Which Worms Have the Longest Shelf Life?

[Wolfeden]

I'm not interested in breeding anything so I'd like to know which are the easiest to keep alive the longest?

I know superworms seem to live for many months at room temperature before turning to beetles and don't require much more than oatmeal and something for moisture.

What are other good, easy, nutritious options?

 

[lindasgonebuggie]

If taken care of I also feel the supers are the longest, meal worms will also last if stored in the refrig. and even wax worms and butter worms will also store for 2 weeks if stored and taken care of correctly. repti worms will store from 1 to 2 months depending on the size and how they are stored. Thanks! Linda

 

[Wolfeden]

Thanks again, Linda.

Right now my BD won't touch crickets, I hate keeping them anyway, and seems to only like the large superworms...won't eat the smaller ones.

What is a Repti worm and how big do they get?

 

[KarenInCA]

Thanks again, Linda.

Right now my BD won't touch crickets, I hate keeping them anyway, and seems to only like the large superworms...won't eat the smaller ones.

What is a Repti worm and how big do they get?

Have you tried dubia? They're super easy to contain, and have a very long shelf life. I got some extra large ones about 2 weeks ago, and they still have not turned in to adults. And when they DO turn in to adults, they will breed if in the right conditions. Mine are in a medium size plastic tub with a smooth surface inside so they can't crawl up and out. I even have the lid on but turned a bit for air circulation, and it sits in my laundry room. They have 4 egg crates, standing upright on one side, and chicken scratch and dubia chow on the other side, with the bottom of a plastic cup for water crystals that I have watered down to make water balls for them to drink from. They poop down the egg crates, and eat the food at night usually. Not one has died yet, and Im planning to order more, mediums, so that I can start a colony and not have to bother buying any more at all.

 

[lindasgonebuggie]

Hi the repti worms are a black solider fly larva just like the phoenix worms are. they are a soft grub that if stored at 53 to 55 deg. will go semi torment. The large size store about 3 weeks, med. 4 weeks and small and extra small they have a 2-3 months shelve life.
As for crickets it depends on the size you get as to how long they will last. normally a crickets life span is 6 weeks(or tech. 7 weeks) this would be your large at 6 weeks and at that time they will last you a week. One key note though is to clean any dead bodies out daily, fresh food and water of course. If you get them small and you follow the same practice most of our customers have kept there crickets longer as they stay healthier from start to finish.
As for roaches I forgot to mention them as a long lasting feeder sorry they to have a good life span if kept properly. Thanks, Linda.

 

[jenn4turtles]

I hate dealing with crickets, but I just can't seem to bring myself to trying the dubias. Roaches are NOT my fave insect - we have huge, flying ones where I live! I know they aren't the same, but still ... Can't imagine bringing live ones into my home, willingly.


Is there some secret to removing the dead crickets? Mine are kept in a large rubbermaid tub, w/ a lid. I have cut out a large portion of the lid, and hot-glued screen onto it for ventilation. Inside, I have egg crates (on a diagonal to vertical lean) and paper towel rolls (which I use to "catch them" when I refill the Kricket Keeper), and I use a paper plate, cut in half, to put their food on, which I switch out daily. To remove the dead ones, I try to tilt the container to one side, so that all of the dead ones "roll" that way, but the live ones are always get in the way as I'm trying to scoop them out with a piece of plate or cardboard. (Did I mention that I hate these things??)

 

[icelore]

Jenn, your description of crickets is why I brought roaches into my home. Don't get me wrong, I don't like them (lets just say they do kinda scare me), but after opening a tiny box with 2000 crickets that literally EXPLODED with bugs...I was done with crickets. lol The roaches are creepy, but at least they don't jump at you or get loose and go everywhere! XD

I could never figure out a way to remove the dead crickets, and they smelled terrible. I had mine in a 10g tank with egg crates in it. When I took off the top, I couldn't really get to the bottom to pick out deadies without all the live ones trying to get out.

