# My guide to breeding waxworms (with pics!)



## Sambee

Ok so we've decided that we need to cut down the feeding costs of our reptiles so the answer is to breed our own live food.

We've got a successful dubia roach on the go at the moment and today I thought I would give it a go with wax worms.

I hope you find this guide useful and even perhaps give it a go yourself! I will update this thread as the wax worms grow and progress.

So firstly, we headed off to Tesco and grabbed the following:

A cheaper alternative to Weetabix









80p jar of honey 









Glycerine (this can be found in the baking isle of your local supermarket, usually near the food dye).









To start off, I added 2 of the wheat biscuits to a bowl and crumbled it with my hands to a fine texture like this:









Then I put half a teaspoon of calcium powder into the crushed biscuits and sitrred it all up. (This is optional)

Next I added 2 teaspoons of glycerine and about 1/4 of the jar of honey and mixed it up to a moist but firm consistancy, like this:









I used an old tub to put the mixture in:









And then I put 2 small pieces of cardboard in the container for the moths to sit on:









Then I took a whole tub of wax worms that I bought from livefoods.co.uk and added them to the container, being careful not to let too much of the shavings in:

















Lastly, I used an old piece of netting and an elastic band as a lid, so air can flow through easily:









I've put them in a warm dark place, moths should appear in 2-3 weeks and then there should be lotsa wax worms in there in another 4-5 weeks.

That's all for now folks! I shall be back when these babies turn into moths and lay more wormies!


----------



## Liam09

How long do they take to turn into moths?


----------



## Sambee

2-3 weeks and then there should be worms after another 4-5 weeks!

It's a waiting game - you have to have patience.


----------



## hopper

mine have been moths now for about 2or3 weeks and im waiting :devil:


----------



## Sambee

They have probably already laid the wax worm larvae but it's so small you can't see it. 

Give it time, you will have to wait until the moths die off before you can have a peek in the tub properly anyway lol.


----------



## Liam09

Let me know how everything goes!


----------



## animal addict

oh brill guide - I'm going to have a go too I think and will follow your instructions and thread for the updates - how big are the moths? I take it that size jar you are using is plenty big enough??


----------



## hopper

looking at your i think i went a little big as i used a full pack off 24 wheatabics and a old 2ft fish tank :lol2: so its going to be fun for me trying to find my wax worms :lol2:


----------



## Sambee

This is my first attempt so your guesses are as good as mine! I think it should be big enough but who knows. If this doesn't work out, i'll try it again with less wax worms and a bigger container. Hopefully it'll be ok though!
I don't think the moths get that big, probably the same size as the average house moth.


----------



## fantapants

you are going to need MUCH finer netting on top of that......we used clingfilm and the little buggers still got out! they can also eat through cloth so you risk loosing them all. i have ended up with my colony in a massive 15 inch square high tupperware box with the lid on tight. i open it every day to let air in and they are doing fine, my waxies are about 1 cm long. i also made my substrate a little drier than yours to stop it going moldy. and 50 moths will probably need more space to fly and mate. but you will end up with loads ifyu do it right, but be VERY patient, my colony has been going for over 2 months and is still growing.


----------



## Sambee

fantapants said:


> you are going to need MUCH finer netting on top of that......we used clingfilm and the little buggers still got out! they can also eat through cloth so you risk loosing them all. i have ended up with my colony in a massive 15 inch square high tupperware box with the lid on tight. i open it every day to let air in and they are doing fine, my waxies are about 1 cm long. i also made my substrate a little drier than yours to stop it going moldy. and 50 moths will probably need more space to fly and mate. but you will end up with loads ifyu do it right, but be VERY patient, my colony has been going for over 2 months and is still growing.


Great, thanks for the tips!

I still have the plastic lid for the tub so shall I put that back on but make some slits in it with a stanley knife?

As I said before, this is my first attempt so we'll see what happens


----------



## Pliskens_Chains

great idea, if it works i will have to give it a go too.


----------



## fantapants

Pliskens_Chains said:


> great idea, if it works i will have to give it a go too.


 
they are the easiest thing in the world to breed it just requires patience. i really cant believe how well ours have done. i will deffo be doing it again when i harvest this colony.


----------



## garysumpter

fantapants said:


> they are the easiest thing in the world to breed it just requires patience. i really cant believe how well ours have done. i will deffo be doing it again when i harvest this colony.


I too have tried this (not that we need to as we stock waxies), but I like trying these things for fun!

I have never had any decent results, usually just a tub with dead moths and mouldy weetabix mix! Maybe it was too wet!


