[GUIDE] Waxworm breeding

[MrWhite]

I'm not sure if whole oats will work either, it might though.

I have some concluding remarks about breeding these wax works.

I started out with 25 worms and I ended up with tons of worms, but, where I failed was that I didn't have enough ventilation in the canister and I got tons of moisture which caused the substrate to start molding from the outside in. I decided to end my experiment lastnight and savage as many worms as possible. The worms, as they grow, make a ton of webbing and will migrate to the top of the container. They will also make the substrate into giant web/substrate ball for them to live in. They make these web cacoon type caves that the individual worm will live in. It was a real mess getting the worms out of the web/substrate ball and to make it worse, the outside edges were mucky/moldy. Separating the worms from the web ball was not for the weak stomach

I did manage to get a lot of waxworms (100) but they were rather small (the size of medium to large repti worms) because I had to end it early because of the mold issue. I would have had a ton more but a lot died from the moisture/mold issue.

If I do this again, this is what I would do:
1. make the holes in the lid bigger for more ventilation, in which case you would have to use the nylons to prevent the moths/worms from escaping.

2. use heat right from the start (85 degrees) to make the process go much faster.

3. figure out an easier way to separate the worms from the substrate easier. It wouldn't have been that gross if I didn't have all the mold to dig through, but it's still a pain digging through the substrate/webb ball.

 

[YoshiHiro]

Just wanted to give you props on the write up, this guide should be stickied. I read this a few weeks back and gave it a go I currently have some moths (5-10) a bunch more (50-60) on the way and the process is going well so far. Thank you for the good write up! Ill post and update once all the moths flying around.

 

[MrWhite]

Just wanted to give you props on the write up, this guide should be stickied. I read this a few weeks back and gave it a go I currently have some moths (5-10) a bunch more (50-60) on the way and the process is going well so far. Thank you for the good write up! Ill post and update once all the moths flying around.

Thanks

It was fun and interesting but I don't use waxworms very often so it really isn't worth it for me to repeat the process.
so a total of 50 to 60 moths will get you a TON of worms :shock: I was actually surprized what 25 moths gave me...

 

[DNADragons]

This is an awesome thread. I'm glad you got something out of it. There may be an "evacuate" method to get them to auto-seperate. Like heating the container to a near deadly temperature, or find whatever they hate, expose them to it, and see if they don't run out by themselves. I have no experience with worms but it seems there must my an economical way of doing it since wax worms remain affordable.

 

[AHBD]

Just wanted to add that I used to raise them about 13 years ago, I used oatmeal and/or bran and honey, no glicerine is necessary at all, and I never had mold. I never used corn syrup , and I kept them in my incubator at approx. 84 degrees. They really do need to be very warm.

 

[DNADragons]

Just wanted to add that I used to raise them about 13 years ago, I used oatmeal and/or bran and honey, no glicerine is necessary at all, and I never had mold. I never used corn syrup , and I kept them in my incubator at approx. 84 degrees. They really do need to be very warm.

Cool, thanks. Any advice on seperating them from the substrate?

 

[AHBD]

Hi DNA....to answer your question , I didn't have any special method to separate them, I just used tweezers to grab them. Maybe because my temps. were high from the start it never got wet/moldy, and they were easier to get ahold of. Sometimes I would just grab a small piece of the " cocoon" type ball that was mentioned and wrangle them out of there.

 

[DNADragons]

Maybe because my temps. were high from the start it never got wet/moldy

Perfect, thank you!