How to raise Tenebrio molitor?

Habit

Likes living in groups, likes dryness and dislikes dampness, hates strong light, and has a wide range of recipes. Tenebrio molitor can survive in feeds with less than 10% water content, but when the humidity is too low, the water in their bodies will evaporate too much, resulting in slow growth. When Tenebrio molitor lacks food, both larvae and adults have the habit of killing each other. Large insects eat small insects, adults swallow their own eggs, and larvae bite the pupae. Tenebrio molitor can eat various grains, by-products of oil crop processing, and various vegetable leaves. The feeding habits of larvae are wider than that of adults. In addition to the above foods, they also eat dried and fresh mulberry leaves, leaves of legumes, and various insect corpses. When food is scarce, it will chew on wooden boxes and bottom sheets of paper.

Reproductive characteristics

Reproduction and growth throughout the year, the suitable temperature for growth and development is 25 ℃ ~ 28 ℃, and the humidity is 78% ~ 90%. When the temperature is higher than 35 ℃, it is easy to cause a large number of deaths. Tenebrio molitor grows through four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult, and the entire growth cycle is about 100 days. Adults start mating 3 to 5 days after eclosion, and 1 to 2 months after mating is the peak egg laying period. Each female lays 280 to 369 eggs. The eggs are oval, milky white, about 1 mm long, and the temperature is 25 °C. The larvae can hatch in 3 to 5 days when the temperature is ~27 °C. When the temperature is lower than 25 °C and higher than 13.5 °C, it takes 22 to 24 days to hatch. When the temperature is lower than 13 °C, it is difficult to hatch. The newly hatched larvae It is milky white, and turns yellow-brown after the first molting, and then molts every 4 to 6 d, and begins to pupate after 14 to 15 times of shedding.

Breeding facilities

Choose a south-facing sunny house, and install gauze on doors and windows to prevent adult insects from escaping and natural enemies such as spiders, ants, cockroaches, geckos, and mice. Small-scale farming can use pots or tanks, wooden boxes, cartons, brick ponds, etc. But the inner wall is required to be smooth to prevent escape. Large-scale farming should implement three-dimensional farming, that is, set up a frame in the room, make a breeding box with a length of 0.6 m, a width of 0.45 m and a height of 0.15 m, lay a plastic film at the bottom of the box, and set the breeding box on the frame for breeding. About 10,000 larvae can be raised.

Breeding points

Put the male and female species into the breeding box at a ratio of 1:1. Before releasing the worms, place a wooden board at the bottom of the breeding box, lay paper on the wooden board, and let the eggs lay on the paper. A layer of 1 cm thick concentrated feed is laid in the box, and a layer of dried and fresh mulberry leaves or leaves of other legumes is laid on top of the feed, so that the seed insects are scattered and hidden under the leaves, and a stable temperature is maintained. The eggs were retrieved once every 2 to 5 days, and the new egg collection paper was replaced. At the same time, an appropriate amount of green feed and concentrate were added. Move the newly hatched larvae to the worm box, and immediately sprinkle a layer of concentrated feed. You can also mix the concentrated feed with water to form a small ball, and cut it into small pieces to allow the larvae to eat freely. As the larvae molt and grow, the concentrate and green feed were gradually increased, and the feed was divided into 3 times a day. In the early stage, the larvae are mainly fed with concentrated feed, supplemented by green feed, and in the later stage, mainly with green feed and supplemented by concentrated feed. When the larvae molt, feed less or no feed, and some old larvae have poor appetite after pupation. You can add some fish meal or bean cake to promote pupation neat and consistent.

Feed

Tenebrio molitor and its larvae have a wide range of diets and are usually fed with a combination of concentrate and green fodder. Concentrated feed is composed of wheat bran, rice bran, corn meal, bean cake, etc. or fed separately. The water content of the concentrated feed should be 15%. The formula of concentrated feed is as follows: (1) 70% wheat bran, 20% rice bran, 6% corn flour, 4% soybean meal flour, mix and stir, add 6 g of multivitamins and 100 g of trace elements per 100 kg of mixture. (2) 60% wheat bran, 21% rice bran, 10% corn flour, 9% bean cake flour, mix and stir, add 6 g of multivitamins and 100 g of trace elements per 100 kg of mixture, the above two formulas can be used for feeding Larvae or adults. (3) 80% wheat bran, 10% corn flour, 9% peanut flour, 1% multivitamins, trace elements and oxytetracycline, mix and stir, this formula is suitable for feeding larvae.

Manage

Keep away from light. Tenebrio larvae require dark light in the breeding room. A shelter can be set up on the rearing box to prevent strong light exposure; suitable temperature and humidity, the feed moisture content should be 15%, and the air humidity should be 78% ~ 90% %, the suitable temperature is 25 ℃ ~ 28 ℃; classified management, because the larvae and adults of Tenebrio molitor have the habit of killing each other, so as to prevent the large ones from eating the small ones, the adults eating eggs, and the larvae biting the pupae. The eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults were screened out separately, and they were cultured in their respective breeding boxes; the insect excrement was cleaned up. The larvae were cleaned every 15 days, and the adults were cleaned every 7 days. Feeding; feeding alone, select large and robust mature larvae and feed them separately, let them pupate and emerge as adults, reproduce and lay eggs; strictly disinfect, if the pupae are found to be bitten by larvae, they can be sprayed with 0.3% bleaching powder solution. , Pick out the dead pupae in time, and use quick lime for disinfection at the entrance of the rearing room.