Superworms and their Beetles

TRection

Arachnoknight
Joined
Apr 19, 2017
Messages
267
What are you feeding them? Is it the same for both stages?

What are you using for substrate? How damp/dry are you keeping the sub?

How long does it take from starting to having baby supers?

I'd love to start breeding them myself...supers make great feeders, especially for gravid females.
I use oats as both a sub and food (this is what the majority of keepers use as its a great sub for them to dig in but they can also eat it, i have been keeping them this way for years and have never had any issues) along with cricket all in one food/water/vitamin cubes as well as fruits and veggies every few days (they leave no trace). You dont have to wet the sub what so ever so nice and bone dry. When you separate a superworm it will begin to pupate (they can only pupate when they are alone) so thats what the tackle box is use for, pop in 1 in each cube of the box with a pinch of oats and after about 2 weeks they will pupate, another 2 weeks after that and they will hatch into beetles, the beetles can live between 1-2 months and will be constantly laying eggs which again after a few weeks will hatch and the cycle continues. :D They are very very easy to care for and cheap too, with even the most basic of set ups of just a plastic bin and some oats you get nice and healthy and FAT superworms in no time.
 
Last edited:

cold blood

Moderator
Staff member
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Jan 19, 2014
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13,223
Thanks...that's actually exactly how I keep them...But I have never found them to be eating the potato, carrot or whatever vegies I drop in. Ive never gotten beetles, but I have had them pupate...my ts love that stage...I did put a few in a deli with oats and potato/carrot, but they never became beetles and just died, which is why I assumed them needed more moisture or heat or something.
 

TRection

Arachnoknight
Joined
Apr 19, 2017
Messages
267
Thanks...that's actually exactly how I keep them...But I have never found them to be eating the potato, carrot or whatever vegies I drop in. Ive never gotten beetles, but I have had them pupate...my ts love that stage...I did put a few in a deli with oats and potato/carrot, but they never became beetles and just died, which is why I assumed them needed more moisture or heat or something.
I think its just more of a numbers thing, they dont need anything really in terms of heat or moisture (room temp is fine and you can even put them in the fridge), thats why the tackle box is good for trying to get beetles, out of 20 even if more than half of them die (and they very well might) you will still end up with 5-10 beetles capable of laying literally hundreds of eggs EACH, so you really dont need that many beetles anyways :) its all a numbers game. i was also wrong about how long they live, 1-2 months is on the shorter side, they can live up to 4-5 months.
 

Vermis

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
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Dec 11, 2005
Messages
214
I used to breed superworms the same way, with some small differences: I used dry coir in the tackle boxes; I provided bits of cork bark for the beetles to lay their eggs on; I used 3-4 sandwich boxes to rotate the beetles and get batches of different sizes; and I also used sandwich boxes because space in my heated cabinet was limited.

It was my understanding that the worms/beetles needed some heat to mature and breed, with a couple of caveats: the cooler bottom of the cabinet where I kept them was just a bit above what most consider average room temp, and the actual room temp outside it was fairly lower!
 

antsman

Arachnosquire
Joined
Oct 3, 2016
Messages
59
What are you feeding them? Is it the same for both stages?

What are you using for substrate? How damp/dry are you keeping the sub?

How long does it take from starting to having baby supers?

I'd love to start breeding them myself...supers make great feeders, especially for gravid females.

I use a mixture of oats, cornmeal, and wheat bran all natural. I keep the bedding as dry as possible and put fresh veggies in every 3-4 days never letting them mold.

And make sure the bottom bin has extra ventilation, I had a huge mold problem when I first tried.

Depending on temp, I keep them between 75-80F about a 3 weeks to a month.


(Hoping to get some pic's taken today)
 

Amarok815

Arachnopeon
Joined
May 4, 2017
Messages
23
Don't refrigerate supers! It doesn't cause them to hibernate like it does meals worms.

On the Heat subject, I had them next to my gecko heater and within maybe a week, they were HUGE!! I wasn't even trying to grow them at that time. Heat definitely helps!

I had given mine a banana peel one time and it was gone the next time I opened the culture up, so they'll eat stuff you put in there. I would just be careful, it doesn't cause the substrate to mold. I put stuff in a tray and set it in there, so it doesn't touch the sub, but make sure they don't try to bury it...
 

TRection

Arachnoknight
Joined
Apr 19, 2017
Messages
267
I have an update on my beetles, everything seems to be going well, the 3 level sorting bin is working great for this :D the super worms are all big and fat now and the bottom level with the tackle box works better than i had thought it would for the pupa. I only put 6 super worms into it as like a test run and its been almost a month since i did that. Only 1 out of the 6 has died in the tackle box with 4 pupas almost onto their beetle stage and one lagging a little behind but still doing well getting ready to pupate. Here is a pic of my set up and the tackle box progression :)

20170627_172220.jpg 20170627_172300.jpg 20170627_172225.jpg 20170627_171042.jpg
 

TRection

Arachnoknight
Joined
Apr 19, 2017
Messages
267
How've they been doing since?
Everything went really well but the beetles ended up dying sooner than i had wanted, they had a tons of babies (i didnt count but i would say at least 100 super tiny superworms wiggling around) but some of them didn't fall through the mesh like they were supposed to and ended up growing and ate the beetles so i willl have to keep a closer eye on that for next time. Over all i think everything went well though, the beetles lasted me a 4 months i think :)
 

ShyDragoness

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jun 7, 2017
Messages
369
Everything went really well but the beetles ended up dying sooner than i had wanted, they had a tons of babies (i didnt count but i would say at least 100 super tiny superworms wiggling around) but some of them didn't fall through the mesh like they were supposed to and ended up growing and ate the beetles so i willl have to keep a closer eye on that for next time. Over all i think everything went well though, the beetles lasted me a 4 months i think :)
Thats awesome! I think Im going to try a set up which involves moving the adults into different containers after the worms start hatching out to see if that maximizes the output :D
 

kevinlowl

Arachnoknight
Joined
Aug 21, 2015
Messages
222
Everything went really well but the beetles ended up dying sooner than i had wanted, they had a tons of babies (i didnt count but i would say at least 100 super tiny superworms wiggling around) but some of them didn't fall through the mesh like they were supposed to and ended up growing and ate the beetles so i willl have to keep a closer eye on that for next time. Over all i think everything went well though, the beetles lasted me a 4 months i think :)
How much substrate (depth) did you use? How much moist food did you give? I was able to breed them last year but I'm not sure why the setup I made a few months ago has yet to yield results. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.
 
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