Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i'm attempting to start colonies of superworms and waxworms. i've had the waxworms turn into moths, and then the moths died. this was well over a month ago. i have yet to see any sign of larvae or life at all for that matter. how long does it take from the death of the moths to when i should be able to see the waxworms?

pretty much the same question with the superworms. the beetles have been in a container for about a month with apple to eat and a cardboard egg crate to lay eggs in. how long should i have to wait to see eggs and/or the larvae? it has been about a month. all the beetles are alive, but i have yet to notice any kind of sign of reproducing.

thanks!

jason

well for the superworms, the eggs are very small. and the worms.... once they hatch they are SUPER small. like thinner than pencil lead and barely over a milimeter long.

So to see if you have supers yet your possibly going to have to pull out a magnifing glass.
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Later,
WhisQuila

It was just about a month between when my superworm beetles emerged from the pupae and when I first noticed the first tiny worms. They are very hard to see as they are very small and nearly transparent. I found them after seeing small shifts in the media after it was disturbed.

After another week or two they were easy to spot. It's been about 10 weeks since I started and my largest worms are about an inch and a half long.

Colin

what, if anything, do you use for substrate? i've seen pages online which say to use some kind of bran or oat for substrate. one that look a lot simpler (which also provided pictures of the setup which was in use) had a small tupperware container with cardboard egg crate and a slice of apple. nothing else. the idea is that there is less mess and the eggs are layed in the cardboard egg container (don't know if i am describing this well. instead of 12 eggs in a foam container, the container is this pressed fiber material) this is what i am currently using. the apple or potato looks like it is being eaten and there is a bunch of beetle crap (for lack of a better word) on the bottom of the container. since you must have experience with breeding these things, what is your opinion of this setup?

thanks!

jason

I'm pretty new at this, and no expert, but so far this seems to be working:

For the beetles I set up a plastic box that is divided into two parts with a small piece of carboard. I put about two inches of wood shavings on one side and some toilet paper rolls sitting on top of it. They burrow into the shavings and crawl on the toilet paper rolls. I'm sure eggcarton would work equally well.

On the other half I have a mix of oatmeal, wheat bran and cornmeal, and a piece of wood with slits cut in it for them to lay eggs on. (They don't seem to eat the oatmeal so I may stop putting that in.) For moisture I put slices of carrot on the shavings side - that keeps the food dry and avoids growing too much mold. I initially used potato but that molded up pretty fast. The baby worms show up in the food side. When it is full of them I scoop it all out and put it in another box to grow out in, and put in fresh mix for the beetles. I'm on my third cycle of that, and it is almost time to scoop out the tiny worms again. The wood shaving side doesn't need any attention, there is some beetle feces accumulation on the bottom, but it is dry and not offensive smelling.

I have heard that the beetles will eat the eggs and the tiny worms. Since they seem willing to eat each other this seems likely. I think a substrate is a good idea, just to make it harder for them to cannibalize the babies or each other. I also think the small worms will have a hard time getting to food if they can't crawl through it. Bran has some good physical properties for a media, I put in the other stuff mostly to give them some variety in case it isn't nutritionally complete.

Hope that helps...

Colin

i'm assuming that the cardboard which divides the two sides of your box is just tall enough to keep the two sides from spilling over onto each other but short enough for the beetles to crawl over. is this correct?

everything i have read states that you should remove the beetles after they die and this is when you should start seeing worms. from what you wrote, it appears that you put the beetles in your box for a given amount of time, scoop out the worms, replace the food substrate and start the process all over again using the same beetles. is this correct?

have you noticed how long it takes between placing the beetles into a container to breed and seeing the young worms?

what is your source of bran?

thanks very much!

jason

Your description of my setup is accurate. The cardboard is a bit taller than the deepest media. I was concerned about it but neither the beetles have no trouble crawling up vertical cardboard, and the larger worms will also go over as well as go under or chew through.

I do remove the beetles after they die, but I've only had two fatalities so far in about two months. I've added beetles since my initial group of 12 or so, but they are fairly long-lived.

>it appears that you put the beetles in your box for a given >amount of time, scoop out the worms, replace the food substrate >and start the process all over again using the same beetles. is >this correct?

That's it exactly. Even so I have a pretty large range in worm sizes - I think more hatch must be hatching out in the separated substrate.

>have you noticed how long it takes between placing the beetles >into a container to breed and seeing the young worms?

It was about a month, but I would probably find them sooner now, knowing what to look for. The spend several weeks in the microscopic to really tiny size range.

>what is your source of bran?

Vons (the local supermarket) health food aisle. I'm sure there are much cheaper sources, but a pound goes a long way.

Colin

asd