If you want to breed some beardie candy bars aka waxworms, this is how you do it, it's pretty easy.
what you'll need:
-plastic container with small holes in the top - walmart
-bran(oat or wheat) - found at most larger supermarkets
-honey - cheapest crap you can find
-100% pure glycerine - CVS pharmacy in the skincare section
-wax paper - supermarket
-mixing bowl - your cabinet :wink:
-waxworms - where ever you get your live feeders
-old nylons
Basically what we are going to do is mix up a bran/honey/glycerine substrate, place that substrate in the breeding container, put in the wax worms, put in the wax paper, drape the nylon materialove rthe opening, close the cover, place the container in a dark warm spot, and wait about 6 weeks.
making the substrate:
The substrate is a bran/honey/glycerine mixture that the worms will eat and pupate in. waxworms love bran and honey, the glycerine is added to keep the honey from drying out and making the substrate too hard for the worms. (we're not making hard trail mix bars ya know) :wink:
you'll want about 2" of substrate in the bottom of your breeding container. Take your dry bran and dump some into the breeding container until you have about 2"(just doing this to figure out how much bran we will need). Dump the bran from the breeding container in a mixing bowl. add in honey and glycerine. The ratio of honey to glycerine should be 2:1. The amount of honey/glycerine you put in will depend on how much bran there is. use you hand and mix up the substrate. If the substrate is too dry, add more honey/glycerine. The consistency of the substrate should be somewhat dry, not real gooey. you should be able to take the substrate and squish it together in your hand and when you open your hand it will crumble apart pretty easily. It's not an exact science, you just don't want an overly wet gooey substrate
SUBSTITUTIONS: I have heard you can substitute the honey with corn syrup(cheaper) and you can use oatmeal or bran type cereals for the bran.
Putting it together
once the substrate is the right consistency, dump it back in the breeding container. Add in the live waxworms. Some say put in 50, I tried 25 my first time. Take a 12" size piece if wax paper and fold it like an accordion or fan and then fold the whole thing in half. Place the wax paper in the breeding container. Drape the nylons over the opening and place the breeding container lid on and store in a dark warm area like the top shelf of a coat closet.
Timing and what to expect
the waxworms will pupate in a week or two, stay that way for a couple of weeks and small moths will emerge. These small moths will mate and lay their eggs on the wax paper, it looks like the moths have pooped on the wax paper. It's not poop, it's eggs, silly. I've heard that you don't need any additional heat for the cycle to complete, but keeping the breeding container at 85F will speed up the process. My breeder is at room temperature in the closet. I'm thinking I might try to create a small hot box with a UTH to keep it at 85F next time and see if things speed up.
The eggs will hatch and lots of tiny little wax worms will appear in the substrate and start eating it. I'm not too sure how long it takes for the eggs to hatch, I'm currently at the moth state with my breeding.
let the worms grow to the appropriate size.
That's really about it. Here's a link to a youtube movie that explains it all. It's not me in the movie, btw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diNE-gdnD0g
I hope this all helps, I'll yet you guys know how many baby worms I get. Any questions, feel free to ask.
I've included some pictures:
what you'll need:
-plastic container with small holes in the top - walmart
-bran(oat or wheat) - found at most larger supermarkets
-honey - cheapest crap you can find
-100% pure glycerine - CVS pharmacy in the skincare section
-wax paper - supermarket
-mixing bowl - your cabinet :wink:
-waxworms - where ever you get your live feeders
-old nylons
Basically what we are going to do is mix up a bran/honey/glycerine substrate, place that substrate in the breeding container, put in the wax worms, put in the wax paper, drape the nylon materialove rthe opening, close the cover, place the container in a dark warm spot, and wait about 6 weeks.
making the substrate:
The substrate is a bran/honey/glycerine mixture that the worms will eat and pupate in. waxworms love bran and honey, the glycerine is added to keep the honey from drying out and making the substrate too hard for the worms. (we're not making hard trail mix bars ya know) :wink:
you'll want about 2" of substrate in the bottom of your breeding container. Take your dry bran and dump some into the breeding container until you have about 2"(just doing this to figure out how much bran we will need). Dump the bran from the breeding container in a mixing bowl. add in honey and glycerine. The ratio of honey to glycerine should be 2:1. The amount of honey/glycerine you put in will depend on how much bran there is. use you hand and mix up the substrate. If the substrate is too dry, add more honey/glycerine. The consistency of the substrate should be somewhat dry, not real gooey. you should be able to take the substrate and squish it together in your hand and when you open your hand it will crumble apart pretty easily. It's not an exact science, you just don't want an overly wet gooey substrate
SUBSTITUTIONS: I have heard you can substitute the honey with corn syrup(cheaper) and you can use oatmeal or bran type cereals for the bran.
Putting it together
once the substrate is the right consistency, dump it back in the breeding container. Add in the live waxworms. Some say put in 50, I tried 25 my first time. Take a 12" size piece if wax paper and fold it like an accordion or fan and then fold the whole thing in half. Place the wax paper in the breeding container. Drape the nylons over the opening and place the breeding container lid on and store in a dark warm area like the top shelf of a coat closet.
Timing and what to expect
the waxworms will pupate in a week or two, stay that way for a couple of weeks and small moths will emerge. These small moths will mate and lay their eggs on the wax paper, it looks like the moths have pooped on the wax paper. It's not poop, it's eggs, silly. I've heard that you don't need any additional heat for the cycle to complete, but keeping the breeding container at 85F will speed up the process. My breeder is at room temperature in the closet. I'm thinking I might try to create a small hot box with a UTH to keep it at 85F next time and see if things speed up.
The eggs will hatch and lots of tiny little wax worms will appear in the substrate and start eating it. I'm not too sure how long it takes for the eggs to hatch, I'm currently at the moth state with my breeding.
let the worms grow to the appropriate size.
That's really about it. Here's a link to a youtube movie that explains it all. It's not me in the movie, btw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diNE-gdnD0g
I hope this all helps, I'll yet you guys know how many baby worms I get. Any questions, feel free to ask.
I've included some pictures:
Right now, I have about 6 moths and I can see the egg smears on wax paper so I'm pretty excited . I probably should have been a little more scientific about keeping a timeline log and compare notes after using different heat levels for the whole process. I will probably do that next time.
