Superworm question

[amy89]

Hi, I've been visiting this site for awhile now but this is my first post.

Last weekend I purchased some superworms from a petshop and the guy there kept them in a refrigerator. The worms are tiny, no longer than an inch. Over the last couple of days I've found anywhere from 20-30 aliens in the container each day. From what I've read it can take five months or more for them to become large enough to pupate and most times they need to be separated. One beetle has already emerged, although it could be from the previous superworms I purchased that were bigger.

The petshop gets the worms in from Pisces which is quite a big supplier of live reptile feeders here in Australia, so mislabeling from their end might be possible. So my question is could these so called Superworms actually be mealworms? or has the petshop keeping them in the refrigerator had some effect on their growth/when they pupate?


First pic is the pupae/alien in comparison to the worms and the second pic is all of the pupae/aliens I've found.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Triage]

Judging from that picture, I am going to say someone mis-labled them. Those appear to be mealworms. Superworms sold in stores are not refrigerated and they have some black rings around them as well.

 

[amy89]

Thanks for the reply. I've contacted the Pisces company to ask if there was a labeling error, I'll just have to wait for a reply.

Are they still safe to feed to my two beardies occasionally or am I better off just sticking to roaches and crickets. I've read about them causing impaction and wouldn't want to risk it.

 

[Triage]

The common thought on this site is to not feed mealworms to dragons, although I have when I ran out of other things to feed. If you have crickets and roaches, you can just use those to be on the safe side. Also superworms shouldn't be fed until the dragons are 12" inches I believe. (someone or a search of the site can correct me if I am wrong) These links have pictures of the larvae and beetles of each species and you should be able to tell pretty quickly, especially the difference between the beetles.

Superworms (zophobas morio) http://www.flickr.com/photos/29287337@N02/2892359862/

Mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mealworm

I have just started "yesterday" a superworm colony, after successfully breeding mealworms. I am pretty sure the superworms won't pupate in a colony. So if you have THAT many pupae, I would bet they are mealworms.

 

[SkitTer]

Superworms won't pupate in a colony (usually). So you have to remove several worms and "stress" them to get them to pupate. Also, the refrigerator will kill supers. Although, someone here told me their supers came back to life after being in the frig. So chances are, you have regular mealworms.

 

[amy89]

The beetles that have started emerging resemble the beetle of the mealworm. I guess the company had an overstock of mealworms and figured people like myself wouldn't know the difference between the two. Very unsafe if you ask me.

Thanks for all your help guys.

 

[Triage]

Alright, so I have successfully pupated about 7 superworms...and I can tell you..the pupae of the superworm is MUCH larger than the mealworm. Of course, I used all large supers for this colony. But when I saw the first pupae, I was like "Whoah, that's huge."

 

[amy89]

Alright, so I have successfully pupated about 7 superworms...and I can tell you..the pupae of the superworm is MUCH larger than the mealworm. Of course, I used all large supers for this colony. But when I saw the first pupae, I was like "Whoah, that's huge."

With the few superworms I had left I decided to let them pupate and they were successful. You can definitely tell the difference in the pupae. Hopefully they manage to turn into beetles and reproduce successfully. I hope you have good luck with yours.

The supplier of the worms never got back to me either.