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I was changing the water in the mealworms’ container today, and I noticed a few babies crawling around in the oatmeal! They’re so cute – and by cute I obviously mean small, maggot-like and disgusting!

Now that I have seen some evidence that the adult beetles are producing offspring, I have divided the beetles into two containers – one containing adult beetles and one containing the larva. I will now empty all of the food from the adults’ container into the other container every so often – this is because the adults will lay the eggs in the food, and will also eat the eggs. By transferring the food to another container I will hopefully prevent them from eating too many eggs and produce more mealworms.

I haven’t enclosed any photos because they are too small to get in the shot, but expect some lovely baby pics when they get a bit bigger!

Last night, I was sitting on my sofa, watching an episode of House, when I heard a weird noise – kind of like a moth hitting a window. I heard it a few times, and after a while I realised it was coming from the spot where I keep my insects. When I went to have a look, one of the meal worm beetles kept trying to fly against the side of the container!

I already knew that most beetles are capable of flight, but I thought it was ok to keep the lid off because a couple of websites had said you could do that. Apparently not! At least this explains how one of them escaped…

Yesterday, I had a look at my mealworm beetles and they seemed perfectly happy, running around and trying to hide under a piece of wood in their container. When I looked more closely, I realised I could only see 3 of them. I checked through all of the bedding, but there were no dead bodies.

I think 1 of them has either escaped, or been thrown away when I changed their paper towel (I put a damp paper towel in with them for moisture).

Also, I still haven’t found any babies in there, which is odd because I have seen them mating a few times. I think I will have to give in a buy a starter mealworm colony.

Last night when I went upstairs there was another mealworm beetle in my bedroom – my girlfriend trod on it by accident when she went upstairs. It still seems pretty healthy so I put it in the container with the others. I wonder if they are breeding in my house or something…

Yesterday, I went upstairs to find these crawling around on my carpet.

Tenebrio molitor - The mealworm beetle

After a bit of investigation, I have come to the conclusion that they are mature mealworms. Since mealworms are quite expensive I have decided that I will hang on to them and see if they produce any offspring.

When I first spotted them I only saw two of them, and I hate killing insects so I grabbed a pint glass and trapped them inside. Pretty much straight away the two beetles that I caught started mating so there is a good chance that the female will lay some eggs. Then when I went upstairs again to clean my teeth I saw another one on the skirting board in the bathroom so that one ended up in my collection too. I have put them in an ice cream tub with some wood shavings, porridge oats and a piece of soggy tissue paper. Now I just have to wait and see if they will survive…