Superworms and roaches in the same breeder

[Tarzanus]

Here's a thing... somehow my Dubia roach bin got infected with a couple of superworms. It seems they were male-female combo, because they started mating. I didn't find time to remove them, so in 4 months or so, I got 15 very large zophobas morio beetles and around 10 large superworm larvae and a few pupated ones. It looks like they bred normally, but only a few of their eggs managed to hatch or the young worms somehow died. Since the number of superworms was low, they pupated in the egg trays uninterrupted.

Anyone had that happened? Did any of you "infest" the roach brooder with superworms as cleaners and notice predation? I didn't see any issues, I seem to have many new Dubia roach nymphs that just hatched and there are some small superworms, but not nearly as many as inside their own bin. The worms in roach bin are really large and healthy, much larger than average superworm I see in a crowded superworm container.

I guess that roaches must have been eating the superworm eggs they hatch or the small worms that do hatch fail to get their food and water, because they can't compete with roaches. There is some roach frass in the brooder, and there are hundreds of small roach nymphs inside. I guess the superworms don't like the environment. They do eat the dead roaches. I have seen 3 or 4 completely cleaned head part of their chitin armor and they haven't been cleaned for almost a year now. No smell whatsoever, just a smell of oranges being eaten which has somewhat funky but not stinky smell. A while back, before I got superworms inside, the bin started stinking when an old roach died (one of the old ones I bought to breed).

I have just removed all adult zophobas from that container and they joined their relatives in their own bin. I left whatever was still burrowed in the frass - not much I guess, because superworms like to crawl over the egg crates and I just rarely see them lurking around on the bottom.

Long post, I know, but anyway, anyone has any experience regarding that topic?

 

[Inverts4life1]

I've had regular mealworms show up in my dubia colony once. They lived peacefully together as the beetles never got large in number and I didn't notice any problems

 

[Tarzanus]

I always thought superworms are a bit more aggressive than mealworms and would most likely hurt (predate) roaches, but in the end it seems it's the opposite - their population just doesn't seem to go up much. Like you said, their number stays low and population grows really slow. The beetles are laying their eggs constantly, yet, there are just a few worms that get to the size where I can see them. If they do get there, they live, pupate and become adults - the issue is most likely their eggs, I think roaches clean up their eggs.