Mealworm 101

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mealworm

Great diet for reptiles, mealworms are one of the things I feed to both my lizards and my turtles. They can easily be raised. All it takes is some Red Mill Wheat Bran Flakes, and some Russet potatoes.
      You can keep them in a deep Tupperware. An empty large size washed tub from I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! will also work. The lid should have tiny pin sized holes in it to allow some airflow but to not let the mealworms escape, specially if it gets tipped over for some reason and they have access to the lid. The wheat bran should not be very high, but deep enough to borrow in. You may have to add more later, so keeping it at a low level will keep the beetles from crawling on the lid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mealworm

Mealworms are one stage in a Mealworm beetle life cycle. First there is an egg. Laid by a female beetle after procreation with a male beetle. They borrow in the wheat bran and lay these eggs, around 500 of them. After 4-20 day the mealworms should start to surface. They will be tiny, but will shed and grow larger for quite sometime before the pupa stage. This is much like a caterpillar to a butterfly. In this stage the mealworm is actual a larvae for the beetle. They will borrow and feed on dead insects and wheat bran, and will eat tunnels through the potato pieces, and get their liquid nutrients from the potato. This stage can last up to 115 days. You want your mealworms to grow to a healthy size and then select some for feeding. If you select all of them there will not be any beetles to complete the life cycle and give you more the next round. This is a delicate balance, and depends on how many mealworms you have starting, and how many your reptile eats. After being a mealworm they start to get puffy and white, they curl up and start to look like grubs a little. This pupa stage can have various lengths depending upon temperature. When the pupas are cold then they take longer to transform. Eventually a small beetle break out, and turns brown and then black. The beetles I have raised are usually about the size of my pinky finger nail. They can move fast and bite, so do not mess with these guys! Just leave them alone and pick out the mealworms when you harvest. I have never had a problem and never been bitten.
The total life cycle can take up to a year, but if you store the container of mealworms in a warmer location then they will go through the cycle faster. Mealworms are largely bred in zoos for food for both reptiles and birds. Tequila flavored candies are made with meal worms for flavoring. Meal worms are also edible. Most of the ones from the pet stores are hormone injected, and will not complete a life cycle and become a beetle because of this. You should be able to ask for non-hormone injected meal worms at the store, or ask for the person they may get their me.

Sources:

T, Pragya. "Mealworm Life Cycle." Buzzle.com. Buzzle.com, 2012. Web. 26 Aug 2012. <http://www.buzzle.com/articles/mealworms-life-cycle.html>.