They are a staple in the Bluebird diet, but many wild birds enjoy them. Mealworms are an excellent, high protein treat for chickens. There are lots of reasons to grow your own mealworms. Superworms also have large pincers and will bite. In short, you must separate individual worms to encourage pupating, and their lifecycle takes much longer to complete. While Superworms look similar, they are not as easy to raise. Superworms are a different variety of Darkling Beetle, Zophobas morio.

Mealworm beetles only live a few short months, but a female beetle can lay several hundred eggs during her lifespan. Once they mature, they will mate, lay eggs, and the cycle repeats.Ī beetle is the last stage of the mealworm life cycle. In about 1-2 weeks, the mealworm eggs will hatch into tiny white mealworms.Īs the beetles mature, they change from white to brown to black in a matter of a few days. Being so small and covered in substrate, spotting the eggs is difficult. While the egg itself is white, it is sticky, so small substrate pieces stick to it. The mealworm eggs are very tiny and bean-shaped. After mating, a female Darkling Beetle lays several hundred eggs over 1-5 months. The first stage in the mealworm life cycle is the egg.ĭarkling beetles reproduce via sexual reproduction. At most, they may find their way into cereal boxes or flour, but they won’t cause any damage to your home or pose any threat to people or pets. If they were to escape a mealworm farm, they are unlikely to cause any problems. Some online articles suggest that the Darkling Beetle will only fly in search of food and won’t fly if they remain well fed.ĭarkling Beetles cannot sting or bite. In this study, they kept the Darkling Beetles at 22 degrees C, in a dark and humid location with constant access to food. molitor colony used in the present study are never observed to fly” “It is also notable that individuals of the T. In a 2016 study on mitochondria in Darkling Beetle ( Tenebrio molitor) beetle flight muscles, scientists noted that they never saw beetles in their experimental colonies actually fly. Some mealworm growers online report having witnessed beetles flying, while others state that they cannot fly. There is a lot of debate on whether or not Darkling Beetles can fly.

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