Calling all bug-breeders

Hi all..Just wanted to know what bugs you breed and how do you do it?
I'm currently breeding mealworms and in the beatle stage still waiting on my worms though I'm interested in breeding waxworms mainly because I don't want to hear crickets churping etc all night and day lol

why don't you try some superworms instead or some silkworms if you want something more challenging. roaches are even easier.

Roaches, Roaches, Roaches!
It is soooooooo easy.
It took me about a month to get over the gross feeling, but its worth it.
They do everything for you, and it is sooooooo easy. lol
All you need to do is feed and water them.
You wont need to buy feeders again!

just make sure you buy enough roaches to start a colony at first. it might take you a while to get enough to actually use them as daily feeders.

I have meals in the beetle stage too....Almost the whole colony is larve or beetle now....Supers haven't turned yet. and waiting on roaches to arrive.

breed dubia and silkworms

Ok so how do you breed roaches i'm not sure if I can get hold of them but will try

if you live around LA, and if you are patient enough to wait couple of months, I'll give you all my Dubia excess. Since i got the starter colony for free, I decided to extend the love ) ) by giving my roaches for free.

but basically you need:
glass enclosure with a lid (optional. Although dubia won't climb glass, i still put it there) -i would opt the glass one. not the plastic.

Stack couple of egg cartons

Put food (fruit, veggies.. i avoid high protein chow altogether. Although your roaches thrive with this food, but they are bad for your chameleon)

Put water crystal

If you live in a cold place, buy a heat matt or heat tape. If you have a glass aquarium, you can use these products without fear of melting.
keep it warm

put them in a dark closet.

That's it.
wait till they start popping babies about a month or two.

Well firstly I live in London in the UK and secondly what is water crystal lol thanks.

that water gel thing for crickets.

what else could be used if i cant get that?

Will adult locusts eat the eggs they lay? Anyone know?

"what else could be used if i cant get that?"


oranges

Wish my chams could eat super worms. they are just too big though

Who says breeding silkworms is chalenging? I think they are probably easier to breed than mealworms at least for me.

I'm trying to get supers going. I got the beetles, but it seems like they are all one sex because I don't have any worms! Can anyone help with this?

BocaJan said:

I'm trying to get supers going. I got the beetles, but it seems like they are all one sex because I don't have any worms! Can anyone help with this?

Click to expand...

How long have you had beetles? What have they got to eat and breed in/on?

I only keep up to 6 beetles at any one time. From these I get more than enough worms for my needs (five panthers get these a couple times a week). Here's what I do:

• I use three old plastic yogurt containers, each is about 15cm (6 inches) height, maybe 10cm in diametre. I dont bother to use lids.
  
• In each I put a mix of bran and oats, about 5cm (two inches) deep. Also sometimes I add ground raw sunflower, dry coconut, alfalfa, almonds.
  
• Just occasionally I also add a few few veggie fish food flakes, or sometimes powdered milk or a pieces of boiled egg or dead (from natural causes) crickets. However, to avoid transfer of excess protien and vitamins, dont give fish flakes to those worms soon to be doomed to the stomach of a chameleon to whatever gutload you prefer. Instead switch to your preferred gutload.
  
• To provide liquid in the beetle and worm containers, I have a small piece or two of any of the following: carrot, potatoe, apple, orange, watermelon, squash, avacadoe, dandylion leaves, carrot tops, romaine, pomagranet, kiwi, etc. So long as the moisture is available, the adults dont seem interested in eating the worms, and the worms dont eat beetles or each other.
  
• Dont add too much veg/fruit/moisture or you'll get mold. Plus, Beetles lay eggs pretty much anywhere, including on any leftover dried-up potatoe bits, so you dont want to have to throw out old food and thus throw out some of the egss. Add only what will be eaten up quickly.
  
• The beetles are in one of the containers. In here they also get piece of coconut shell, that they like to hide under. A bit of cardboard or similar would work too.
  
• After a month or two, I notice little worms in the beetle bin, and I move the beetles to a second container. A month or two later, I again see worms, and so I move remaining beetles to third container, etc.
  
• As the worms grow, more bran etc is added as needed. there are usually more a couple hundred worms in each container, from only five or so beetles.
  
• When I run low on worms in a container, the last few are moved or fed off, the container washed with boiling water, and it is preped ready for beetles again.
  
• They dont need to be particularily warm to thrive. 23C is fine.
  
• Once Beetles are about 5 days old, they're ready to breed and lay eggs (you will not see the eggs cuz they are very very small). Beetles lay eggs anywhere - in substrate, on "furniture", on the side of container, etc.
  
• Beetles live about 4 months. When one dies, I encourage a worm to pupate to take its place, so that I always have 4-6 beetles.
  
• To get a worm to pupate, move it to its own solitary little container, and put it in a fairly dark place.
  
• Pupae emerge as beetles after about 12 days
  
  

I "breed" Dubias but really I don't do anything, they do it all. I give em food and water crystals and it seems like every time I open the lid I have dozens of babies I never saw before. I only have a couple of adult breeding pairs, too.

Superworms are another species that seems very easy to breed. At least, I got a bunch of beetles I didn't even want or try to get. After that, I'm not sure because I uh... dispatched them, since I never wanted them to begin with.

I also accidentally bred Silkworms because I bought too much and fed them too fast when my chameleons were too small. I must have had hundreds of eggs, but I didn't refrigerate them and they still hadn't hatched in over a month, so I refrigerated them for a month, took some out and those never hatched. I think my refrigerated might be too cold. Actually I still have some refrigerated, but I don't expect anything out of them lol. I bought a huge bag of food for those damn eggs, too ... Maybe I'll get some eggs and try again.

I'd have to say the most difficult bug for me to breed by far has to be crickets! Everybody says they're easy, and with some methods I'm sure they are, but it was really a pain for me. The few eggs I could rescue from being eaten by the crickets hatched to tiny pinheads who ended up getting eaten by ants on my balcony.

All that being said, going forward I'm most likely going to breed Dubias and Silkworms because I think they're both at least reasonably easy to breed and make a great 1-2 combo nutritionally as staples for my chameleons.

I've had the same sort of issues. I bred waxworms refrigerated them and I think it killed them off. I had HUNDREDS. I gave 50 to my uncle. Kept about 100 in a tub (the actual colony) and about 100 in the fridge wich died.

im still trying with super worms and i have been doing well with my roaches