What are the technical key points for raising yellow mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) on distiller's grains?

    The yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) is an important animal protein resource, and in recent years much research has been devoted to its development and utilization. Experiments have proven that yellow mealworms can make very good use of a distillery by-product - white distiller's grains - and efficiently produce high-quality protein for feed. This not only finds a cheap feed for the mass production of yellow mealworms, but also finds a new and effective method for the comprehensive utilization of white distiller's grains.

    1. Site selection The site is best located close to a distillery. Generally, a white distiller's grains storage room, a yellow mealworm adult egg-laying room, a yellow mealworm larval rearing room, and a rearing room for poultry and other economic animals are needed.

    2. Preparation of distiller's grains Wet white distiller's grains are a by-product of distilleries, containing about 65% water, about 4% crude protein, about 4% crude fat, about 15% nitrogen-free extract, about 12% crude fiber, and abundant various vitamins. White distiller's grains contain a lot of rice husks used during fermentation to loosen and aerate the material. Yellow mealworms can very well feed on and utilize the nutrients in the fragments of the rice husk distiller's grains, and the larvae grow and develop very well, with high conversion efficiency.

    3. Rearing of adult yellow mealworms

    1. Cut plywood into egg-laying boards;

    2. Use small dried fish (commonly called cat fish) and potato slices or pumpkin slices or carrot slices instead of wheat bran as feed for the adults. The specific method of operation is as follows: first place the yellow mealworm pupae in an egg-laying box, then evenly scatter a layer (about 0.5-0.6 cm thick) of wheat bran, then spread an appropriate amount of small dried fish. After the pupae have all emerged as adults, put in an appropriate amount of fresh pumpkin slices, fresh carrots or fresh potato slices, and keep adding the adult feed according to how much is eaten; in the adult rearing box, the adults should be put in at a relatively high density to improve the utilization efficiency of the egg box and the density of eggs on the egg-laying boards; the egg-laying boards are generally replaced every 3 days, and 0.5-0.6 cm thick wheat bran is added. The removed egg-laying boards should be stacked horizontally in order, generally 5-6 layers, and must not be stacked too heavily, to prevent crushing the eggs on the egg-laying boards; egg-laying boards with eggs should be left for 6 days at a suitable temperature. After 6 days, once the eggs have hatched into larvae, a scraper can be used to scrape the larvae together with the wheat bran off the egg-laying boards, and they are gently crumbled and placed in a plastic basin; the adults are generally reared for two months, and after two months, when egg production declines, they should be culled.

     Using white distiller's grains to raise yellow mealworms has low cost, a simple method, allows large-scale production, and also gives high benefits. Generally, every 1 ton of wet white distiller's grains can rear 40 kg of fresh yellow mealworms. If calculated at 20 yuan per ton of wet white distiller's grains, then the feed cost for rearing 1 kg of fresh yellow mealworms is only 0.5 yuan.