 

[Wolfeden]

Thanks for all the great info!

As others have already noted, my wife and I think keeping crickets is pretty creepy and it would be hard for us to change that opinion.

That said, at just the mention of the word "roach" my wife turns pale. I can't see that as an option either but who knows maybe time will change that.

So that's why I'm focusing on worms. For some reason they just seem more innocuous to us. And since our BD is around two years old, maturing and eats greens we hope that some variety of worms could work.

We also live at very high altitude with long cold winters so shipping or getting live insects might become a problem.

That's why when we do buy them I'd like to get a decent quantity that will live for as long as possible.

 

[KarenInCA]

That was exactly how I used to get then dead ones out too, and I would have to move the live ones aside. Just an FYI, as far as I can tell...not ONE of my dubia have died yet!

Do you have any scavenger beetles in with your crickets? They are very little beetles and they eat carcasses down to bare bone (or in this case, exoskeleton). I don't know if you can order them or not, mine used to come with the crickets when I would pick them up from our local reptile shop. That certainly keeps down the dead ones. But I don't know how many you need per the amount of crickets you keep.

 

[icelore]

Yes, cleaner crewsv or dermestid beetles, are quite helpful! They eat the dead bugs as well as any leftover food. If they don't have enough dead thins to eat, they will snack on living things though. I have them in with my larger tub of dubia. You can buy them from a few places on line, but most people use them to clean skulls and animal bones, so sometimes it's hard to find a smaller quantity. I think it's worth it though!

I'm past a lot of my fear of the dubia I have to admit. I just don't like the adult males, since they are the only ones that look like roaches. When my mom came to visit us and found out that we had feeder bugs, we just told her they were beetles. lol

 

[Sauzo]

If you live in an area with long/cold winters, my advice is start a dubia roach colony as a staple feeder. They are really easy and during the summer months, you can use worms or whatever and winter times use the roaches primarily. Really cold winters in some areas can mean that feeder insect deliveries are gonna be non existent or at best result is a lot of dead bugs due to the conditions as well as delivery times cause of the snow and ice.

As others have said, probably superworms would be the longest living ones. Just remember you don't want to feed those to a beardie under 16 inches as it can cause impaction.

 

[jenn4turtles]

Jenn, your description of crickets is why I brought roaches into my home. Don't get me wrong, I don't like them (lets just say they do kinda scare me), but after opening a tiny box with 2000 crickets that literally EXPLODED with bugs...I was done with crickets. lol The roaches are creepy, but at least they don't jump at you or get loose and go everywhere! XD

I could never figure out a way to remove the dead crickets, and they smelled terrible. I had mine in a 10g tank with egg crates in it. When I took off the top, I couldn't really get to the bottom to pick out deadies without all the live ones trying to get out.

"EXPLODED" :lol: That's pretty much how I would describe it, too! It reminds me of those gag cans ... The ones you hand to someone to open and those things jump out. Only the crickets keep jumping, and don't stop!

 

[Wolfeden]

...and the crickets are much harder to get back into the can!

 

[jenn4turtles]

Exactly!

Chaos is trying to catch loose crickets, one-by-one, that are jumping around the kitchen, while three cats are attempting to "help" you.

 

[icelore]

Seriously, I have long curly hair, and they flew into my hair, all over my patio (I opened them outside), it was just a cloud of crickets. I'm not thrilled with bugs, but I'm not overly squeemish either - but when they hit me, I started running and screaming like a 6 year old. lol I' have no shame.

I also got one super cricket loose in my house and he hid behind the fridge for over 2 weeks. We pulled the fridge out multiple times and everything, attacked him with a yard stick and canned air...the sound echoed everywhere and drove me insane. We thought we had him one time, as he took a good wack from the stick, but three days later he had recovered enough to start chirping again! o.o When we finally caught him out and smashed him he was like 1.5 inches long.

NEVER AGAIN.