Worm Breeding Sucess!!

[turbosteve]

Edit: This was "Worm Breeding Failure" but I've confirmed success so I've updated the title

Hello All -

I've had mealworm and superworm beetles since the first week of November and I still haven't seen any baby worms. I have about an inch to two of bran, fresh veggies every day or 2, egg cartons, and have moved the beetles to a diffent bin every 2-3 weeks. I'm up to about 60+ superworm beetles now and 40+ mealworm beetles. The temps are 76-78. I know superworms hav issues with tobacky smoke and the gf used to smoke in the apt, but she quite Dec 1. I've read multiple threads on this site and a number of articles on google but I can't see what I'm missing if anything. Does anyone have any suggestions on what may be causing my problem? Its been about 7 weeks since my first beetles. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time!

Cheers!

-Steve

 

[DragonsInKansas]

The baby superworms will be so incredibly small at first that there is no way for you to see them. After about a month if you should be able to start seeing the superworms moving around in the bran. Also make sure that they are warm enough, they are just like roaches, they like it toasty.

As far as mealworms, my colony took a long time to get going, it was probably a good 3-4 months before I saw any chance and then the population just EXPLODED. Now I have thousands of mealworms that I have absolutly no use for :?

 

[turbosteve]

Thanks, guess I'll just keep waitin and hopin!

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Are you housing both worms together? If so they wont do good at all because they are 2 different worms. Good luck.

 

[turbosteve]

Are you housing both worms together? If so they wont do good at all because they are 2 different worms. Good luck.

hahahhaha lmao no I'm not that newb, thanks though!!

 

[OgleRpets]

Did you get your starters from a pet store by any chance?

 

[turbosteve]

Did you get your starters from a pet store by any chance?

I pulled my "starters" right out of my feeders that I get from my buddies shop. Can't remember who is supplying him though, he just switched up and I think he's getting them outta the states now. (I'm in Canada) I know butterworms are sterilized but are there issues with store bought supers/meals? Everything has been normal except for the lack of babies so far

 

[Triage]

I'm going to only address the mealworms, as that is what I have successfully grown. (I wish I had kept a better record of times and dates) Your setup is just like mine, except I decided to stop pulling the beetles when I found out I wasn't supposed to feed these to a BD. I would take the pupae out of the bin and place them in a small container, once they became beetles, they were placed in ground oatmeal. (I use a magic bullet). This process went on for a month as new pupae would turn and I would put them in the bin. Finally, I decided I had enough beetles (probably around 80 or so) and culled the rest of the pupae in the freezer. It then took another month for me to start seeing TINY little worms crawling on the cardboard I had in there for them to hide. These tiny little worms have been in there for about 3 weeks now. On occasion, I can see them...but they mostly stay under the oatmeal. I know they are growing, because I can see tiny sheds. The only difference I can see is the heat. I have mine on a shelf. Directly under this shelf is my dubia colony with my CHE. Any residual heat that rises up from the CHE, warms the wood and in turn the plastic bin with mealworms. It seems to take a while to get these going. When I get home, I will get a thermal reading and repost. That's the only thing I can think of..maybe just a little to cool. I am basically done with raising them.....but I figured I would at least raise them to full grown before I feed them to the birds. ;-)

Let me just add that I think the heat is really to get them to mate. I think they will pupate in cold temps. (mealworms). I believe this because I threw a couple of my starter mealworms my in turtle viv (a 4'x4' box), the turtle never ate them and I just let them go hide in the husks I keep the turtle in. Yesterday, I was checking on my turtle, trying to keep her awake for the winter and found two huge Darkling beetles in with her. Now, I can only assume that these were some leftover mealworms that the turtle didn't eat. In fact, I never could get her to eat them. She only wants strawberries and nightcrawlers. :/

 

[turbosteve]

I'm going to only address the mealworms, as that is what I have successfully grown. (I wish I had kept a better record of times and dates) Your setup is just like mine, except I decided to stop pulling the beetles when I found out I wasn't supposed to feed these to a BD. I would take the pupae out of the bin and place them in a small container, once they became beetles, they were placed in ground oatmeal. (I use a magic bullet). This process went on for a month as new pupae would turn and I would put them in the bin. Finally, I decided I had enough beetles (probably around 80 or so) and culled the rest of the pupae in the freezer. It then took another month for me to start seeing TINY little worms crawling on the cardboard I had in there for them to hide. These tiny little worms have been in there for about 3 weeks now. On occasion, I can see them...but they mostly stay under the oatmeal. I know they are growing, because I can see tiny sheds. The only difference I can see is the heat. I have mine on a shelf. Directly under this shelf is my dubia colony with my CHE. Any residual heat that rises up from the CHE, warms the wood and in turn the plastic bin with mealworms. It seems to take a while to get these going. When I get home, I will get a thermal reading and repost. That's the only thing I can think of..maybe just a little to cool. I am basically done with raising them.....but I figured I would at least raise them to full grown before I feed them to the birds. ;-)

