Culturing Waxworms

S

shaun

Guest

• Oct 25, 2004

• #1

Does anyone here culture their own waxworms? I've tried myself, and while I'm comfortable with preparing food, I haven't managed to bring many larvae to adulthood. Any tips on getting them to pupate successfully?

 

A

alan

Guest

• Oct 25, 2004

• #2

3 parts wheatbran
3 parts wheatgerm
3 parts ReadyBrek
1 part dried yeast
Enough honey & glycerin to produce a dry, crumbly mixture (*not* sticky)
Add lots of crumpled up paper towels to the culture for pupation. Cultures need lots of ventilation or you get condensation and they go mouldy.

 

S

shaun

Guest

• Oct 30, 2004

• #3

How do you trigger the larvae to pupate? Mine never make it to adulthood. Also, what is readybrek?

 

A

alan

Guest

• Oct 31, 2004

• #4

The trigger is patience - it takes a while.
For ReadyBrek information, Google is your friend!.

 

J

jesper

Guest

• Oct 31, 2004

• #5

ReadyBrek is just oat meal I think. Never did get why a brand name is used...

(Message edited by jesper on October 31, 2004)

 

A

alan

Guest

• Oct 31, 2004

• #6

ReadyBrek is based on fine oats (90%) but also contains wheat flour, malt extract, calcium carbonate (1.2%), iron (0.1%) and 7 vitamins including folic acid, making it an idea nutritional base for feeders.

 

J

jesper

Guest

• Oct 31, 2004

• #7

Ah, that explains it. Thanks Alan.
The oats that I use have Iron(0,005%) and Thiamine(0,0005%).

The recommended daily dose of Iron for a human is 15mg. Your oats(ReadyBrek) contain 100mg per 100g of oats?
Talk about overdosing...
I hope nobody is eating medications together with ReadyBrek!

That makes me wonder if feeding the feeder animals are really that important? Do I need to add something to my worm colonies??
Isn't this like the vitamin craze thing? Isn't a worm nutritious enough without any addition of vitamins/minerals to cover all the newts needs of minerals and amino acids?

 

E

edward

Guest

• Oct 31, 2004

• #8

Hi Jesper,
I strongly suggest feeding your feeders as there are some studies on crickets that indicate the insects that are not well fed are deficient in protiens, fats and some trace nutrients.
If you add calcium carbonate to your worms they actually become a well balanced food item.

Ed

 

P

pin-pin

Guest

• Oct 31, 2004

• #9

Hi Ed,

Add calcium carbonate to the worms right before feeding (dusting) or adding it to the soil in hopes of the worm ingesting it?

 

J

jesper

Guest

• Nov 1, 2004

• #10

Eisenia hortensis is a long way from from crickets. The food eaten is quite different too.
I use soil as a substrate, shouldn't the minerals needed be found there?

 

J

jesper

Guest

• Nov 1, 2004

• #11

Ed - Is it relevant to compare crickets with Eisenia hortensis(Dendrobaena veneta)?
I would think that earthworms ingest plenty of soil containing both calcium carbonate and minerals etc. I add some oats every now and then, the rest I suppose they get from the soil or synthesize themselves. I am not saying that I am not feeding them(define well fed...), I am just wondering if addition of minerals and vitamins is necessary.

 

E

edward

Guest

• Nov 1, 2004

• #12

Most of the worms (Lumbriculus and Eisensia) when purchased (at least here in the states) are either maintained in a decomposed peat moss or decomposed shredded paper bedding both of which are deficient in calcium and other nutrients. Not all soils or substrates are rich in calsium. Regardless of the type of feeder insect used, they have been starved, dehydrated or both when purchased. This is as applicable to Acheta as it is to Eisenia as starved animals catabolize fat reserves as well as other tissues to maintain life (a good example is how various anemone species shrink when deprived of food as the anemone catabolizes its tissues). The breakdown of the tissues results in loss of nutrients in general.

(If this seem blunt or rude my apologies, I have had a long day and its exhaustion phrasing my words here).
Ed

 

H

han

New member

Joined

May 7, 2007

Messages

75

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0

• Nov 2, 2004

• #13

"Feeding captive insectivorous animals:nutritional
aspects of insects as food", fact-sheet 003 on
www.nagonline.net/technical_papers offers some good information on the food-value of several
used food-items, pros and cons of so-called gut-loading and tables of nutritional analysis.

Han.

 

E

edward

Guest

• Nov 2, 2004

• #14

Hi Han,
This paper lacks some depth and information as well as missing some references on this topic. A better information source is the Nutrition chapter in Mader's Reptile Medicine and Surgery. It covers the information much more throughly as well including some nice tables comparing the nutritional status of the food items on a kcal basis.

Ed

 

J

jesper

Guest

• Nov 3, 2004

• #15

I am not disputing feeding the feeders, just if minerals and vitamins are necessary. Especially when it comes to worms.

 

E

edward

Guest

• Nov 3, 2004

• #16

Hi Jesper,
With regards to the feeders it depends if they have been fed a good diet for the last 48 hours.
As for the worms, not all soils are calcium bearing, and if the soil does not contain a high level of calcium then neither does the worm.
I have seen several different types of caudates that have had calcium metabolic issues and suggest supplementing the diet (there is a picture of one in the caudata.org magazine)....

Ed

 

J

jesper

Guest

• Nov 12, 2004

• #17

Just an addition, most soils you can buy here are full of calcium(CaCO3) since they use it as a buffer(soil mixtures here are often based on sphagnum(low pH)).