What do you need to rear mealworms?

The idea of this blog is to share my experiences of rearing insects and help inspire people to look at our food in a different way in order to tackle the worldwide issue of food security.

There will be plenty of news, research, and recipes to come, but firstly: how do you rear mealworms?

In order to keep mealworms you need (a version of) the following:

- Three containers
- Oats
- Moisture-carrying food e.g. Carrot
- Newspaper/card and egg cartons

Three containers are needed because there are three phases in the darkling beetle life-cycle and each phase will require a new container. Each container should contain some oats.

The mealworms live in and eat the oats, while the veg/fruit provides some moisture. The container in which the mealworms will grow needs to be supplemented with paper/card as the mealworms like to stay under cover.
The mealworms will, after a while, transform into a pupating state. The pupae need to be separated from the mealworms in case they are fed upon by the mealworms. They will not feed or move during this phase. There should be oats and a small amount of other food for when the pupae morph into beetles.

The beetles will emerge from the pupae and also then need to be separated in order to prevent them feeding on the pupae. The final container should contain oats and other food and egg cartons. Female beetles will lay eggs in the oats and in the carton and eventually tiny mealworms will hatch from these.

There are plenty of places online from which you can order live insects as they are used widely as pet food and fish bait. These can provide the base for your stock.

When a rustling box labelled CAUTION: LIVE INSECTS arrived at my workplace the other day I had a lot of comments, but the mealworms are in their new home and the games can begin...