Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've got about 25-30 beetles that I've had for about a week now and I've got them in a bin of chicken mash mixed with a cricket food with some TP rolls in there and a few slices of potato, but I don't see any eggs.... I realize that they may be buried but I thought I read somewhere that they lay eggs in the TP rolls and I read somewhere else that they lay them on the potato slices, but I don't see eggs on either. The potatoes are starting to look bad but if there's eggs on them somewhere I don't wanna throw them out. What do the eggs look like? Any ideas/advice is much appreciated.
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

Chances are, there are eggs somewhere, but you can't see it. Keep in mind I deal more with regular mealworms, but I am sure the eggs are just as impossible to find. For mealworms, their eggs are sticky and quickly coated with fine debris. Might be the same for the superworms. I have breed superworms in the past and remember it took weeks before I noticed any baby worms.

Eggs are super tiny and coated with debris so harder to find. When the worms do hatch, they are tiny also. Might take a month or more to notice anything. Bigger the worms get, obviously, the easier it will be to find them.
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~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

Thanks for the response. How tiny is tiny when you're referring to baby superworms? How small could they be when they hatch (length)? How many should I expect from 25-30 beetles if I just leave the beetles in the same container til they die? How soon after turning into beetles do they mate and lay eggs?
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

According to book I have, mealworms take 1-2 weeks from eggs laid to hatch. Then it takes an average of 10 weeks before the mealworms are starting to pupate. Keep in mind this is just mealworms and actual temperature may affect length of time for developement. But I am sure the same is almost true for superworms. The eggs would be hard to spot because they don't lay clusters. More scattered and covered with particles, so you don't know if a particle or item has eggs on it. Imagine looking for a '.' sized egg covered in substrate particles... That is why I don't put anything in the beetles cage that I would have to remove later since eggs could be on them.

I don't know exactly how small newly hatched worms are. But I do recall from experience it took 1-2 months after I had beetles established (mealworms and superworms were more like 2 months) before I noticed worms that were the size of around 1/4 of an inch. The deeper the substrate, the harder it is to find baby worms. The way to check for them is to look at the bottom of the moisture source (carrot, potato, or whatever you use) since the worms will congregate there to get their moisture/water suppy. It takes patience to start breeding, but can be easily done with little care needed. It is well worth the effort. In no time, you will have tons of wiggly worms.
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~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

I know you are asking about superworms, but my experience with them shown alot of similarities between them. Only it took longer for superworms to grow...

Here is a picture of some mealworms that are probably about 2-3 weeks old. I started this beetle colony a little over a month ago. I didn't write down the actual date I started getting mealworm beetles. I will be moving the beetles to another container to so I can get worms of particular sizes in each batch.

Here is a close up of the largest baby mealworm from the other picture. This one is a hair larger than 1/4" and the smaller one from the other picture was a hair below 1/4".
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~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

One last picture.

I was able to dig around my beetle bin and found some tiny baby mealworms. Two measure about 1/8" and are creme white and the larger one is about 1/4". I am guessing that the two small creme white ones are newly hatched...? Now imagine trying to find something this small and possibly the same color as your substrate in your container.

Okay, no more pictures. I am done. Sorry I don't have information more specific towards superworms, but this should give you an idea of what to expect.
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~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

Thanks alot for all the imput I guess we'll see what happens!
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Tyler Stewart
Las Vegas NV
1.2 Nosy Be Panthers
2.2 Sambava Panthers
1.0 Tamatave Panther
1.0 Nosy Be X Unknown Cross
1.1 Veiled Chameleons
0.0.2 CBB Desert Tortoises
0.0.1 Sulcatta Tortoise

Here's what I do. I take a piece of hardwood and cut very small slices into it (I use a band saw with the thinnest blade I have). The thinner the slices the better. The beetles will lay their eggs in the slices. The reason for doing this is that both the beetles and the worms love to eat the eggs. Since the beetles insert their ovipositors into the slices in the wood, the eggs are a little ways into the wood and the other beetles can't get their heads in to eat them! Then, replace the wood with another piece once a week.--the newly hatched worms, which are very small, can live inside the wood block also and eat eggs too. In fact, they grow a lot faster when they are eating eggs! The eggs are about 1 mm. and easily seen within the slices of the wood. I use wood blocks about 4"X3"X1" with about 15 slices in each end. You should end up with something that resembles a 1" thick hair comb but with tines on both ends. I know some people will do the same thing, but drill very small holes into the wood. The nice thing about the slices is that after the eggs hatch, you can take something thin (like a knife or credit card) and insert it into the slices to remove all the egg "shells" and reuse the wood again and again. 3-4 pieces of wood is all you need. When you remove the wood full of eggs from the beetles, you can place it in a container and then see the newly hatched worms--they will dry out quickly in an empty container so you need to dump them into a container with food and a moisture source. (Don't just place the wood block full of eggs into a container with food---the worms will crawl back into the wood block and eat most of your eggs! You can suspend the block so the worms fall out when they hatch, or you can put the block in an empty container and knock the hatched worms out once a day or so. The key to raising a lot of them is to prevent the eggs from getting eaten!)

Rodney

I never had to get that elaborate. All I did was add a bit of cypress mulch into the container with their food and water source. I've produced well over 4000 Superworms since June... And I'm going into my second generation of beetles now. With my first gen. still alive *L* So its not hard really... and elaborate isn't needed. If superworms are anything like mealies.. one single female can lay over 500 eggs at a time.. There is no way developing worms can eat them all...

This picture is just from one drawer of my breeding operation and only the big ones...not even all of them either.

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Lucien

1.0 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)
2.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzard and 1 het Blizzard)
0.1 Savannah Monitor
13 rats
12 Gerbils
2 Dogs
3 cats
1 Albino Corey (fish)

I keep about 200 beetles in my breeder bin. Today alone I hatched about 1,500 kingworms. (though I average about 1,000 a day, year round). When I was keeping them like you, I was only getting about 50 a day on average. A 95% loss of the eggs is unacceptable to me. I'd rather cut my beetle numbers by 95%, change my methods, and raise the same amount of worms!

Rodney