Superworms are harder to breed than mealworms, but not difficult. Their life cycle in the wild is to feed, grow and once they get large enough they crawl away and find a dark, quite place where they are alone. ONCE ISOLATED they will morph into a beetle the same way a mealworm does. The trick is that they will only morph if they are able to separate themselves from the other worms. Regular mealworms will change once they get large enough reguardless of where they are at but superworms need to be isolated and undisturbed. This is what I have had success doing...
1) Let your superworms grow to a large size. Your gonna need to get some small dixie cups w/ lids for them. I used the kind that restaurants use for small amounts of sauces. Put one large superworm by itself into a small dixie cup, cover each cup with a lid and poke a hole in each lid w/ a needle for ventilation. I put all my cups into a rubbermaid container and stick it into a closet and check on them every week until I start to find beetles. The will not all change at once. You will find your first beetles in about 4 weeks. Check on them about twice a week. If you make 100-150 beetles or so you will be up to your ears in superworms.
2) NEXT Get your breeding pan ready when you find your first beetles. Fill a kitty pan or rubbermaid container half with peat moss or ground coconut bark. (I use peat moss.) Lightly moisten the bedding and pack it into the container. I dig out the bedding next to one edge of the container and pour my food material in until it is flush w/ the rest of the bedding. I use poultry meal/starter mash but you can use roach coach or bran meal too. On the opposite edge from the food I pour some water and keep this side a little moist. This provides moisture and a nesting area. Only add enough water to moisten the substrate next to container edge farthest away from the food. Keep the middle of the container and the food side dry. Otherwise you will get mold and have very little success with production. I live in Arizona where it is very dry so I need to moisten the edge on the substrate every other day but you may find that you have to do it less frequently.
3) I get about 8 out of 10 to change into beetles. Every time you find a new beetle put it into the pan. Once all your worms are beetles mark the date on the pan and let them go. Just make sure they have access to a moist area so check it often.
4) After a month passes I build a new pan and move my colony of beetles over into it. I do this to keep the superworms in each pan the same size. If you don’t start a new pan the larger worms may eat the eggs laid by the beetles. The more bettles you have the faster you need to start a new pan. In the first pan you should see large superworms available in about 6-12 weeks to feed off depending on the temperature. The best temp to keep them at is 80-90. Once my superworms are ½ to ¾ inches long I have to begin adding more food. In my colonies, with 100-150 beetles worth of superworm offspring per pan, I will have to feed the pan about every other day and moisten the edge every day.
5) I start a new batch of beetles with the Dixie cups about every 4 months. This will give you a perpetual supply of superworms.
Good luck!!
Greg Knoell
