I did a culture of mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) for my mantids. My mantids will not eat one at any stage, not a single one of mantids no matter what I will do; however, it wasn't a total waste I was able to witness and capture the various life stages as it developed.
I found them a extremely easy insect to culture with the only maintenance needed was to add fresh carrots. As the mealworms will rapidly eat carrots as a source of water, besides their food source. For full instructions on culturing them the best I found were instructions from Sialis. It also has more information about them then anyone would need too.
Now with my photo project completed and the mantids refusing to eat them still - I am unsure if I should feed the mealworms and beetles to the birds or offer them to other forum members. As I have lots of them in various stages and with current temperatures should be able to ship them to anyone for shipping costs without a heatpack (if interested send me a PM).
The photos cover the many stages of the pupating mealworm to beetle, and of the beetle itself. I only bothered to capture one of the larvae mealworm itself as it just gets larger without any noticeable changes, so it would be pointless to have many similar photos.
One thing to point out is when the beetle first emerges it is really white and still has the old pupae shell attached to the belly for quite awhile (you can see it on the beetle in my photo too).
I found them a extremely easy insect to culture with the only maintenance needed was to add fresh carrots. As the mealworms will rapidly eat carrots as a source of water, besides their food source. For full instructions on culturing them the best I found were instructions from Sialis. It also has more information about them then anyone would need too.
Now with my photo project completed and the mantids refusing to eat them still - I am unsure if I should feed the mealworms and beetles to the birds or offer them to other forum members. As I have lots of them in various stages and with current temperatures should be able to ship them to anyone for shipping costs without a heatpack (if interested send me a PM).
The photos cover the many stages of the pupating mealworm to beetle, and of the beetle itself. I only bothered to capture one of the larvae mealworm itself as it just gets larger without any noticeable changes, so it would be pointless to have many similar photos.
One thing to point out is when the beetle first emerges it is really white and still has the old pupae shell attached to the belly for quite awhile (you can see it on the beetle in my photo too).
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