Mealworms&Dubias together?

drasar

drasar

Third Instar
I was thinking about putting a few Mealworms in with my Dubias as a sort of cleanup crew to eat some of the spilled or excess food, a half dozen maybe to start with..since the Dubs are live bearers I wasn't afraid of the Mealworms eating their eggs but was wondering if they might cause any other problems? I have between 50-100 Dubias and most are Adults or close to it.

 
I tried it...worked very well.

They are a good moisture gauge too. If things are a bit too moist they will climb out of the substrate onto eggcrates. If things get too dry they will do very well.

 
Thanks..and what a quick reply..I'll drop a few in whith them then...would they also live together well with crickets?

 
never tried. I think crickets would need it too moist for the eggs to hatch...and mealworms/dubia would finish the eggs off pretty quickly.

Unless you make a little egg laying container just for the crix.

 
Not a problem if the Dubai eat the mealworms..I have tons of them..I just wanted to make sure the mealworms wouldn't harm the roaches

 
I'd almost totally forgotten about this experiment till today...I was tendin' the critters this mornin' and when I lifted the dish that I put the veggies on in my Dubia Tank there were several small mealworms under it...I had put a few in with the roaches as a experiment..thought they might help to keep things cleaner..was like 4-6 and it was a long time ago..had just about forgotten about them. They seem to be doing alright and as my roaches are live bearers I figured they wouldn't hurt them..The DubiaTank has a topsoil substrate so I didn't know if they would prosper or not..they seem to be doing okay...

 
My Eublaberus posticus got some Mealworms as an experiment because they are really bad wingbiters and I read in Orins handbook "Allpet Roaches, Care and Identification Handbook for the Pet and Feeder Cockroaches" that posticus will eat newly molted almost any type insect alive.

So my hope was that the posticus would add to their diet and spare each other a little around their own molt.

But the plan did not work out. The posticus were still chasing one another and the Mealworms were very active living the good life in the tank. There was only eggcases and empty toilet rolls as shelter, but the Mealworms did not seem to be annoyed.

After about a month I gave it up because it was not meant to be a culture.

However, I intend to try again, but with the mini-Mealworms instead of the normal size ones - in the hope that the posticus will recognize a little "snack"...

Did any of you try the mini-Mealworms?

 
Haven't tried the mini-mealworms but I was thinking of trying a few either earthworms or nightcrawlers..to improve the soil and maybe even eat some of the Roach droppings..if it all works out may never have to clean the roach tank LOL :P

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I added some mealworms to my peppered roach colony, seeing as I was having grain mite problems with them in their other container.

They're all doing fantastic.

The peppered roach dropping seem somewhat nutritious (mostly feed them oak leaves and lots of fruits + veggies!) and the mealworm beetles don't harm the roaches either! The substrate is crawling with baby mealworms and baby peppereds.

I'd go so far as to say that starting a peppered colony without mealworms would be somewhat foolish, unless you really, REALLY didn't need the extra herp food.

 
Zephyr said:
I added some mealworms to my peppered roach colony, seeing as I was having grain mite problems with them in their other container.They're all doing fantastic.

The peppered roach dropping seem somewhat nutritious (mostly feed them oak leaves and lots of fruits + veggies!) and the mealworm beetles don't harm the roaches either! The substrate is crawling with baby mealworms and baby peppereds.

I'd go so far as to say that starting a peppered colony without mealworms would be somewhat foolish, unless you really, REALLY didn't need the extra herp food.
Click to expand...
That sounds pretty cool- I will give it a try as well. Should work great as I have loads of other beetles in my colonies with the same larvae-type.

 
I added a tub (20) of nightcrawlers to my Dubias enclosure and it turned out badly...they all died and left a rotting stink in there...I'm still harvesting mealworms all the time though.

 
Try red wigglers? They're a lot more acidity and temperature tolerant.

I've also introduced mealworms into my discoid colony; I'm harvesting lots of big ones. :)

 
I have some type of native "mealworm" in with my Parcoblatta. They were collected in the same spot, and both species are exploding in population. They eat the roach waste, and grind up the wood for the young nymphs to eat easily.

 
All very interesting, my prob with the mealworms is the mites, every time I get mealworms I get mites, what can I do?

Also if you have a lot of roaches, will the mealworms really do any good?

 
ive had my baby crix get into all my roach cultures, and mealies into one or two of the roach cultures, as well as some latts get in a culture of hissers, and all seemed to do better.

im wondering if the crix have or would eat the roaches or mealies, or the latteralis harm anything else? its just a delightful excuse to putz with my colonies, but am wondering if its bad to have to go in to seperate out the guests, from my hisser, old dubia (my new ones dont get any invaders at all due to them chasing down and gobbling up anything that gets in their tubs), and gigantus, colonies every so often, or just doesnt matter so much.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top