First time breeding superworms, log, questions (1st BEETLE!)

[ashleyelsha]

I HAVE MY FIRST BEETLE!!!!!!!
YAY!
Okay, maybe I shouldn't be quit this excited, but I am. The kids were tickled to death, they just couldn't believe that little thing that wasn't moving turned into a beetle. They are amazed 8) lol. Yesterday I noticed 3 of my pupa had legs that were turning black and now one of the ones with the black legs is the one that turned into a beetle today, so I told them the others should be beetles any day now. And several more are starting to darken as well. By next week I should have quit a few beetles!

 

[ashleyelsha]

we now have 3 beetles :mrgreen:

 

[WoolyMarmot]

congratulations! Keep us updated. Im curious of how long it takes for the eggs to turn into adult bettles

 

[ashleyelsha]

congratulations! Keep us updated. Im curious of how long it takes for the eggs to turn into adult bettles

Well the eggs become larvae and I am going to feed the larvae to my dragon. I think it takes a couple of months for the larvae to reach big enough size to isolate. The firt worm I isolated took 23 days to become a beetle.

 

[WoolyMarmot]

I'm buying some super worms when this storm ends. Mind taking pictures of your set up?
Also for the breeders out there: what floor space do these beetles need? Length wise or heightwise?I ask because I've always seen people use sterilite drawers For breeding. Cant they be set up on standing eggcrates like crickets or roaches?

 

[Bobbijo2u]

I use a 3 drawer plastic container. Bought it at Walmart. The beetles in top drawer have egg crate and substrate. The second drawer is where the beetles will move too after a few weeks to allow the eggs to become worms and not be eaten by the beetles. And we will rotate from there on.....for isolation containers I use bead boxes purchased at the dollar store. Each box slotted off holds 12 worms which turn to aliens. I isolated 75 worms and only lost two.

 

[ashleyelsha]

I have several shoebox size sterilite containers. I have drilled holes around the side and in the lid for ventilation. My house is usally set at 76 degrees year round. I stack the containers and store them ... wherever. I had them in my closet but then I just moved them to under one of my aquarium stands.

I have one container of full grown superworms and I add fresh slices of carrot every 2-3 days and remove the old carrots. These are worms I have bought and that I feed from. I also isolated my worms out of this batch. Every 2-3 weeks dump the worms through a strainer and move the worms into fresh wheat bran.

I isolated the worms in little plastic deli cups with lids. I poked holes in the sides of the delicups to give them ventilation and stacked them inside a cardboard box so they would have a nice dark area to start morphing. Every 2-3 days I check on them, remove any dead ones, and moved the aliens to a new box. As the aliens have begun turning into beetles, I am now checking that box every day for beetles. (I really like the idea of the bead containers! I might get some)

I place the beetles in a fresh container that has bran substrate. I have a piece of egg crate and several slices of carrots that I change out every 2-3 days. Once I have at least 20 beetle's in there I am going to wait 2-3 weeks. Then I am going to transfer the beetles into a fresh container with fresh wheat bran and I will keep an eye on the wheat bran I removed them from because hopefully there will be larvae forming in it soon. I will put slices of carrots in it every 2-3 days to provide moisture for the larvae and when the larvae get big enough I can put them in my container to feed from.