How To: Breed Superworms

Buspirone - Woo hoo. Congrates on the first beetle.

You'll have more before you know it.

I have 2 beetles, 3 more pupae that have black eyes/dark legs, 6 light colored pupae and about 15 worms that are curled up. I'm going to try using brown paper lunch bags wadded up as egg laying sites. The beetles made a beeline for it when I put them in the breeding box.

even with my crude cardboard box i got a pupae and all of the worms are curled up but they have been curled for a long time
!!!!! guys how long till they molt out!!!
mike

I have like 4 that are curled too, same question as longbord. I am using the same type of plastic container but without substrate and it seems to be working just fine. Had one molt the other day though....into a bigger superworm.

The time its takes for the worms to curl and pupate is very variable. I have some that were the first ones I separated that still aren't curling while others I just separated less than a week ago are curled up.

It took 12 days from pupae(chrysalis) to beetle on my first two beetles. You can tell when they are getting close to emerging because the eyes turn black and legs darken to brown on the pupae.

no i meant how long form worm to pupae?

Originally posted by Longbord1
no i meant how long form worm to pupae?

So far based on my experience it can take 7 to 25 days or more. It depends on the size and health of the worms you start out with. The worms I ordered from wormman are curling and pupating much faster than the worms I bought from a reptile show and local pet store.

The bigger the worm the less time to pupation as a General rule. Not graven in stone.
But the worms have to be at their personal maximum size before they pupate. Which is why your finding some of your worms molted into bigger worms.
If your worms are smaller then their max or if you feel in any way that they Are going to molt once more or so before curling.
Add a sliver or two of carrot to give them a little nibbling while they finish up growing.
One or two slivers, Not chunks, you don't want to have a moldy mess on your hands.
Just remember to be patient.
Once you get some beetles going then your on your way.
Don't stop pupating worms though until you have twenty or thirty beetles, twenty or thirty pupae on the way to beetles and some curling worms.
That way you don't have all your beetles dying out at once. You have a few generations to breed. And it Will take time for your new tiny worms to grow into worms big enough to pupate.
It took me about three months of effort and patience to get a colony that does not need me to keep buying more worms.
But it's well worth it. I have thousands of worms now of various sizes, healthy fat and all our tarantulas Love them.

I keep 40-50 beetles breeding, and keep 4 boxes for pupation going. That gives me a hundred worm/pupaes to cycle.

This ensures continous breeding and no mass deaths.
I check the pupation cells every week, put any beetles in the into the beetle breeding box as the older beetles die off, put a fresh worm in the cell the beetle occupide, and check in a week for more, replace as needed.

Now I have literaly Thousands of worms. I throw left over dry cereal of every sort in with them as I have it, toss in a few multi vitamins crushed up and some fish flakes. I put peels and other vegi matter into a saucer for them for fluids. No humidity as they need none, heck you don't even need a Lid on the worm container if it's deep enough.
Once you ahve enough worms you'll notice vegis last Maybe a day,,, no chance for mold to build up with so many varocius worms and all the ventilation.
Turtle pelets work.
They eat just about anything, but I like to keep a nice nutritional mix going.

The hardest part IS getting going.
But once you are, the mantaining is a cinch.

Got my first superworm pupa this morning. 2 more curling. The others all died or were fed off. Guess I need to get some more superworms soon.

Other 2 moulted into pupae today. Gotta set up the breeding container now. Wish I had more than 3 beetles to start though.

well i know have 4 pupae even with my crude piece of poop cardboard container even though i did lose at least 3 worms
mike

Persistance pays off! Keep plugging at it. I started out with One beetle and it died before I got my head on good and got more "pupating" boxes,, the craft boxes and just got a hundred worms and started again.
This is the result of persistance and patience.

