What the?

[crystal]

My mealworms for my toads are turning into beetles and cacoons.Whats this all about?I looked some info about this..and it said mealworms arnt really worms there what BEETLES with a pic of the beetles my worms are turning into.What the?They dont eat the worms,they eat the BEETLES?What the agian..and ive feed them the worms all my life+crickets....plz correct me on this!

I needed to make sure that the beetles arnt getting into my worms,so I took one worm,put it in a seprate continer and a few days later all there was left was a few mealworm skins and a caccon!And now theres peices of the caccon and a beetle!

Everyday my mealworms are turning into caccons and hatching into beetles..my worms are running out to feed my toads...

(Message edited by darkend_shadow2 on December 31, 2004)

[john]

Ya meal worms turn into a beetle after so long. What you can do is watch for the stages. First they look like regular mealworms. Then they transform into a weird alien looking thing. From there they cocoon and turn into beetles. If you want, you could put some beetles together in a tuppaware and start a mealworms colony. Other than that, dont by so many. Buy what your frogs can eat before they turn into beetles.

[crystal]

Will my toads eat the beatles?

[mike]

Give your toads a treat Crystal, feed the beetles to them.

[john]

Mabye they will eat the beatles. I know my leopard gecko wont eat them. But those toads will eat anything.

[crystal]

I feed them one beetle each,my 2 toads ate a beetle but one of my toads didnt want it:S ANyways,thanks I thew the beetles out for i used up all my mealworms.

[william]

Why did you throw them out you could have started a mealworm colony and have mealworms when ever you wanted like John K said?

[crystal]

uhhh no thanks...I really dont want to keep bugs if I dont have too:S You have no idea what i go though just to gutload the things...

[benjamin]

Keeping live insects in the house is just part of keeping fire bellies, it's a bit like if you can't handle keeping dog food in in your house then you can't keep a dog. You wouldn't keep any more insects for any longer than you would if you just keep buying them from the store. Throwing a box of live animals in the trash is a really bad idea. The box will get bashed around and eventually break, then the beetles will have access to every edible scrap of organic material in the trash bag to eat and lay eggs in. And it's not like they'll stay in the trash, no many will leave the bag and start running around your house. It's unlikely that you'll get any long term problems from insects on the loose, but you will find the animals all over your house for several weeks if they get out of the box. I've had mass cricket escapes before, but these were endurable, they resulted in little more than chirping in the night which only lasted about a month after the escape.

[crystal]

I never threw them in the trash,I let them go outside away from my house where they would have a happier life.

[rose]

Hi Crystal,
Did you try putting the mealworms in the fridge? That usually keeps them from turning into adults as quickly.

[john]

Thats so cool that u let them go outside. When I find the beatles, I usally just flush them down the toilet. LOL. Mabye I should start a Mealworm colony. And Roses comment about the fridge really works well. I keep 100 count mealworms in there for weeks without any change.

[benjamin]

Letting them go outside is even worse. If they don't die straight away, which is most probable, then they could cause considerable damage to your local eco system. They can cause damage even if they don't reproduce by introducing foreign parasites to the local area.

[crystal]

We have thoose beetles around here so it shouldent be a problem.

[jarid]

They aren't the same species. There are tons of Tenebrionid beetle species. IMO you shouldn't be releasing them.

[pollywog]

Mealworms are often fed to wild birds in the garden where inevitably some escape and find their way into the wild. There is really no difference between this and dumping an old culture outdoors like Crystal did. Are you going to tell every bird fancier in the world not to feed wild birds mealworms?
The likely hood is that the beetles will disperse and either get eaten or just die off, it’s very unlikely that they will form a colony and become a problem.

[mike]

Well said Andrew.
Here's a link on "How to culture mealworms":http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/cmeal.htm
The relevant section I think is Temperature....These beetles require high temps to reproduce, and die at lower temperatures.

[colin]

I wish that American Mink and Grey Squirels died in cold weather...
LOL

I beleive that the first colonies of giant mealworms put into captivity for breeding and the herp industry were collected from Trinidad...