How much time???????

[sammyjackson]

How long does it take for the super worm beetles to lay eggs????? It's been months and they eat & they eat but nothing happens !!! A'm I doing something wrong or what??? Please , I will appreciate any reply from superworm breeders or somebody with an answer.

 

[MAJ]

They usually start laying fairly quickly. Unfortunately, the eggs are so tiny that you will rarely see them (I have had them going for over a year and have never actually seen an egg).
I usually see the tiny worms crawling on the potato or whatever veggie I put in as a water source. Many see the substrate moving slightly or heaving a bit from the movement of tiny worms. That is what I noticed with my first batch, but now see them on the veggies before I can see the substrate moving.
Within two or three weeks of putting the beetles in a new bin, I usually start seeing tiny worms, and then move the beetles to a new bin shortly thereafter.
Temperature can also affect the speed of egg laying and hatching (same for most bugs). I find that although things happen at room temperature fairly well, things speed up dramatically if you can keep things around 80F.
Once you have baby worms, it will still take several months until they are feeder sized.
If you still have the beetles in the same bin, try moving them out and making sure the "baby bin" has a onstant water source (potato, carrot, etc.). You should hopefully see some worm activity soon therafter.

 

[fresnowitte]

I have to agree with MAJ!
I usually see substrate moving or microscopic worms after 2 no more than 3 weeks.
I started my super's in July an I now have worms big enough to feed my beardies.
Took awhile but it was well worth the wait. :wink:

 

[sddragons]

So if the beetles live for quite a long time (i hear different stories regarding this), and you are supposed to put them in a new bin in 3 or 4 weeks, how many times do you have to do this? It just seems like you will have so many different bins then with babies growing. Can't you just leave the beetles in with the eggs and babies or will they eat the eggs and babies?

They usually start laying fairly quickly. Unfortunately, the eggs are so tiny that you will rarely see them (I have had them going for over a year and have never actually seen an egg).
I usually see the tiny worms crawling on the potato or whatever veggie I put in as a water source. Many see the substrate moving slightly or heaving a bit from the movement of tiny worms. That is what I noticed with my first batch, but now see them on the veggies before I can see the substrate moving.
Within two or three weeks of putting the beetles in a new bin, I usually start seeing tiny worms, and then move the beetles to a new bin shortly thereafter.
Temperature can also affect the speed of egg laying and hatching (same for most bugs). I find that although things happen at room temperature fairly well, things speed up dramatically if you can keep things around 80F.
Once you have baby worms, it will still take several months until they are feeder sized.
If you still have the beetles in the same bin, try moving them out and making sure the "baby bin" has a onstant water source (potato, carrot, etc.). You should hopefully see some worm activity soon therafter.

 

[fresnowitte]

So if the beetles live for quite a long time (i hear different stories regarding this), and you are supposed to put them in a new bin in 3 or 4 weeks, how many times do you have to do this? It just seems like you will have so many different bins then with babies growing. Can't you just leave the beetles in with the eggs and babies or will they eat the eggs and babies?

No with super's you can not leave the beetles in with the baby supers.

I have;
1 small container with beetles
1 sometimes 2 small containers with microscopic super worms
2 large bins with larger baby to adult supers
1 shoe box with several small cups/containers for putting large supers into to morph also in this box is a small kids bug container that I place aliens in until they turn into dark beetles when I need more beetles

When it is time 2 to 3 weeks after last time changed I will place fresh substrate into new container place beetles in it. The old container with baby supers an possibly eggs can sit set aside until you see decent sized babies and then dump into larger bin. At first I was just dumping them straight into the large bin with the larger almost adult worms, but I found it was easier when it came to changing substrate if I kept smaller worms and larger or adult worms separated.

You may be hearing different stories about how long a beetle lives because of the different conditions that they are kept at/in. Personally the beetles I started with in July lived until December to January I'd say as this was when I found several that had died and needed replacing. Though this could also have been because I didn't change the substrate at 3 weeks got busy with other things...it was about 5 weeks and the worms could have killed the beetles. :dontknow:
I'm only working with about 2 dozen beetles at a time though and still I now have plenty enough for feeding 9 beardies.

 

[sddragons]

Wow 2 dozen beetles for 9 dragons? I have 40 now and about 40 more aliens and I have 9 dragons but i have almost 50 eggs in the incubator right now too. I just moved my beetles to a new drawer after about 4-5 weeks. But I still don't see anything in the first drawer.

So if the beetles live for quite a long time (i hear different stories regarding this), and you are supposed to put them in a new bin in 3 or 4 weeks, how many times do you have to do this? It just seems like you will have so many different bins then with babies growing. Can't you just leave the beetles in with the eggs and babies or will they eat the eggs and babies?

