raising supers

[BocaJan]

I thought I'd give a shot at raising supers. I got the idea from a member here, so I thought what the heck. I got some cups, poked holes in the top and put them in a drawer. The room is where I keep my chams so the containers are probably about 75-80 degrees most of the time. There is nothing in the cup but the worm. It is 7 days and they are all laying in the bottom of the containers and not morphed into the beetle stage.

Can anyone help? Should I wait longer or are they dead?

 

[darla]

If they are curled up they are probably still alive. If they are straight or brown and stinky pitch them as they are probably dead. If in doubt touch them to see if they move. It does take awhile for them to pupate.

 

[meatslim]

it actually can take a while. I've had some stay curled up for 3-4 weeks without food before they pupated. ive had some pupate a day after i separated them too.

 

[BocaJan]

That is good news. Does anyone have any pictures of curled worms or pupating worms?

 

[meatslim]

ive never actually seen them pupate, they do it in the middle of the night. curled worms are not exciting.. just imagine a worm.. but curled haha.

heres an image i found on googlesearch from progeckos.com:

http://www.progeckos.com/caresheets/images/super_worm_curl.jpg

mine dont always curl THAT much.

heres a pupa:
http://www.progeckos.com/caresheets/images/super_pupa.jpg

before they pupate, they take one last dump thats a bit bigger than the usual ones, looks more like a string than a spec and sometimes stays stuck to its end. from my experience, the exoskeleton also looks a bit different before it pupates. u might not notice unless u really look. the exo looks harder and ever so slightly irridescent. then one night, it will shed it off and reveal a pupa.

 

[meatslim]

also, i wouldnt put all hte pupa together once they pupated, thinking they will all just come out and be happy. when the beetles come out, they will be very hungry and will probably feed on the other pupa. They dont come out at the same time, in my last batch of 12, ive had 3 stay in their pupa probably a good 2-3 weeks longer than the others. i thought they were dead but just left them since i wasnt short on cups. surely enough they did end up morphing

 

[lbesok]

From what I understand they should all start to pupate around the same time, depending on their age. You should provide them with food still, so that they will have enough nutrition to survive the beetle stage Here is an article about mealworms, which I'm assuming the breeding process is pretty much the same:
http://www.chameleonnews.com/?page=article&id=53
This site has a good photo of what you should expect:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://carolinapetsupply.com/images/superworms1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://carolinapetsupply.com/superworms.htm&h=258&w=318&sz=44&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=_vL4suXHqLpKPM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsuperworm%2Bpupae%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3GGGL_enUS176US230%26sa%3DN
Also, here are a few different set-up ideas:

Another GREAT link:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Llive_15.jpg&imgrefurl=http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Live%2520Food,%2520Super%2520Worms.htm&h=315&w=420&sz=19&hl=en&start=16&um=1&tbnid=KH33EnTQnao3FM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsuperworm%2Bpupae%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3GGGL_enUS176US230%26sa%3DN
I would like to attempt to raise a variety of my own feeders, including these worms. My previous attempts with supers have yielded beetles, but I have not been successful with the process after this point

 

[BocaJan]

Great info Liz. I guess I won't give up on my wiggles yet.

 

[shrink9]

I too found it rather easy to get them to the beetle stage but nothing further. As the pupae evolved into beetles, i would add them to the colony. I never saw anything that looked like tiny superworms. Don't know why.

Allen

 

[darla]

Here is a sample of different size worms. The biggest in the cup is not quite full grown. I have tiny worms but too small for me to see. New hatched worms are white.

here is my set up. The top bin is for the supers. The bottom bins are for bettle/supers. I alternate the beetles bins because hungry baby supers will make lunch out of the beetles.

 

[BocaJan]

What a great set up Darla. I can do that without any trouble. Already have the plastic drawers. I can get the worm holder at Michaels, I may even have one.

I am excited! Checked my containers and shook them a little and the worms are still moving. There is hope!

 

[meatslim]

yea u shouldnt have to worry too much. superworms are mad easy. the only problem is that their lifecycle is really long so itll be a while before ur next generation.

 

[shrink9]

How long does it take for them to get 2 inches or more long?