Superworms

[goblinsly]

Hey everyone,

I breed mealies, dubias and supers. I read just about everything online about all 3 and watched all videos on youtube connected with them. With first 2, i have great sucess. Supers are the ones making troubles.

I tried all possible types of beddings for them. I had greatest succes soo far using soil. Then i experimented a bit soo i made bedding out of soil, added a bit of wood shavings i use for my guinea pig, many different types of food ( oat flakes, dog food, peanuts&similiar stuff, bread, etc. ). I also added some toilete paper rolls and egg cartons. For moisture i add them pieces of fruits and vegetables everyday.

I have 3 different containers with supers eggs and tiny worms now, and another container with about 100 bettles. They seem to be mating all the time, sometimes i see them laying eggs in the soil.

The problem lies in my other 3 containers with eggs and baby worms. For instance, yesterday i put a tiny piece of potato the size of finger nail in each container and there were many many tiny worms eating it in a manner of minutes, i observed them and it seems as if they could smell the moisture, they came from all corners, straight for the tiny potato piece. All well and fine, i saw at least 50 tiny worms which works for me, better then nothing.

Ok, soo they ate the whole piece yesterday. Today i add another and all i noticed around potato piece was few ( maybe 10 ) worms that were much much larger then the ones yesterday. Soo i scooped around the box and i barely found any supers. Remember, yesterday the soil in the box was moving, there were many tiny supers. Today, almoast none.

This is not the first time it happened to me. In even older box, it was same. I had huge amounts of tiny worms, must have been more then 100. Now all i have is maybe 20 very big ones.

Now i dont know what makes them die. I cant see any mold. They have enough protein food inside. I provide them enough moisture. It is as if bigger ones killed the small ones. Like, at one moment they are all the same size, then in few days i see 2 of them much much bigger then the rest of them. And another day, i cant find the tiny ones anymore.

Any ideas ? I read everything about supers. I keep em at about 28C ( 82F ). Oh, and the reason i dont keep em in oats, wheat bran or anything else, is that i tried that before and i had very bad succes. Oh, i put bettles to a new substrate once a month, to let eggs hatch in peace.

I need help fast, i have probably about 100 bettles now and i would hate to see them go to waste. I will probably make enough worms to replace those 100 bettles, but i want more. I saw ppl talking about 1000s of worms from 50 bettles. I wish my supers would breed as good as my mealies do .

 

[goblinsly]

This is the picture soo u can see whats goin on.

1: tiny supers and eggs
2: tiny supers and eggs
3: medium supers
4: mealies, started breeding them the same time as supers and have probably like a million of them now.
5: big supers, about 100 of them, my own production. Created from 10 bettles, but those bettles were made from my own supers.
6: super bettle container. bettles made from supers i bought. Those supers arent as healthy as my own ( container 5 ) and keep dying. I am wondering if its possible that the guy whos breeding them added some thing to them that makes them produce less eggs and less healty children.

 

[goblinsly]

Right now there are probably 100s of tiny superworms in my breeder tank ( with bettles ). When i remove the bettles i will have two choices. Put the box with tiny superworms to a place with 73F ( 23C ) or place with 83F ( 28C ). Which one do u suggest me ? I have bettles in box with higher temperature ( 83F ) but i heard tiny superworms might die if temperature is too high, maybe i should put worms to 73F ? Anyway, hope u have any other suggestions.

 

[invictusrules]

What is the source of your soil? If it's a commercial potting mix, be aware that manufacturers can mix in fertilizer/fungicide/perlite/vermiculite/etc. which can't be good for feeders, especially babies.

 

[goblinsly]

Its mixed from soil i gathered from different sources ( garden, woods, etc. ) and i think there is also some soil i bought for my plants. Could that be the problem ? I could try using bedding from mixed dog food and oats, but i am simply afraid to do it. Because i used it before and i got very few worms, also the last time that i moved bettles to this kind of bedding they all died ( i lost about 30 bettles ).

Btw the reason i used soil in the first place was i tried to prevent bettles from eating eggs while eating substrate. But i fear i did exactly the oposite. Because eggs are the only eatable thing in soil, they get eaten fast.

 

[AndyAMP88]

I'm having somewhat the same problem.. I use oats for my bedding. And I had tons of tiny ones, but now it looks like I'm down to 25% of the original population. :shock: I really do think the big ones feed on the smaller ones. So I'm going to get a small extra container to throw the bigger ones into, and then place them back when the other worms get big enough. Good luck on your situation though. It's a hassle ><

 

[goblinsly]

Today i moved bettles to a box with fresh bedding. And a surprise. The bedding i just moved them from, is full of tiny superworms. There must be 100s. They are really tiny but its easy to spot them in soil, everything is moving !! Soo up till here everything is fine. I think they have been in this box since about 7th of january, soo that would be about 17, 18 days which is fine i think. And i noticed a while ago that all of them used to gather in 1 corner even when they had plenty of moisture from potato soo i moved them away and under them i saw tiny superworms, soo either both worms and bettles were drawn to that corner, or, more likely, bettles were there because they were hunting the poor tiny superworms.

Anyway, now that i have tiny superworms, and pretty ones might i add, my only fear is that they will die. Soo, now its time to give me any remaining advices you have. About moisture, lets say potato. How much of it do you put inside for worms ? They cant eat much soo each time ( like each day ) i put a tiny piece, as big as a fingers nail. And only one piece ( to see how many will gather around it ). Should i put bigger piece inside, or maybe more then 1 smaller ones ? Soo they dont have to make such a trip finding it, they are just babies after all.

Have to say i am quite happy. I have probably more then 100 adult superworms, my own might i add. I am just waiting for them to get extra fat and long and then i will pupate them. Soo i am good for about half a year concerning bettles. In this time i have to figure out how to keep tiny supers alive. Oh, bettles are in the substrate right now that still has soil, saw dust, plenty of dog food which they seem to adore, etc. But after this, i will make them substrate without soil just for the test.

Did anyone try puting them into substrate that is mixed ? Like grind dog food soo its like flour ? And add some toilete paper rolls ? Would it be ok ? It sure would be a lot easier to seperate them later on .