Let me just add that I think the heat is really to get them to mate. I think they will pupate in cold temps. (mealworms). I believe this because I threw a couple of my starter mealworms my in turtle viv (a 4'x4' box), the turtle never ate them and I just let them go hide in the husks I keep the turtle in. Yesterday, I was checking on my turtle, trying to keep her awake for the winter and found two huge Darkling beetles in with her. Now, I can only assume that these were some leftover mealworms that the turtle didn't eat. In fact, I never could get her to eat them. She only wants strawberries and nightcrawlers. :/

Aside from the heat I'm doin the same thing as you. Welp, I do throw all my mealworm pupae in with the bran and beetles, I only keep my actual mealworms seperate (this is where I pull the pupae from). Here are some pics from last month, I've got a lot more beetles now:

I have the meals in the smaller drawers and the supers in the deeper on the left side of the pic:

Mealworm pupae and beetles:

Darkling (Superworm) beetles, I flipped the cartons to show them:

Waitin on egges here:

Here are hopefully my last purchased superworms:

 

[Triage]

Hmm.. Looks right to me. Your potatoes (I think) might be a moldy though. I'd pull them. I decided to stop with the potatoes because of the mold and just started buying really cheap carrots and slicing them in half and putting them in there. They dont appear to mold, just dry out. Give it a couple more weeks and see what happens. I have a feeling your right about there. I think, (not sure on this one) the grinding of the meal (oat or bran) helps with the egg laying. I dont think you should give up on that yet though. Give them a couple of more weeks. Next time you transfer the beetles though, put them in some ground up bran meal and see if it has any effect.

Chris

 

[Twobeardieguy]

Are you housing both worms together? If so they wont do good at all because they are 2 different worms. Good luck.

hahahhaha lmao no I'm not that newb, thanks though!!

:lol: I had to ask cause you never know! :lol: :wink:

 

[cjzshartzer]

Breeding supers is really simple but can cause a lot of impatience. Most insects take forever to morph, grow, breed, ect....except the hornworm. I followed a guide from hancocksbeardeddragons.com They cover a step by step guide to breeding supers. Morphing took my supers around 2.5-3 weeks. Breeding seemed unsucessful and i tried many variations of subtrate. Little did I know the eggs are microscoping practically, as well as the newly emerged worms. I try not to trash any old subrate too soon, because to my surprise every time there will be several hundred newly emerged super. To prevent mold, I ball up several pieces of newspaper or white paper and place the fresh fruits and veggies and water crystals on. Potatoes do mold quick. I change my fruits and veggies 2 X's a day for my feeders and my dragons. Check out the hancocksbeardeddragon.com for the guide! Also, breeding waxworms is a breeze with little effort but they take forever. They require minimal time and food. Adult waxworm moths only breed. They dont eat or drink. I will look up the breeding website for those as well. Home bred waxies are huge and fast. I was shocked and scared when I went looking in the subrate/food. Scared me to death. I have never seen such huge waxies that crawled as fast as a roach! Much Luck and Much Patience! Waiting seems like an eternity!

 

[turbosteve]

Breeding supers is really simple but can cause a lot of impatience. Most insects take forever to morph, grow, breed, ect....except the hornworm. I followed a guide from hancocksbeardeddragons.com They cover a step by step guide to breeding supers. Morphing took my supers around 2.5-3 weeks. Breeding seemed unsucessful and i tried many variations of subtrate. Little did I know the eggs are microscoping practically, as well as the newly emerged worms. I try not to trash any old subrate too soon, because to my surprise every time there will be several hundred newly emerged super. To prevent mold, I ball up several pieces of newspaper or white paper and place the fresh fruits and veggies and water crystals on. Potatoes do mold quick. I change my fruits and veggies 2 X's a day for my feeders and my dragons. Check out the hancocksbeardeddragon.com for the guide! Also, breeding waxworms is a breeze with little effort but they take forever. They require minimal time and food. Adult waxworm moths only breed. They dont eat or drink. I will look up the breeding website for those as well. Home bred waxies are huge and fast. I was shocked and scared when I went looking in the subrate/food. Scared me to death. I have never seen such huge waxies that crawled as fast as a roach! Much Luck and Much Patience! Waiting seems like an eternity!

From everyones comments it sounds like I'm doing everything right, just need more patiences lol. Guess I'll just keep doing and see what happens.

hancocksbeardeddragon.com is a great site, been there a couple times. I'm also doing wax worms:

I also plan to start silks and horns in the next month once I have more room

 

[OgleRpets]

I know some shops do sterilize their supers I've never heard that about meal worms though.

 

[Triage]

I also plan to start silks and horns in the next month once I have more room

Too cool. I want to try all of these too.