Breeding and using mealworms E-Book

Monika Koeckeritz

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 22

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Mealworms are a cheap and easy way of providing animals with the protein they need. These include birds, fish, reptiles and some mammals. Two billion people regularly consume insects in Africa, Asia and South America. The author wants to pass on her own experience for anyone interested in learning more about breeding mealworms. She wrote about what mealworms are and how people can breed their own mealworms for feeding animals and cooking delicious meals. Mealworms make an excellent, sustainable alternative to dairy products, chicken, pork and beef and have a nutty taste. In this booklet the author recommends five simple recipes with mealworms.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Preface

What are Mealworms

Breeding Mealworms

Using Mealworms

Recipes with Mealworms

Literature

Preface

One year, when I was a little girl, I got a cute little hamster as a Christmas present. I named him Macky, and cared for him, fed him, and played with him lovingly. One day, my parents told me that Macky needed protein in his diet, and instructed me to buy some mealworms. I didn’t understand what protein was, but I walked briskly to the pet shop and bought a small plastic bowl of mealworms. When I got home, I removed the lid and stared at the squirming, crawling mealworms. I took Grandma's loupe and looked a little closer at this clutter. I watched a mealworm crawl out of his skin. My parents told me that all these mealworms would develop black bugs. Black bugs! I was completely absorbed, and forgot all about my hamster and his protein needs. At my parents’ urging, I eventually fed the hamster a few worms.

Many years have passed. I no longer have hamsters, but I do have chickens. In winter, the chickens struggle to find earthworms, beetles or other insects. As a cheap and easy way of providing the chickens with the protein they need, I breed mealworms at home.

The suggestion to write this book came from my girlfriend Dagmar, who loves geckos and keeps several as pets. As a single parent on parental leave, her funds are limited. She sometimes struggles to afford the reptiles’ expensive feed or find time for the long journey to the pet store. Home-bred mealworms are an excellent, convenient, and cheap feed alternative.

For anyone interested in learning more about breeding mealworms, I hope this booklet is useful and informative. Have fun and good luck with breeding mealworms!

What Are Mealworms

Appearance

Mealworms are somewhat similar in appearance to annelids, with some major differences. Annelids do not have antennas, legs or point eyes. Mealworms have antennas, three pairs of structured, clawed legs, and small point eyes with which it can distinguish light and dark. Annelids are soft, while mealworms have a relatively hard skin, mainly consisting of chitin. A mealworm’s body consists of a head capsule, chest and abdomen, divided into many individual segments. The segment boundaries darken before pupation. The last abdominal segment is cone-shaped and has two thorns pointing upwards.

Mealworm during skinning