Mealworm eggs
The surface of the flukers mealworms eggshell is covered with mucus. So the eggs are often stuck together in clumps or they are difficult to detect,whose surface is covered with food debris. The mealworm eggshells are thin and soft, which is highly susceptible to mechanical damage. The mealworm eggs, which is untouched, have a molting rate of over 95%. The egg period is 515 days.
Baby mealworms
The mealworm larvae like to live in groups and often gather in moist, shady places. Their feeding habits are the same as those of adults. According to the food consumption measurement of 500 larvae, the mealworm larvae consumed 221g of bran, with an average of 0.442g per head. According to the calculation of 8000~10000 mature larvae and about 1kg of yellow meal, it takes about 3.5~4.5kg of bran to raise 1kg of mature mealworm larvae. The larvae are mostly 13~16 years, with a calendar period of 70~156 days.
Mealworm pupa
Mature mealworm larvae stop feeding for 4~5 days and then pupate on the surface of the food. The pupal period is 5~11 days.
Adult insects
- Feathering rate:It can be feathering all day，and the eclosion rate was over 90%.
- Sex ratio: The ratio of male to female was 1:1.05 for 1984 adults.
- Adult insect life span: According to the statistics of 3 generations of adults reared during 1986-1987, the shortest life span was 2 days, the longest was 196 days, and the average was 51 days.
- Activity: The adult insects have a poor flying ability. They are good at crawling, and like to gather in groups of dozens. During the day, they like to hide in the dark and moist gap or food, but at night they are very active.
- Mating and egg-laying: Mating usually takes place after the 3rd or 4th day after fledging. Mating occurs both day and night and lasts 115 minutes. Adults like to burrow to the bottom of the rearing container to lay eggs, and the peak of egg laying is usually within 30 days after fecundation.
- Feeding habits: They like to eat soybean flour, vegetable leaves, melon skin and fruit skin. In artificial feeding, if we feed them with soybean residue, cassava residue, wine lees residue, etc, they can develop normally, but the calendar period is extended. In addition, Tenebrio Molitor often bite the soft plastic paper, cotton and wooden blocks and other debris that fall into the feeding bowl.
When breeding yellow mealworms, it is best to keep the larvae separate to avoid cannibalism. In addition, we need to separate the feces, dead worms and skin to improve the survival rate of the worms. However, it takes a lot of time and effort to do these steps manually. Therefore, It is necessary to have a mealworm separator machine in the rearing process.
