Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was buying mealworms today and they had some supers... so I bought a 25 for about $3 and I'd like to try to breed them. I've read up about them before, but got conflicting info.

About separating the worms to pupate... is this necessary? Seems like a huuuge pain in the ass... whats the reasoning behind this? In the wild theres no one to proved them film canisters......

I need a colony to support 4 leos and soon a B&W tegu... how many worms should I start with? I made the mistake of not looking at the worms closely before I bought them... out of the 25 I was SUPPOSED to get about 16 or 17 are alive.

They were in what looked like pine chips so I sorted out the live ones and put them on some oats with a small potato cut in half for the time being. Tomorrow I plan on setting up a much larger tank for them, any suggestions about the size (as in square feet of substrate)?

Thanks for reading... Dave.
-----
"i have a mortal wound!"
"where? where does it hurt?"
"oh, pretty much around the big bloody spot"
"come inside. ill get the neosporin. da na na na na - NEO! ba na na na na na na - SPORIN! blee nee nee......."

the reasoning behind the film canisters is to SHOCK them into pupating.. if you dont they are more than happen to remain the worms for 6 months if they need to.. LOL

as far as the rest.. not a clue

When getting ready to pupate, they will slow down and the other worms will then eat them. As a result of this behavior, they have evolved to try and not pupate when disturbed, to try and avoid being eaten. In nature, they could just crawl off somewhere to get some solitude, but they can't do that in your container! I have found that if you wait too long to let them pupate (by putting them in seperate containers to late in life) many will die or will become weak beetles that don't produce much, or will die shortly after becoming beetles. If you try to pupate them too early, they either won't pupate(this usually happens), or you don't get good beetles again.

(Good beetles can live for a couple of years and lay a lot of eggs in that time. Poor beetles usually only live for about 1-3 weeks.)

As for how many to raise. Thats a tough one. Superworms beetles love to eat their eggs, and so do the baby worms. If you can get their eggs away from the beetles, so they, and some baby worms, don't eat them, you will raise a lot. If the beetles eat most of their eggs, you will raise few. Depends on your setup, your deligence, etc. A 99% survival rate of the eggs will obviously produce a lot more worms than a 1% survival rate!

Rodney

No, its not to shock them. The larvae do secrete hormones which prevent other larvae (competitors) from undergoing metamorphosis. Only if you seperate them, these hormones are not present and the larvae can pupate.
Ciqo

Ingo

The isolation process is very necessary because otherwise they won't pupate. In nature the worms will disperse and tunnel into rotting wood or dig under something and make their own isolation chamber. Film canisters are a pain in the butt. I use the sectioned organizer trays used to sort screws, nuts or whatever. I would start with a minumum of 50 cells and 100 worms. The superworms that you get at the petstore are usually in poor condition by the time you get them either being starved or dehydrated. When I first started I tried using petstore stock and I had 75% of the isolated worms die before or during pupation but YMMV. If you are serous about raising your own then I'd suggest you order directly from a commercial dealer(wormman.com is who I've used with good results but there are several other reputable dealers out there). I use plastic shoeboxes(99 cents at walmart) for my breeder boxes. Once I got a decent population of beetles(25 ) I rotated beetles between fresh breeding boxes to lay eggs every 2 - 3 weeks. If you wait longer the freshly hatched microworms will eat most of the newly laid eggs. It only takes a week or two for the eggs to hatch.

Here are a couple good sources for info that you should find useful:

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15216

http://www.drgecko.com/superworms/index.html

trapped in the tiny net!

np

dtykyt
-----
"i have a mortal wound!"
"where? where does it hurt?"
"oh, pretty much around the big bloody spot"
"come inside. ill get the neosporin. da na na na na - NEO! ba na na na na na na - SPORIN! blee nee nee......."

np

Alright.. I have the worms (17 of them) separated in one of those clear tackle box things.. with a little bit of oats for each one.. (I'm going to try the pet store ones for now, if they all die then I'll try ones from a pro breeder).. This is all just an experiment at the moment..

For the substrate for the larva... what does everyone here use? I'm thinking about peat moss then something like Total cereal and oats....

For food... pieces of fruit and veggies in a little dish or whatever... about moisture.. will the water from the fruits/veggies be enough? Or should I provide a dish?

Thanks again, Dave
-----
"i have a mortal wound!"
"where? where does it hurt?"
"oh, pretty much around the big bloody spot"
"come inside. ill get the neosporin. da na na na na - NEO! ba na na na na na na - SPORIN! blee nee nee......."

Use dry wood shavings.

Any moisture or food in an enclosed container like that (that isn't sterile due to the worm being in there too) will probably result in a nasty case of grain mites--it will kill the pupas. Excess moisture, without any mites, is bad too. (Bacterial problems I assume, but that seems to kill them also.) I make sure the worms are well hydrated (romaine lettuce is always available for about a week prior to seperating them out) before attempting pupation.

This method (dry wood shavings) works great on your second generation of worms and beyond, but may not work as well on worms you got from a shop, due to their poorer than normal condition.

Rodney

You can make the substrate as simple or as complicated as you would like. A cheap bulk substrate can be made out of red or white bran and unmedicated chick feed(3 parts bran to 1 part chick feed) although I'd recommend freezing this mix for about a week prior to use to kill off potential pests since I've found "feed" quality ingredients to be prone to harboring them. You can use various multigrain cereals with success as well. My favorite product is Country Choice Multi-grain Hot cereal purchased at Trader Joes chain supermarket which is made up of rye,barley, oats and wheat. I also grind up some dog food and a canine vitamin tablet to add to the mix. My worms grow very well on it.