Almost gave up. Supers

[pumpkinman]

So I have 5-600 beetles. They spent 2 weeks in my bran substrate before I moved them into fresh substrate. That was 2 weeks ago. So I have been eagerly waiting any sign of baby worms. I looked with a 5x's loop and couldn't see any eggs. Finally today I moved the substrate and it started moving. Lol. I still can't see the worms but they are there! Man, they must be small.

So at this stage, what do you guys use for moisture? Right now I have just been throwing collard green stocks in there.

Cheers.

Chris

 

[Gail]

Any kind of juicy veggies/fruit will work. I generally use apples for the little guys.

 

[pumpkinman]

Any kind of juicy veggies/fruit will work. I generally use apples for the little guys.

Hey thanks Gail!
I actually had apples in there. Cut in half wet side down. I found that there was a 1/2" of bran caked to the apple cause of the moisture. I thought that would be bad?

C

 

[pumpkinman]

So today I put a pinch of substrate on a white sheet of paper. Yes there are baby worms!!!!
They are almost the exact colour of the bran and only about the diameter of a human hair. No wonder they are impossible to see.
By the movement of the substrate I suspect I have a lot of them!!!!

 

[DNADragons]

Good job. With 500 beetles I suspect you do have a lot in there

 

[forum1983]

So I have 5-600 beetles. They spent 2 weeks in my bran substrate before I moved them into fresh substrate. That was 2 weeks ago. So I have been eagerly waiting any sign of baby worms. I looked with a 5x's loop and couldn't see any eggs. Finally today I moved the substrate and it started moving. Lol. I still can't see the worms but they are there! Man, they must be small.

So at this stage, what do you guys use for moisture? Right now I have just been throwing collard green stocks in there.

Cheers.

Chris

You know they are tiny little things. I had some supers that I kept in a container and I just ran out, so I was going to clean out the container and I saw a tiny little worm that looks like a mini superworm. The weird thing is, I didn't grow any of the worms into beetles, so I have no idea how I got babies.

 

[Prodigyitachi]

You sure they are not grain mites since you don't have any beetles??

 

[forum1983]

You sure they are not grain mites since you don't have any beetles??

You know what? They could be. I'm just not entirely sure what grain mites or baby supers look like, so I guess I just assumed they are baby supers.

 

[Prodigyitachi]

lol most likely its mites since you do not have any beetles. You should throw the substracts out and sanitize the bin.

 

[forum1983]

lol most likely its mites since you do not have any beetles. You should throw the substracts out and sanitize the bin.

Thanks mate!

 

[pumpkinman]

I don't think you could confuse a grain mite with a baby worm.
I suspect when you got your supers there was some eggs in the batch.

 

[OgleRpets]

I guess, I should have waited longer, I gave up on breeding supers a long time ago. lol I'm glad yours have given you lots of baby supers. :mrgreen:

 

[tdharris]

Im trying it now. I got 20 or so aliens, and 100 supers in cups waiting to turn to aliens lol. I have the 20 aliens all together in a container with a tater lol. So now its just waiting for beetles then waiting for more aliens. I am thinking of using regular old fashioned oats, also we have a mennonite store that wells wheat bran so I have some of that, I am thinking of grinding up some cheerios too. That way the babies will have some powdery stuff to hide in. I plan on changing the beetles over every 2 weeks from container to a new container, that way they dont eat the babies.

 

[pumpkinman]

My supers are flyin now! I have thousands upon thousands of little worms up to 3/4" long.
I have found carrots work the best for me. I bury them in the wheat bran and the go a long time before molding.
One other thing I have found is that the beetles live a lot longer than I thought they would based on information I found on the Internet. I still have over 400 beetles producing eggs like crazy. I am really enjoying this!!!

 

[tdharris]

Wow that is awesome I only have like 20 to 30 beetles now but I am waiting for 40-50 aliens to turn then another 100 to alienize LOL. It actually is kinda fun going through them seeing what has morphed my grandson is 3 he loves doing it with me I open cup put alien in container he gets new super from our container (digging through the substrate LOL) and puts the new super in the cup. We have a little production chain going LOL. It is just time consuming for them to start and grow other then that pretty easy. So far that is LOL