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I have separated some worms and I now have alot of beetles with more on the way.I put the beetles in a separate container with bran flakes and potatoes for watering purposes.But they don't seem to be breeding or laying eggs.Do they need certain temps or humidity to trigger egg laying?How long does it take for worms to hatch?How long does it take for the worms to get big enough for a decent feeder size?And how long will the beetles live and lay eggs? Thanks,Jason

I would recommend putting a few pieces of egg flats in with the beetles if you havent already. Also you are going to need several containers to breed these guys effeciently. You could use shoe box size rubbermaids. I think they are .99 cents each. Anyways if you dont move the beetles every 14 days or so they will eat the eggs and possibly the baby worms as they hatch. That was the mistake I made when I bred the superworm beetles for the first time. I used just the one container. I kept them at around 75-80 degrees. It wasnt until after I moved all the beetles out that I began to see tiny worms. I am not sure exactly how long it takes for the eggs to hatch. It took a couple months for the worms to reach 1.5" or so. This was feeding them oats, bran, fish flakes, wheat germ, fruits and veggies. Some of the beetles only survived a couple weeks, some months and I had the last one for almost 10 months! I would have to say I think the first month or two is probably when the most breeding takes place. To be honest I didnt find it worth my while to breed these guys again after the first experience. So I dont know a whole lot about raising and breeding them. In the future when I have the space to have several shoe boxes laying around I will probably try again. Well goodluck with your project. Sorry I couldnt be of more help!

Here is a picture of superworm beetles breeding. You have to look closely at their back ends.

Here is a link to a page I made on breeding Superworms the only thing I do differnt is I use carrots instead of apples. I throw in other fruits and veggies also from time to time. Tomatoes are great! Strawberries mold yo fast. Romaine is good but doesn't last long.... anyway check out the page there is a cool macro shot of some eggs... "LindsayMarie"gave some good advise on the egg crates the beetles stick the eggs right to the bottom of them! Good luck!!

www.iaherp.org/superworms/index.html
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T-West
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1.12 Ball Python
1.0 Dumeril's Boa
1.0 European legless

Good page for breeding Superworms. I can only add one alternative though:

Film canisters in large quantities may be hard to come by for many people----I, for one, wouldn't have a clue how to come up with a couple hundred of them.

When I bred superworms I used the little white 4-6oz "Solo" plastic cups that they sell at walmart and grocery stores. They cost $1-2/pack of 50-100.

Cheap and easy to come by.........