Easy insects to raise?

Well, since the last reptile show, I have been hanging onto some super worms and giving the rodents treats once in a while. Although, I read on here that they are super ridiculous to raise a bunch of, they stink, and bite.

Well, my ASF's went NUTS! over them, and demolished what I had left in no time. They tore apart their whole cage going after them, and just love them.

I'm just looking for ideas for insects to raise for some treats for the rodents. I heard meal worms are easy, is this true? Is it worth it?

I have super worms on stuff that chickens eat, at room temp, and they seem to be thriving! No care whatsoever on my part lol

Huh, I was reading a thread where they say to get them to turn to beetles, you have to separate them into a little container until they grow into adults... that they stink and bite... I don't want to even touch the little nasties!

Are yours reproducing in there like that? That would be super nice if they were!

The little ones seem to reproduce faster than the super worms lol

I love my orange-headed roaches. They are SO easy! I bought around 100 of them last year and now have a good couple hundred in varying sizes. Some of the first babies are now almost adult size. They are clean, they don't smell, they don't bite, they don't climb or fly. They eat chicken mash, fruits and veggies. I just keep them on cypress mulch in a tub with a few plastic saucer hides for them to hide under, in the snake room(which is around 82). They thrive and the Bearded, the Leopard Gecko and the Crested LOVE them. Plus, no coccidia like what crickets carry :) AND they have an extremely high meat to shell ratio, so no chance of impaction(unless you feed too big).

The babies are kind of cute too.. Look a bit like roly polies :)

Call me crazy but Silkworms were so easy to take care of:) It cost $300 for me to get everything set up + silkworms + 10 pounds of dry food but my beardie was never happier. Breeding them was easy as well, the moths go to it right when they find each other! Raising them was easy, just shred some silk chow over them twice a day, and clean their tub once a week. Everyone said how hard they are to raise, but after raising crickets/roaches/superworms I can say different for myself:)

BTW, I never had a problem with superworms biting? I had 1000 of them with zero problems other than smell?

Thanks Becky, I'll have to pick your brain about those. :)

I don't like how the super worms fling back and try to get you.. I use pliers with the little nasties. I don't know how the rats deal with them hahaha

I have found super worms very easy to raise. I use a pair of wooden tongs to remove the super worms i need to feed off. Mine dont smell at all. I have about 1,000 in a rubbermaid type shelf thing (three small drawers full)

Mealworms are easy also...

I feed/keep mine on a type of chicken food and drop lettuce in there every couple days for moisture, they are breeding like crazy and creating lots of little super worms for me lol... I keep them at room temp and honestly aside from adding lettuce and chicken food every once in awhile there is absolutely no maintenance. IMO its alot of work for your ASF's, if you were feeding something that needed the super worms or meal worms it would be more worth it.. but if you dont mind having them around, have at it!

Are you breeding super worms like that? The articles I read say that you have to separate them to get them to grow into beetles. I don't really feel like messing around too much, that's why Becky's roaches sound like a good plan.

Connie, I dont seperate mine, and I see four stages of development alive and well. LOL Mine dont even bite.....I didnt even know they could bite!

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Originally Posted by Patrick Long

Connie, I dont seperate mine, and I see four stages of development alive and well. LOL Mine dont even bite.....I didnt even know they could bite!

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Hmm... I'm going to have to give it a go then. I still have a handful left. See what happens.

;) we dont separate here either

I think the main reason to separate so they can pupate is because they can be somewhat cannibalistic and the worms will feed on the pupae. I tried raising superworms before and was successful but it seemed to me that they took a longer time until I had worms that were food sized.

Regular meal worms on the other hand were so easy it was ridiculous I kept them in rubbermaid boxes on chicken mash and I didn't do anything with them other then toss in some veggies every few days or so and pull out the pupae when I wanted to start another colony. (which is a good idea if you want worms all of the same size)

mealworms are very easy to breed, keep them on a substrate and after 13ish molts they turn into a beetle. a few weeks later your have babies (they are so small you cant hardly see them)

Superworms are alot harder. I use 6 little storage divider containers that have like 34 slots in them. You put the largest ones (2"+) in individual slots. after about 2 weeks (some die off) they will be alien looking things. put them on substrate, after another 2ish weeks they will be beetles. Once they turn black that can lay mate/layeggs.

Ahh thanks for the info! I'm not yet decided what I'm going to do. I made a nice tub set up of half oatmeal/ half chicken feed and threw the super worms in there. If they breed, awesome. If not, I might go for the roach set up.

I attempted to put them in the snake room where it's right around 80. The potatoes molded up in one day. That sucks... I don't know how to give them moisture if I can't do potatoes.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Ahh thanks for the info! I'm not yet decided what I'm going to do. I made a nice tub set up of half oatmeal/ half chicken feed and threw the super worms in there. If they breed, awesome. If not, I might go for the roach set up.

I attempted to put them in the snake room where it's right around 80. The potatoes molded up in one day. That sucks... I don't know how to give them moisture if I can't do potatoes.

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Super's will not breed unless you stress them in the small enclosures. You can use carrots also for moisture

Old post, but, with the mealworms, I don't use veggies for moisture. I throw in cricket water crystals about once or twice a week, and don't have any problems with mold or anything.

dubias and lateralis!!! throw some fruits,vegetables and dog food in there and let them rot and just wait for the roaches to multiply. the young ones eat the crap of the adults which makes them grow faster. very low maintenance.:D

Mold kills roaches!

I got a little tackle box form Walmart. Drilled a few holes in each little area. Put a superworm in there and they will start to change. The beetles do have an aroma. But only if you mess with them. You need to move the beetles. I have found that they feed on the smaller worms and eggs. So about every two weeks I move the beetles over to a new tub. In about six months you will have tons. It is not as hard as some people make it out to be.

Still no super worms, just my 3 little beetles. I have no clue what I'm doing wrong here, but I'm apparently just not a bug person.

Betta, what kind of crystal do you use, I am a total noob when it comes to insects. I dont like the mold that comes around with the potatoes and carrots I give.

http://www.watergelcrystals.com/order.htm

I got a couple of pounds of this stuff about half a year ago and have hardly used any so far. It lasts a long time.

Well, I'm down to one beetle, and still no more worms. As far as I can tell, my female passed away this weekend. Sad to see her go. :( I guess we'll see about those orange heads as super beetles are totally bust.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Ahh thanks for the info! I'm not yet decided what I'm going to do. I made a nice tub set up of half oatmeal/ half chicken feed and threw the super worms in there. If they breed, awesome. If not, I might go for the roach set up.

I attempted to put them in the snake room where it's right around 80. The potatoes molded up in one day. That sucks... I don't know how to give them moisture if I can't do potatoes.

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I have found that big fat carrots are inexpensive long lasting and just dry up as opposed to rotting.

Mealworms and Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches! All the way!