Just started a Super Colony

[Screamin99]

Hey everyone just looking for pointers if anyone has any and I also have a question or two.

I bought a 3 tier plastic drawer setup and I have 16 worms sectioned off in the top drawer via a tackle box organizer. I have one super that was hiding under a piece of furniture in my tank that is already into the morph stage. So my first question is, do I need to have holes in the top of my tackle box organizer? Ive seen videos on youtube where people have them in similar setups and don't have any visible holes poked in the top. I don't wanna kill off 16 worms when they could just as easily be lizard food.

Next up, I don't have any of the bins setup for beetles yet but at what point when the beetle comes from the puape do I move them to the bins? As soon as I find them? Im going to assume that I will need quite a few beetles to really get some big super numbers. So here is my next question. Im thinking about putting the beetles in the bottom drawer.. but in one of the youtube videos I seen they were talking about a nursery and keeping beetles and moving them around and such. Ill need to watch the video again to figure out what that was about.

Does anyone have any advice for me? I know to feed them potato slices/carrots w/e w/e :study:

 

[12many]

All i can say is, it takes forever!

I've had my colony now for say 4-6 months (don't remember when i got them, but i do know it's been more than 3 mo), sifted them out by the end of each week, and not 1 single baby. I even have a UTH so progress their growth/breeding, but still no babies. I have no mites either. It's irritating that i have to keep putting fresh veggies in there but not even a single baby come out! I still have this "colony" fyi.

 

[Screamin99]

Gosh, thanks for the heads up! I hope mine doesn't take that long!

 

[Barfish88]

Feed them some viagra

 

[Smalltowngal]

Supposedly you have to force pupation in Supers
Read this, http://www.wormman.com/breeding_superworms.cfm

 

[Screamin99]

Found my first beetle today.. Hopefully I can get a few more before this guy or girl expires! I put 15 worms in tackle box's at the same time and I have a ton that are curled that will become pupae sooner or later, one worm died and one magically ended up across the border into the same bin with the dead worm? Some of them are not even curling and are still very much alive? Whats going on here?

 

[midmichicer]

Had 40 beetles about 5 months with no babies, and said screw it and fed the beetles to my beardie...

 

[AHBD]

I bred them accidentally a while back. About 13 years ago I had a big tank set up for my fireskinks. The substrate was peat moss, and I kept it damp. The room in the summer was about a constant 80 degrees, and a little warmer daytime temps. in the cage....I had a few large pieces of slate directly on the damp peat moss, and I found many hundreds of baby superworms under the slate. I don't know if it would be worth trying that way.

 

[valcash]

Be prepared to have some patience and really watch closely as the little guys are really really little, don't accidently throw them out.

 

[Screamin99]

Ive been feeding the Supers carrots and potatoes.. Ive been feeding the beetles the same diet..

I have around 9-10 beetles now and about 10-12 pupae. Ive not seen a single baby super yet? How long does it take, I think I'll end up having to order more supers before I actually notice a baby here.

 

[VogueStar]

I set up my super colony about 3months ago, and its great now. I have one small plastic bin that I cut he bottom out of and replaced it with a metal screen, by hot gluing it to the bottom.< This part is key.
The worms do have to be forced to pupate. I have a dark blue daily vitamin container with small holes cut in each slot. I place my worms in this with no food, wait a bit and they pupate. Then I take the beetles some whole oats and water crystals in the small bin and give them some egg cartons to hide in. Then I have a much larger plastic bin with all my super worms and bedding etc. I place the smaller bin with my beetles, inside the large bin so its suspended above the worms and that's it. This keeps the beetles from eating the baby supers and eggs, and it sorts my beetles from worms. I've just started to get some supers babies and its kinda cool. I started with about 2,500 super worms, I had to start pupating and breeding beetles. I did have a little fail when my beetles were so thirsty they ate each other. Then I started using water crystals for moisture & I just keep the crystals in a small cup so they do not mix in with the oats. Its taken some patients for sure, but I know one thing I will never buy super worms again. Now its easy I just keep up with the maintenance of it all and Iam set. I'll try to take some pictures, if someone wants to see. :mrgreen:

 

[Screamin99]

I would like to see your beetle/breed boxes where you keep the worms at thats for sure!

 

[warnisha]

I would too!!!!! Thinking of starting this summer! That and horns possibly!

 

[pumpkinman]

Ok so I am new at this too but having some success.
I keep the whole process, worms, aliens and beetles in the incubator @ 85F. It cuts the waiting period way down.
I have about 5-600 beetles and change the substrate every 2 weeks. Probably way too many beetles in this bin, I know. 3/4's of them are hiding!!!
In that plate is water crystals, also you can see left overs of an apple and some collard greens.

So I have substrate that is 3-4 weeks old and up until a week or so ago I thought it was a total fail. Then I saw some substrate moving.
The worms are tiny and the same colour as the wheat bran which makes them impossible to see but I have thousands!
Here is a pic of a live worm:

It is a long, long process but all I can say from my trials is "Get those temps up!!!!!"

Next up, Horns!!!!!!

 

[Screamin99]

Nice reply, thank you very much for those pictures! How do you go about moving all those beetles out of that bin when you need to transfer? Do you scoop them up with your hands or what? I only have about 12 - 15 beetles and they are simply just hanging out.

When you move your substrate where do you move the babys?