Superworm Care and Breeding, a Step by Step Guide

[ajkry2]

i got a good one to sticky too -- you actually motivated me to do it

check it out: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=114817

doubt they'll sticky it. they said it should be in "article form" then they could put it in the care sheets and articles section...

[brandice]

I agree, this needs a sticky! I was thinking about using cork bark in my bins for the beetles to lay eggs in/on. This should help with eating of the eggs. Anyone using anything similar care to comment on how well this works? Also wondering about the size of the bin vs how many beetles and worms. I plan to use shoebox size bins, but am wondering what my max should be per bin.


Thanks for the help to everyone who contributed to this tread! Loads of good info here!

What i use for substrate is whole oats + some grinded oats in the bottom. I also add some dog food ( non grinded, grinded dog food seems to kill my meals and supers, and im not surprised, it smells awfull ).

Also I wanted to point out that if you are using cat or dog food for your worms (or your cat or dog...), read over the ingredients and look out for anything containing "digest". It might take a second for you to realize but digest is just a fancy word for poop and yes they do put it in cat and dog food. Any of the cheaper foods will usually contain it and you can usually tell by the smell of the chow. I think a lot of times it's intestines that they put in the food containing digest but either way, poo is poo! 9 Lives, Atta cat, even Purina has this nasty "crap" in it! Costco makes a good cheap cat food containing no animal digest, I haven't checked the dog food. When I first found out about this I FREAKED! But because there are no laws governing what they put in animal food they use whatever filler they want.... Just remember you are what you eat! I certainly wouldn't want to feed THAT to my dragon! or my dog or cat for that matter!

[goblinsly]

Did anyone else notice anything like this:

I compare 2 of my boxes of superworms. In one are almoast fully grown supers, in others are supers about the size of fully grown mealworms. The fully grown supers barely move and look ill. The younger ones move all the time and look healty. And judging by the number of worms and their size, both boxes should need the same amount of vegs ( for moisture ). Ok soo the smaller, healthy worms devour any amount of vegs i give them. A few seconds after i give it to them they are swarming all over the vegs. Also i didnt notice a single dead worm yet. While the bigger unhealthy worms barely touch the vegs and i find a few dead ones there. Any ideas why is that ?

[Bradleyv1714]

HI everyone,

I also have recently started my own colony of supers and I already have 3 beetles and I have 4 more pupa and another 16 supers in isolation. I have one question that is kinda worrying me...

the three beetles I have them in a seperate bin but they dont really move a lot! two of the three beetles tend to go to a corner and stay there for a while unless they need to eat! is that normal? or is that how they act when I pull the bin out to look at it?

here are some pics to show all my setup!
This is my bin system

The drawer that I have all the dixie cups in and I have some supers in isolation

Drawer with the supers in and some dixie cups with pupa in them.

This drawer contains the beetle's

this is the first beetle it became a beetle last night! but it is one of the ones that is just hiding in a corner

this is the second beetle that becamse a beetle the day before and it's also keeping to a side

and then the last beetle is actually staying in the covers that I put!



and I thought I would put a cute pic of my beardie for the heck of it.

[brandice]

I don't see a heat source? Are your temps between 80 and 90 degrees? I don't have the experience yet because I'm just starting my own colony (should have aliens in a couple days!!) but I've read that temps can cause the beetles to be sluggish. If the temps in your home are in the high 60's to low 70's you'll need some heat. I'm using a heating pad on low and that's keeping my temps around 83-85.

Ace is adorable!

[Bradleyv1714]

Thank you for the comment!

I totally forgot about that! I have them indoors but if I leave them outside I live in miami and it gets Really hot now that it's summertime! but I will put them outside asap!

[brandice]

You just want to be careful not to let the temps get too much above 90 or you may end up with die offs. And be sure not to place them in direct sunlight, one not to roast them and two because they like it dark

[brandice]

Well, day 9 on my superworm project and I have 3 "aliens". Only had one at the start of the day, but by noon I had 2 more. I'm expecting quite a few of the other ones that are curled up should be turning in the next day or so. Aliens are so creepy looking

[TheWaveCarver]

Is there such a thing as feeding superworms that are too large to your bearded dragon? Does the "only feed bugs that are equal to the size between their eyes" apply to superworms?

[paullyn59]

How many beetles maximum should you have in a 15" x 10" x 6"h bin? Can you have too many beetles per container?

[Trogdorpheus]

Bump.

[goblinsly]

I think you are worrying too much. Much like i did, a few months ago. Now i have 5 bins full of superworms, they are 1 month apart ( soo oldest are about 5 or 6 months now ). There is loads of them in each bin. They all came from the original bin that has volume of 2l ( about 0.5 gallons ), i got it when i bought ice cream . I had about 100 bettles in that bin, they are mostly dead now but my biggest superworm larva are right size to start pupating process soo i should have plenty of bettles soon. I will have about 200 in that bin. Just make sure they have a hidding place where they can all hide. Put them on whole oats, add a bit dog food ( dont grind it - death ! ) and then add a tiny bit of grinded oats ( very little ). Thats it, add vegs/fruit everyday or every other day and thats it. Its working for me i can say, after many many months of trying different stuff, i found out that the simpler, the better.

[Trogdorpheus]

These alien things are weird lookin... I isolated 18-20 worms about a week and a half ago, now have maybe 14 or 15 aliens, and some straggler worms.

[h0ndap0w3r]

by the looks of it i did my part to support the dragon community!!!! woo

[Livey]

Whoa i just read the whole thread,
very interesting...
Im already breeding Roaches , i had a try at silkworm, there pretty simple too, the food just went mouldy and they died.
I might give it a shot though,
I would as previously stated have to gradually bring it in to there diet
I love being self sufficient