What is this? or what was it?

[LindsayG]

I found this along with a super worm and a dubia roach living under a towel in my old cage. The towel was soaking wet and had been sitting for a few weeks. Ya, gross I know. All 3 are still alive except the white shrimp looking thing only wiggles his bottom half when I grab it with the tweezers. Is this what a superworm turns into? Will it keep changing into something? What should I put it in? Or should I just kill it? Thanks for the help!

 

[Carlton]

Yes, its a pupated superworm. I haven't had any of mine actually emerge as adults but maybe someone else has.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

Yup, superworm pupa. They take a while to emerge. Depending on temps. Alien looking things!

 

[LindsayG]

Man it sure is creepy looking. So how can I help it along in its process? It will turn into a beetle right? Should I put it in a container and give it some food? Thanks guys!

 

[brownie64]

Yah they look like this.

 

[LindsayG]

Hmm. I feel like I squished a bunch of those beetles when I was little. I don't think I want that in my house but I bet Cham Chancellor would like it. Turning one into a beetle wont hurt. Thank you!

O, do you know how much longer it will take it to turn into a beetle?

 

[kinyonga]

Had the black bugs in my house often. In my turtle/tortoise cages and in my prehensile tailed anoles' cage I had a colony of superworms that just kept producing all the time. I had a colony of crickets in both too.

 

[MSMorgan]

Man it sure is creepy looking. So how can I help it along in its process? It will turn into a beetle right? Should I put it in a container and give it some food? Thanks guys!

I've got a batch that have pupated and am waiting for them to emerge into beetles as we speak. Seems to me that it took about a month to get them from super worm to beetle last time. I suppose it is dependent on temp. Keep him isolated in a small container with a small amount of blended oatmeal @ 75* +/- for a few more weeks and keep watch. You should see black legs develop and then it should "hatch out" into a cream colored beetle. It will take a little time for him/ her to turn black. I haven't had success with Lucky eating the beetles. Nonetheless, I am trying to breed them. With any luck, I'll have super worms in a couple months. Here's a link to breeding super worms if you're interested.

http://www.wormman.com/breeding_superworms.cfm

 

[MSMorgan]

Timed out to edit my post. Here's a pic of the newly emerged cream colored beetle. There's tons of information on google/youtube in regards to breeding them.

 

[wodesorel]

I recommend wearing gloves when handling the beetles. They spray a chemical that smells very medicinal (like hospital lysol), and it does not wash off. My hands stunk all day the first time I moved them between bins. I had no warning they did that. Don't keep them sealed either - the smell builds to where it's nauseating!

If you take full grown worms and keep them in the dark at around 80-85 degrees I've had them pupate in as little as two days. At most, a week. It takes another 10-14 days for them to emerge as beetles though. I've got around 25 beetles right now as a breeding colony and am waiting on another 10. Fingers crossed I actually get babies.

 

[LindsayG]

When you say handling them do you mean with tongs too? Because I don't touch anything except waxworms. Thank you for the warning though. I certainly don't want to smell like a hospital lol. I think I'll try to turn this one into a beetle and if he likes it maybe I'll do more. (10 minutes later)... Wait a minute.. I don't have to feed it to him, I can make more and then they will make more superworms right? I feel slow lol. How many babies do they make?

 

[wodesorel]

I always handle beetles (mealies or supers) with gloved hands. I'm too worried about crushing them with tongs, I've got butterfingers. They do smell kind of weird, but I only had it stick to me when I handled them directly. Still smells better than crickets!

I started trying to breed them two months ago and I'm hoping to see teeny worms any day now. It's a pain and it takes time to get them to pupate, but I've read the beetles can live up to a year so they can produce a lot. I don't think the worms grow very quickly though. I bought a thousand through the mail in the hopes that by the time those are gone I'll have some of my own ready to go. They are not nearly as easy as mealies - those I had a colony of before I realized what happened! The supers took actual work.

 

[LindsayG]

Well I definitely think I will give it a go. There's no harm in trying. This last batch of supers I bought are really big so I can take a few of them and save for beetle making ;-). Thank you so much for all the help!