Keeping Mealworms | Care Sheet

Overview

Scientific Name: Tenebrio Molitor
Common Name: Mealworm

Description:

Mealworms are the larvae of a tiny beetle and are rich in protein and fats. However older mealworms have a harder exoskeleton than younger ones and can become indigestible, which can cause some problem for your reptile.

Analysis of a Mealworm:

Moisture: 62.62%
Fat: 10.01%
Protein: 10.63%
Fibre: 3.1%
Calcium: 420 ppm

Housing:

Small Glass Tanks, Plastic Tubs, Plastic Terrariums are a few of the types of housing that would be fine for your mealworms. If you only intend to keep a few then an Ice cream tub would also be fine.

Lighting:

No Lighting is necessary.

Heating:

Your mealworms will need to be kept between 13°C to 32°C, I recommend keeping them between 22°C to 27°C as it seems to work best for our mealworms.

Substrate:

Oat bran, wheat bran and corn meal are the most used substrate to keep mealworms. They will also eat there substrate if they have no other food sources. You should be able to buy these from your local food store.

Food:

You won’t really need a set food as your mealworms will eat the substrate but sometimes its good to give them a variety of “Bug Grub” which contains bran, calcium and other minerals but no moisture.

Water:

Vegetables and fruit work well for providing your mealworms with water. Bananas, Potatoes, Apples, Carrots, Cucumber etc will be perfect. You can chop up a cucumber and put it into a lid off a jar or into a bowl / plate. You should provide a fresh water source every 2 to 3 days, or when the current one dries up or starts to mould.

Maintenance:

You will need to add some fresh substrate now and again depending on how many mealworms you have, and every 1 to 2 months do a complete clean out of your container rinsing it out and replacing all the old substrate with new substrate.

Other:

On arrival the mealworms should be removed from the small tub and placed into a larger container that contains approx 1 inch of a substrate like oat bran, wheat bran, bug grub etc. They should be kept between 13°C and 32°C and will keep well for anything up to 8 weeks.

Its recommended you dust the mealworms with a vitamin supplement like Nutrobal prior to feeding them to your reptile, as this will increase their nutritional value and provide additional calcium.

Single 40g and 60g tubs of mealworms are £2.29 from Swell Reptiles

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