shop(which btw have not had them in again since), so I got them in preparation for getting a BD. The initial plan was to breed both and have the colonies going for when I do eventually get a BD. Since then, I learned mealworms are a bad idea, so I don´t need them breeding like I do with the superworms.

It doesn´t cost anything to breed the mealworms, a couple of slices of carrot every few days. So I think it is worth keeping them going. It´s not like I can just go and buy some more, like most people can.

 

[HKzForDayz]

Lol i get that you cant get them often. But you dont need them so why do you care? That would be like me buying a sewing machine because they are to find here. What am i going to do with it lol.whatever. You should eat them.

 

[RonWill]

Well... in the event he does get lucky and end up with a young BD, I suppose he can handpick those just-molted mealworms as feeders. If it's of any interest, I used to feed my Betta macrostoma breeding pairs with just-molts. It's a substantial meal and they love 'em!

 

[Mrglgl]

Seems like a big waste to just dump the mealies since you got quite a large colony starting soon. Perhaps post ads online to sell some, you'd be making profit and maintain your colony. There are probably others that DO need some feeders for their pets and considering how hard it is to get live feeders for you, you would be helping others. You can also get to know other herps as well while your at it.