We buy crickets every three weeks. When we don’t have babies we can usually get away with 2000. When we have lots of babies usually buy 8000 every other week.
We buy Phoenix worms and horn worms monthly.
We breed super worms, silk worms and horn worms in the summer, always have fruit fly...
If temps are in the 80’s the eggs will hatch within a week.
Last summer we had temps outside of 110 degrees and the eggs were hatching within 24 hours. Not recommend doing that, but was surprised they hatched with temps so hot.
We did this exact with two exlarge reptibreeze for parsons.
We screwed in a piece of sheet of steel or plastic at the top and the back. Then we added a bamboo stick on the floor in the middle and added silicone.
Everything worked fine.
Sorry I don’t remember what the piece was that we added to...
We left the tomatoe plant potted so we can remove it. But you are right, the females lay eggs everywhere.
We did a bigger enclosure to see if they would thrive more.
We have not used artificial leaves. Just live plants. I take a new picture tomorrow of the enclosure, the tomatoe plant it up to the top of the cage now.
I have done both, bury inside and outside. I did have worms once this year. I found them in the soft pupae... quite gross.
They will get a black line down their spine , stop eating and starting roaming. Then they are ready to pupae. As already mentioned they will bury down in the dirt and pupae. Here is a couple of pics what they look like when they pupae.
Last year they were in the black mesh flexaruim, this year my husband build an enclosure so we can try and do more. We do all the hatching outside in the spring to fall vs inside the house.
Too many for in the house.
For baby horned worms we do pods. The babies will crawl up the side and then poop falls to the bottom. Makes for pretty easy cleaning.
We are just waiting for our hawk moths to emerge. We only have one so far. Waiting for about another 50.
I think it’s well worth breeding your own feeders if possible.
We have been breeding silks for a few years now. We usually do a large hatch every spring, feed a bunch, and cocoon more. Hoping for a couple 100 of cocoons by the time they are all done.
Silk worms seem to be hard to find around...