Hatchling Mealworms?

View previous topic View next topic Go down

Hatchling Mealworms?

Post  Jamiioo on January 1st 2012, 10:03 am

What do these actually look like? Just that in my breeding colony i had, (was pretty well established with baby mealies at this point), i opened it a few days back and on a piece of fruit i had put in there there were what looked like mites crawling all over the fruit. Except i would say they were way more obvious than the mites you would find on a hedgehog as they moved much more rapidly. They were round...

So what were these? Hatching meal worms? Kinda doubting that i threw the whole batch out....so just wondered what they might be or if anyone else has noticed this with their colonies? These are the same worms i had mould problems with and wanted to change to fresh substrate but the majority of the wormlings were to still too small to pick out.


Jamiioo
Turkey Fart Fan
Turkey Fart Fan

Gender: Female
Age: 22
Location: Aberdeen
Number of posts: 4590
forum addiction: 5205
Karma: 92
joined: 2010-05-04
Chinese zodiac: Horse


View user profile

Back to top Go down

Re: Hatchling Mealworms?

Post  Jamiioo on January 1st 2012, 10:10 am

"Problems with mites: Sometimes a mealworm colony gets infested by grain mites (Acarus sp.) The mites may come from the mealworm supplier, in bran, or litter from poultry production, and may infest a colony that has been around for a long period of time. Excessive moisture + heat may be a contributor. They are prolific breeders (800 eggs/female) and can withstand temperatures of 0 degrees and still hatch when brought to room temperature. (Another species that can be a problem is the mold mite, Tyrophagus sp.)

The mites are tiny and round, whitish or tan in color, and have eight legs. They may cling to air holes and look like very fine sawdust. Mites can not fly."

Think they could have been these, but confused me as i only noticed them crawling all over the fruit and not the worms. Think i might throw my fresh batch out as worms from the previous container are in there..does anyone know if these mites can affect hogs? Both mine have been treated recently anyway and are covered but would be good to know.....*itches* Lol

Jamiioo
Turkey Fart Fan
Turkey Fart Fan

Gender: Female
Age: 22
Location: Aberdeen
Number of posts: 4590
forum addiction: 5205
Karma: 92
joined: 2010-05-04
Chinese zodiac: Horse


View user profile

Back to top Go down

Re: Hatchling Mealworms?

Post  *Gem* on January 1st 2012, 7:03 pm

you can get fruit flys which are very small if your feeding that to the mealies

*Gem*
Hoglet
Hoglet

Gender: Female
Age: 26
Location: staines
Number of posts: 13
forum addiction: 17
Karma: 0
joined: 2011-11-30
Chinese zodiac: Tiger


View user profile

Back to top Go down

View previous topic View next topic Back to top

- Similar topics

Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum