mealworm beetles

[Beeliz]

Has anyone else seen mealworm beetles in their tanks? I was cleaning out my box turtles tank this am and found about 5 beetles!!! from mealworms,I guess it's ones he never ate?? I will start to feed him out of the tank now,,what do other's do? Have you seen this before? Can it be a problem in my house?

 

[Laura]

the beetles are a food source, leave them.. free food and making more!

 

[dmmj]

Can the beetles be a danger to box turtles?

 

[yagyujubei]

They can, to babies.

 

[dmarcus]

I would feed the mealworms outside of the tank if you can't verify that they were eaten.

Terry had a couple small box turtles killed by beetles that were not eaten as meal worms.

Below is the thread where Terry talked about her Box turtles being eaten by beetles. Its reply #10.

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-My-box-turtles-eating-worms#axzz1ndAstakJ

 

[turtlemann2]

yeah i always try to make sure they get eaten anf dont "live" in the tank i do have a mal worm colony though with beatles pupua worms and eggs its self sustaining

 

[Beeliz]

Thanks Guys and gals~
I am used to feeding him in his tank,,will he eat if I remove him from it?? I guess I have to try
I also thought about breeding the mealworms/beetles for free food! lol too much to look after though,my little guy is only 5 months old,just a baby.

 

[dmarcus]

just feed one at a time to ensure that they are being eaten, then you won't have to worry about them reproducing in your turtles enclosure.

You will end up with a ton of meal worms if you breed them. I breed them and I didn't know what I was gonna do, there are hundreds of them now and I started with 50.

I have fish that eat them and of course my box turtles and eventually I will be feeding them to my frogs when they are big enough.

I am sure if you did it, you could feed them to your hens, ducks and gecko as well...

 

[WallieTheTortoise]

Ummm I remember TerryO saying that she left mealworms in her baby box turtle tank and they turned into beetles. When she went to check on them, all she found was their shells. Please be careful!

 

[Beeliz]

Ohh,,that's sad!! Poor turtles!! I think I will leave it to the petshop for mealworms,,in the spring I will gather up red wigglers,,ect from the yard. I never use any pesticides,ever in the yard,so the bugs and worms are safe. How does one go about "breeding" mealworms? what do you keep them in?? I'm not sure I want to keep a whole other habitat going,,lol

 

[turtlemann2]

mind you those were hatchlings not adults.

mealworms are SOOOOO easy or hard it you want it to be..

here is what i do.

i have a rubbermaid container with air holes in the lid, filled with quick oats on sale dollare store or bulk the cheapest kind. fill it half way add mealworms.

for moisture/drink put a carrot or two in it each week then when its dry shriveld or eaten go ahead and remove it and replace it, they will also eat watermelon rinds and apple or potato, for these "wetter" items i place it on a piece of computer paper the size of 2 or 3 business cards

if you put a big ol wet peice of melon directly on the oats it will mold, mold is bad very very bad,,,

mealworms turn into pupua then beatles, bealtes lay eggs eggs turn to mealworms etc etc

some people remove the beatles into a differant container so that their eggs arent eaten buy the mealworms but they lay alot of eggs and most will hatch so i just leave them be eventually beatles die or mealworms these are eventually eaten by others in the container

when the oats are nearly gone it will look like fine fine sand this is frass or poop pick out your bugs and replace with more oats, you may have to add oats two or three times before a full change like once a year or more depending on how many you have in the colony

 

[Beeliz]

Thank you Scott! Very nice and clear,,LOL
I will look into it for sure

 

[dmarcus]

This is what I use for mine, I use to seperate them during the different stages but I stopped so now they all basically live in the bottom two drawers...

 

[turtlemann2]

it is true you will lose some due to predation by the others in the colony but if you have ample moisture (carrots lettuse etc) they wont canibilise each other nearly as bad

 

[dmmj]

Sucks to be a meal worm

 

[jojodesca]

I am cleaning out my box turtle enclosure too...I found 4 mealworms under a log...i put them into a plastic tub and within a few hrs one of then "hatched" into a cocooned larve...its very pale and you can see the remains of the out shell of the mealworm ..it sorta twitched when it gets touched...

this will become a beetle..if i dont feed it to them now..

 

[dmmj]

Don't worry I also twitch when I get touched.

 

[turtlemann2]

those look like superworms you can tell 1 by how much larger they are and 2 by the dark stripes

when i first started breeding i was like what is it im doing wrong these things just arent growing large enough... turns out there are two differant kinds of worms

pretty much though there is mealworms giant mealworms (which are treated with a growth hormone which stop them from turning into a pupua, thus they keep groeing) and super worms

 

[dmarcus]

Those one are for sure superworms, they can put up a nice fight when they are about to be eaten...