June 9th, 2022
An update about my mealworm colony. I recently reorganized after various iterations. What I’ve decided for setup is to use blended oats as substrate, and carrots as a regular water source. The main setup (photo 1) is still in a 3-drawer system 14”x12”x3” per drawer. The top drawer is the youngest mealworms that are recently hatched and about 1 cm long. The middle drawer has the older mealworms ranging from 1cm-3cm with some pupating occasionally. The bottom drawer has Generation 2 adult darkling beetles (photo 4 and 5) which are typically about 1.5 cm long This is where they get busy and have eggs. When the mealworms turn into pupa they are transferred into a different bucket (photo 2 and 3) where they can hatch into beetles. This will be my 3rd generation of beetles. Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly Oct 2021 - took a creepy looking caterpillar home and thought I accidentally killed it. Turns out it pupated. March 17, 2022 - butterfly emerged. May 26,...