Posted by:
PHWyvern
at Fri Nov 21 19:00:37 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by PHWyvern ]
This is the first time I've attempted to raise waxworms from scratch. It's more of an experiement and learning experience really more than I really need a sustainable source of waxworms. Whether I keep up with it or not I don't know yet. I'm posting this just for the heck of it and as a sort of record keeping reference for me (or other folks) before I go and forget this stuff. 
I did a lot of looking around on the internet for food recipies for rearing the larvae. In the end I chose to formulate my own based on the information I found from other sites.
Dry:
3-4 tablespoons - Bee pollen
24 tbl spoon (85g) - Gerber Rice baby cereal
24 tbl spoon (85g) - Quaker unprocessed wheat bran
Wet:
2 oz - glycerine
4 oz - pure clover honey
The above recipe after I made it I found made 1 lb worth of food. Because I am working for the first time on this and don't know if I will later find the process of raising waxworms to be my style, I didn't want to make up a huge batch of food initially. This is more along the lines of an experimental batch size.
I used a metal bowl to mix everything together. It was also easier to thoroughly mix everything by hand rather than a spoon (while wearing latex exam gloves).
I mixed the dry ingredients.
Added the glycerine to the dry and thoroughly mix.
Added the honey and thoroughly mix.
This resulted in a wonderful smelling but rather sticky granola-like mess. Knowing that the dry ingredients would likely take a while to soak up some of the moisture from the honey and glycerine I placed it all into a zip lock bag and let it sit over night (un-refrigerated).
The next day, the mixture had a consistancy similar to brown sugar. It was slighty tacky but no longer sticking to the skin and could be squeezed into a ball and also easily crumbled without really leaving any kind of sticky reside on the hands (in otherwords I'm guessing it was just right).
I placed the food into a glass jar as well as the few hundred waxworm eggs I had collected. Only time will tell if this will work out or not.
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Notes:
I saw some people used only baby cereal in their diets and others used only bran. I figured what the heck, why not just try an equal amount of both. There were recipes that used dog food or duck starter but I didn't really want to go in that direction.
Glycerine - a lot of recipes called for glycerine but they were also quick to point out not the wood rose kind as it was poisonous. I chose to not use the pharmecutical grade of glycerine and opted instead for food grade. The glycerine I purchased was the kind used for cake decorating as an additive for frosting to keep it a soft consistancy.
(the kind used to add to frosting for cake decorating).
Bee pollen seemed to be one of the common 'optional' additives to wax worm diets. Knowing that waxworms infest bee hives in the wild, I decided it would be worthwhile to include bee pollen in the diet. It certainly could not hurt.
As I researched later I read that:
Bee Pollen contains protein - as much as is found in beans or lentils. Bee Pollen also contains lipids, free amino acids, carbohydrates, calcium, manganese, phosphorous, iron, sodium, potassium, aluminum, magnesium, copper, pantothenic acid, nicotinic acid, thiamin, riboflavin, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), vitamins D and E, enzymes and co-enzymes, pigments, xanthophyll, carotene, and sterols.
When it came to tracking down a source of bee pollen, however, I could only find nutritional supplement chewable tablets from a health food/vitamin store. The brand of tablets they had in stock also contained some additional ingredients - bee propolis and royal jelly. The tablets contained no artifical colors, preservatives, etc.
From what I have been able to determine in my research I think that I may have ended up with something better than what I was originally looking for (ie just straight bee pollen).
Bee propolis:
Bees adopted sterilization habits long before humans. The most sterile place in nature is the bee hive. Propolis is the natural substance responsible for neutralizing any bacteria, fungi or virus which enters the hive. One of the most powerful foods found in nature, Propolis is a highly complex mixture of waxes, resins, balsams, oils and a small amount of pollen.
Royal jelly:
The chemistry of royal jelly has been extensively studied and found to be a rich source of complete protein, containing all the essential amino acids, unsaturated fats, natural sugars, minerals and the B-vitamins (B-5 and B-6). The B vitamins were especially prominent, with pantothenic acid predominating.
Tests have shown that royal jelly does possess some slight antibacterial activity and can have an affect on the adrenal cortex, stimulating the adrenal glands to produce a positive reaction on increased metabolism, enhanced energy, and appetite.
The tablets I purchased was not a problem for me to work with. It was easy enough to crush and grind the soft tablets into powder with a mortar and pestle. The tablets were 500mg size. I believed I used about 21 tablets to come up with somewhere between 3-4 tablespoons worth of powder (i was not being too exact with my measuring).
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end notes.
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PHWyvern
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 Waxworm diet recipe - PHWyvern, Fri Nov 21 19:00:37 2003
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