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1) Noticing my shoebox box sized worm bin was getting a bit overloaded from so many worms.
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2) I went out and got one of those two drawer crate type stacking storage bins. Two drawers per double crate and decided to make One drawer into the worm bin.
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3) I mixed dry peat, left over dry outmeal, grits, cream of wheat, and fish food and poured it in.
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Then poured some left over cereals and outmeal and such in one side.
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5) I added egg crates to one side for the worms to chew and prowl on.
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6) I added "wrom traps" as outlined earlier in this thread.
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7) Put a deli cup with one side cut down short enough for the worms to crawl in and out of for moister. For those that don't go right into the worm traps and devour those. These are Busy bugs, so you'll notice they use both alot.
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8) I put the little shelves I use for slings and the bottom shelves for the pupating boxes and beetle shoebox, on top of the crate and put the drawer in. All the worm project related stuff in one place nice and neat.
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9) I have four celled hobby boxes I keep stocked with worms to pupate. As you can see, I have a near constant supply of "aliens" and replacement beetles for my older breeders as They die off. I replace the fresh beetles from the cells with large worms whenever one morphs.

10) My breeder box is a plastic shoebox. I put in a couple of egg crate tops for the beetles to scramble around on as I notice they breed better with these places to hide.
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11) I put in fresh morphed beetles as soon as they are a copper color.
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12) The beetles hang out under the egg crate tops and do the whole courtship thing and breed.
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13) And they their eggs on pieces of ripped egg crate, pieces of dehydrated potato, and the substrate of meals and grains. On the other side under another half of egg crate I put the fresh vegies for fluids on a flate plate. You know it's time to transfer the beetles into fresh substrate when you have visiable worms. Just put the beetles in a cup or bowl, dump your worms and such into your worm bin and add new substrate to your breeder box, replace their egg laying stuff and egg crate top and let them continue to do what they do.
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Noticing I have Thousands and Thousands of worms now.....
Probably enough to feed our tarantulas for a year before having buy feeders.........
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14) I decided to use the other drawer in the crate unit for more worms. I have the smaller "fresh" worms in one, and the larger worms in the other. By the time the beetle box has tiny worms I can "siift" out the worms that are over an inch with a bit of 1/8 inch screen and dump them in the large worm drawer..
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15) This is for the larger worms, it has a bunch of worm traps and I put potato and carrots into them. When I want worms. I pick one up..
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16) Uncap and end, pour it in a bowl and...
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17) Worms worms worms worms worms..... (That bowl full is from ONE toilet tissue sized tube trap....)
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I don't Have to continue to pupate and breed for a while at this point. You can keep full sized supers for up to five months or so before they start to die or force pupate one at a time in the mass. Though that way the other worms tend to eat the pupae and or beetles.
But this has tirned out to be such a fun Easy ongoing project that the twins enjoy that we just keep going and modifying, and refining the process. Experimenting and having fun with it.

Keep Plugging! You'll be up to your ears in worms before you know it!

The beetles are vicious little brutes. I think the males are at least. This one beetle has been chasing another one around the breeding box and has managed to bite off a couple of its legs. Now it can't right itself once it get wrestled onto its back and the dominant one just cruises over to attack it at leisure. I didn't expect that at all.

I've noticed a few fights break out in my breeder box, but not That bad. Must be a couple of males. Or some PMS'y females!

Once you get a bunch of beetles things will settle down.
Then they'lll have Better things to do....

I've been using waterbites as a mositure source with an occaisional peice of lettuce, baby carrot or citrus(oranges or clementines) in the breeder box. I assumed the beetles would eat the bedding. Now I'm wondering if the attack had anything to do with a need for protein so I added a small peice of beefheart. I'm expecting a good 20 or so pupa to turn into beetles within a several day span soon based on the darkening eyes.

Ours Do eat the bedding, and I keep moister at hand for them. I haven't read of them being carnivorous but I Do know they Will eat anything edible at all.
If you put in fish flakes that would handle any protine needs. Or should. I'm thinking you peeked in on plain territorial male bickering. Which should'nt be a problem once you have a bigger population. I looked at our beetles more closly last night and noticed a few missing legs and antenea. And when one dies the others will scavenge it. But like I said, the dang things devour anything.