No with super's you can not leave the beetles in with the baby supers.

I have;
1 small container with beetles
1 sometimes 2 small containers with microscopic super worms
2 large bins with larger baby to adult supers
1 shoe box with several small cups/containers for putting large supers into to morph also in this box is a small kids bug container that I place aliens in until they turn into dark beetles when I need more beetles

When it is time 2 to 3 weeks after last time changed I will place fresh substrate into new container place beetles in it. The old container with baby supers an possibly eggs can sit set aside until you see decent sized babies and then dump into larger bin. At first I was just dumping them straight into the large bin with the larger almost adult worms, but I found it was easier when it came to changing substrate if I kept smaller worms and larger or adult worms separated.

You may be hearing different stories about how long a beetle lives because of the different conditions that they are kept at/in. Personally the beetles I started with in July lived until December to January I'd say as this was when I found several that had died and needed replacing. Though this could also have been because I didn't change the substrate at 3 weeks got busy with other things...it was about 5 weeks and the worms could have killed the beetles. :dontknow:
I'm only working with about 2 dozen beetles at a time though and still I now have plenty enough for feeding 9 beardies.

 

[fresnowitte]

That is really odd because by now you should be seeing super small Super's. :roll:

Are you feeding your beetles and keeping them hydrated?
What is the temps like in the room you are keeping the beetles in?

Are you doing the same for the baby worm drawer? (Food/hydration)

Do you burn incense in your house? I hear this can affect them too as well as cigarette smoke.

That is definitely odd.

 

[sddragons]

I feed potato slices and shredded carrots.
Not exactly sure what the temp of room is but its got to be 80's during the day because I have my dubia colonies in there and the CHE's but off some heat but it probably gets down below 70at night.
I just moved my beetles but yes I will leave the potato and carrots in the egg drawer too.
No incense or cigs.

But I see nothing in there moving around.

That is really odd because by now you should be seeing super small Super's. :roll:

Are you feeding your beetles and keeping them hydrated?
What is the temps like in the room you are keeping the beetles in?

Are you doing the same for the baby worm drawer? (Food/hydration)

Do you burn incense in your house? I hear this can affect them too as well as cigarette smoke.

That is definitely odd.

 

[fresnowitte]

Hmmm.....gee you really should beable to see movement in the substrate by now. :roll:
What are you using for substrate?

 

[sddragons]

oatmeal and cornmeal mix

Hmmm.....gee you really should beable to see movement in the substrate by now. :roll:
What are you using for substrate?

 

[fresnowitte]

That might be why your not seeing them move, but I bet they are there. :wink:
The oats are big which will make it hard to see the worms until they are beyond microscopic.
I like to use a wheat bran and wheat germ with the corn grits and a variety of other things too.

Wheat germ and wheat bran are flaked so the microscopic worms are able to move the flakes as they crawl around. When I use oats I use the scottish oats the are kind of finely ground. Plus when you go to change out your substrate you might find the oats make it a bit difficult to sift.

Have you investigated with a magnifying glass yet? :wink:

 

[fresnowitte]

Mrjayd I have some pic's posted in this thread if you'd like to take a look.
There is also a pic of a 3 week old baby super worm in a black plastic spoon.
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=98426

 

[sddragons]

Oh well i guess I will just have to wait another month or so to see anything in my oatmeal. I just moved my beetles into another drawer the other day with more oatmeal so I think I will go out and look for some wheat bran tomorrow and move the beetles into that.

Thanks....

Mrjayd I have some pic's posted in this thread if you'd like to take a look.
There is also a pic of a 3 week old baby super worm in a black plastic spoon.
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=98426

 

[fresnowitte]

Do you have a Winco in San Diego?
Or a grocery store that has a bulk food section?
If so the wheat germ, wheat bran, an other substrate stuff is really cheap, much cheaper than buying it pre-packaged. I think at Winco I pay .39 per pound for wheat germ. And less than a dollar a pound for any of the other items.

 

[sddragons]

I never heard of Winco so we probably don't have one out here but we have a chain called Henry's that sells all this stuff by the pound so I will check there. I still had 3 containers of oatmeal so I thought I would try and throw one in a blender and it chopped it up very very fine so I can mix this in now too with the wheat bran I buy. I should of thought of this sooner but I thought everyone was just using straight oatmeal out of the carton.

Do you have a Winco in San Diego?
Or a grocery store that has a bulk food section?
If so the wheat germ, wheat bran, an other substrate stuff is really cheap, much cheaper than buying it pre-packaged. I think at Winco I pay .39 per pound for wheat germ. And less than a dollar a pound for any of the other items.