The begining of my superworm colony

[piranhaking]

Interesting thing happened yesterday. A friend of mine stopped by, and I was showing him the colony. I have the egg crate setting where the egg part is facing down, and in the "holes" between the egg parts I saw three worms curled up. There was food and fresh carrots in the tub. Not sure what stressed them enough to cause they to do that, but for whatever reason they did. Anyway, there's three I didnt have to have film cans for .

[jfreels]

It's not a must, it just ensures the process in a near timely manner. I have had them 'C' up in feeding dishes. I'll then put them in an empty drawer in my rack and they will pupate. After they 'C' up, you can group them together to save space in whatever container you're using for them to pupate.

In my craft box, I'll put 3-4 into one section so I can add more superworms to the craft box.

[piranhaking]

I had wondered about that. Do you just leave them together and remove the beetles as they emerge? or do you seperate the pupae that look about ready to "hatch", so that the beetles cant damage the other pupae? As big as they are, I didn't know if they would bother them much or not. I've heard they CAN, I'm just not sure how big a problem that really is, as long as you remove them in a reasonable amount of time.

[jfreels]

The beetles WILL eat on the pupae when they need food/water. As long as you do it once a day, you should be fine. But, after they pupate, I seperate them into a seperate container with a little food. Then once I see the beetles in that small container, I move them with the rest of the beetles. I'm using a little notecard box for the pupae. Doesn't have to be big or anything.

But by no means do they need to stay in the pupating container until they turn into beetles.

[piranhaking]

Thanks. I seperate my beetles out of my meal worm pupae tub on a daily basis already, another min or two wont hurt. Now I can kick up production a little .

[jfreels]

Sounds good! Don't get frustrated. I've found that superworms take a little longer to get going compared to mealworms. In fact, I have about 100 large superworms now I should probably start getting ready to pupate.

[piranhaking]

For those who may be following this thread, just thought I'd give a quick update. I don't see any baby worms so far, but the beetles seem to be doing good, other than the one that got his legs chewed off. I think I may have put it in with the other beetles when it was still too soft, and not moving very quick, and they attacked. Now I am taking beetles out of the pupae tub, and putting them in a "hardening" tub until they are fully black, before going in with the main colony.

[chromeitout]

Great job with the updates!

[jfreels]

You don't need to worry about them getting 'black' before putting them in with the other beetles. That probably means you're not providing them with enough moisture. Though I suppose it could just happen anyway, but I don't think I'd worry about making sure they have turned black first.

I'd cull any that don't have wings that connect though. I've found that 9/10 times, they literally get their butt chewed. I started pupating some of my supers last week. A lot have already curled and I put them with other curled ones and put some more in there. No pupae yet though.

[piranhaking]

It might be a moisture issue. I had two new ones I added to the first group, and both had legs taken off. One had ALL its legs taken off. I also have one who's wing covers dont meet, but it hasn't been bothered so far. It was one of the first couple to emerge.