The specific species used as food for pets is Tenebrio molitor, though a handful of other subspecies are also produced commercially. In this article, we explain how to breed them in large numbers to provide a consistent supply of live food.Ī ‘mealworm’ is the larvae of a darkling beetle, which is a family of insects containing an estimated 20,000 species. Although they’re commonly available in pet stores, it’s much more economical to raise them in-house. Get it right information up front, and you will save yourself years of sweat, blood and tears.Live insects are an essential dietary component of many commonly kept bird species. Insect breeding is a “School of Hard Knocks” business. If you want a real world “how to” guide on mealworm breeding then this is the book for you. Best of all with an online format, you will always have the latest version and content. Add to this a big line up of partnerships in the wing, we will have lots more to share. Best of all, the photos we have included are just the tip of the ice berg and we will be adding lots more photos and videos as time goes on. We are pleased that our hard work has paid off, with many people commenting how this book has helped them fast track their business. We had additional challenges such as running our business in the middle of natural disasters (fires, floods), covid and then some pests infestations for good measure…but we got there in the end.

Once we got the content it then took months to edit and upload to a online format.

Doing this took time, and we estimate we spent as much time obtaining content for this book as we did running the insect farm. We then took thousands of photos and hundreds of videos of how we operate the farm. We then Benchmarked the production and costs of producing of yellow/giant mealworms and crickets. First we demolished and renovated a 6m (20 foot) caravan and converted it into an insect business. This project was big….with thousands of photos and hundreds of videos taken over a 18 month period. If the insect breeding industry is to move forward quickly (and it will to keep up with global food demand) we decided to do a comprehensive guide to meet this need. When we started the project, to our knowledge no one had produced a comprehensive guide on producing mealworms for both hobbyist and commercially.

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