The begining of my superworm colony

[piranhaking]

I've gotta go get some more film canisters, but its a start for now. Those six have been in there for several days, and are now curled up and not moving, so I should have pupae soon I hope. I should also have my dubia roaches in soon, so hopefully between those two and my meal worms I shouldn't have to buy any feeders before too much longer

[jfreels]

Supers take a while to get started, I'm still trying to get the colony going since March. I have thousands of 1/4 inch worms. They just take a lot longer than mealworms.

If you want to skip on more film canisters, you can go to Wal-Mart or any place that sells crafts and get a bead box. I have a 24 compartment one and just rotate them around. I thought about buying another bead box, but I didn't want the superworm colony as large as my mealworm colony.

You may want to get rid of the egg crate. It's possible that they could eat it, I know they eat paper towel.

[Jay_Bunny]

Good luck with the superworms. I just got a small container of them to start up my own colony. I want to start raising them now so that by the time my gecko is big enough to eat them (and I have many more geckos) that I have enough to supply them with feeders.

How long does it usually take them to go from egg to a full sized superworm?

[piranhaking]

Supers take a while to get started, I'm still trying to get the colony going since March. I have thousands of 1/4 inch worms. They just take a lot longer than mealworms.

If you want to skip on more film canisters, you can go to Wal-Mart or any place that sells crafts and get a bead box. I have a 24 compartment one and just rotate them around. I thought about buying another bead box, but I didn't want the superworm colony as large as my mealworm colony.

You may want to get rid of the egg crate. It's possible that they could eat it, I know they eat paper towel.

Oh they are eating it already. I didn't figure it could really hurt, and several of the breeding articles I've read suggest it. They say it gives somewhere to hide and crawl around, and that it helps prevent canablism. I've saw the bead box idea before, and thought about it, but I already had the film cans from another hobby of mine (geocaching), so I just went with them. Thanks for the suggestion though, if I didn't already have some of them I'd probably go for the box.

Sounds like they are quite a bit slower that the meal worms. I'm not sure exactly how long I've had mine, but I'd say around may, and my first babies are already getting close to 3/8 an inch. It seems like once they hit about a quarter they really start taking off quick. Good luck with the colony

[piranhaking]

Good luck with the superworms. I just got a small container of them to start up my own colony. I want to start raising them now so that by the time my gecko is big enough to eat them (and I have many more geckos) that I have enough to supply them with feeders.

How long does it usually take them to go from egg to a full sized superworm?

Any answer I gave to that would just be what you would get from the first few links from a google search. I dont really have any first hand experience with it. I started a colony a few years ago for my college, but lost the job due to the minimum wage increase before I got through a full life cycle. This colony doesn't even have any pupae yet so time will tell. I have heard it is very temperature dependant though, the warmer it is, the faster it happens.

[piranhaking]

I finally got my first few pupae a few days ago. I forgot how big those things are. Hard to figure out how such a skinny worm can make such a fat thing. I cant wait for my first beetles from this colony.

[piranhaking]

Finally got my first beetles

[wolfy-hound]

Is there any caresheet type links about how to do this? I have a mealworm colony, but not a superworm one. Those look facinating!

[piranhaking]

They're a lot alike really, as I mentioned earlier some people suggest some egg flats for them to crawl on, but they only turn to pupae if you isolate them. Thats where the film canisters and bead boxes being discussed come in. They can NOT!!!! be put in the fridge or they will die. Care sheets are pretty easy to find (google is your friend). There is more of a variety of lines of thought on these guys though. Some people discuss putting them in ecoearth or dirt, stuff like that, personally I use the same stuff as for my meal worms. I had a colony going back at school this way, but didn't have it long enough for the babies to get much of size to them. Keep an eye on this thread, I'll be keeping it updated as I go, and you can see how my method works out.

[wolfy-hound]

Very cool! I only have giant mealworms as my "big" worms. I've been buying most of my feeders, because I hate cricket chirping, and my mealworm culture got knocked down.

I'll keep an eye out. It's facinating.