----------



## fantapants

garysumpter said:


> I too have tried this (not that we need to as we stock waxies), but I like trying these things for fun!
> 
> I have never had any decent results, usually just a tub with dead moths and mouldy weetabix mix! Maybe it was too wet!


 
well i made my substrate so it was clumpy when you squish it but crumbles apart when you touch it. does that make sense?! i did try it moist and yes, it went moldy. but with a drier mix, kept somehwere warm like an airing cupboard, its great. i did worry that the worms wouldnt be able to eat the dry stuff but over the weeks it gets eaten into a network of tiny tunnels and caves. so it doesnt bother them at all.


----------



## SleepyD

used to breed thema few years ago for the birds ~ I used fine ground oats with honey as it stays a relatively dry and crumbly without going sweaty and corregated cardboard in small rolls for the moths to lay eggs in; container-wise I found the old style plastic sweet jars more suited.
Would advise care with any of the moths though ie: don't let them escape; as they are considered a real pest with beekeepers hives ~ they lay their eggs in the hives and the grubs decimate the bee's honeycombs and bee grubs


----------



## drpjtaylor

How long does it take after becoming moths before they start laying? 
My frogs prefer the moths than the worms so I would be looking to harvest the moths rather than the worms.


----------



## fantapants

drpjtaylor said:


> How long does it take after becoming moths before they start laying?
> My frogs prefer the moths than the worms so I would be looking to harvest the moths rather than the worms.


 
the moths werent alive for long.....maybe a week? but if you have a continuos colony then you could*possiby* have a steady supply of moths. but you must be very creful you dont accidenatlly release them into the wild as they kill bees nests.


----------



## gazza1591

any pics of your set up fatapants ?


----------



## drpjtaylor

fantapants said:


> the moths werent alive for long.....maybe a week? but if you have a continuos colony then you could*possiby* have a steady supply of moths. but you must be very creful you dont accidenatlly release them into the wild as they kill bees nests.


I have read that. Last year I bought some waxworms as a treat and they didn't really go for them, in the end I forgot about them. I went to throw the container away a couple of weeks later and found that they had turned to moths. I tried a couple in the tank and they went wild for them.


----------



## Gavinsulley93

can u do the same with meal worms??


----------



## Sambee

caths55 said:


> can u do the same with meal worms??


No I, meal worms turn into beetles so they'd probably need a more complicated set up. I think freekygeeky breeds meal worms but I'm probably wrong!

*Update
*Well they are all still alive, when I checked last night there were no signs of mould, 3 of the wax worms are turning brown so hopefully I'll have some moths soon!! There are probably more turning brown that have buried themselves in the substrate too so fingers crossed!


----------



## The Roach Hut

*re*

meal worms are easy to breed. get yourself a large plastic container and get a net curtain for the top of it. place porrige oats in the bottom about 1-2 inches deep. in one corner place some egg flats and in another place a stale piece of bread. place your tub of bought wax worms into the container and wait. you will see they turn into pale whitish little alien things.

At this time remove them and place into a cricket box or similar and wait in a week or so they will change into beetles. Once they are beetles they can be placed back into the large container. feed them on veg and potato peeling but ensure this doesnt get on the oats so ue a lid of a cricket box. They will lay eggs in the bread and it only needs replacing once its been eaten. after a month or two you will see little worms in the ottom of the tub and as they grow they will come to the surface.. just keep the process going top up oats and remove aliens until they are bettles to stop meal worms and beattles eating them..

Hope this helps you

Tony



Elvis_The_Gecko said:


> No I, meal worms turn into beetles so they'd probably need a more complicated set up. I think freekygeeky breeds meal worms but I'm probably wrong!
> 
> *Update*
> Well they are all still alive, when I checked last night there were no signs of mould, 3 of the wax worms are turning brown so hopefully I'll have some moths soon!! There are probably more turning brown that have buried themselves in the substrate too so fingers crossed!


----------



## gizzard

dont use a stale pece of bread as it wont last long! a bit of cork bark with holes drilled in ti works well.
i put some morios "giant mealworms" in with them and they drilled the holes into the cork bark for me  the morios also turned into beetles and bred in the same way as the mealies but i had to wait longer for them to pupate, to breed and to hatch.


----------



## The Roach Hut

*re*

yeah with morios u ned to stress them in order for the to pupate so u need to isolate them in their own little boxes some ppl use the tubs u put screws in that have multiple compartmnents


----------



## murinus

very intresting thread :2thumb:


----------



## Crazyhorse

*Better way*

I have a better way just replace the jar with a coke bottle cut in half with the top stuck inside the bottom half upside down with a tiny bit of netting put over the lid and tape the two haves together once you have put weatabix and honey in the bottom half along with your worms


----------



## StevenPeri

any1 got any ideas or step by step guides with pics about breeding locusts? dificult i suppose though


----------



## The Roach Hut

*re*

Locusts are easy enough but need to keep them close enough so they grow to adults. they mature quicker if they rub back legs. keep it hot and they will breed and lay. u need to provide jamjars with damp sand in for them to lay


----------



## spend_day

started my waxies culture 2day, got some on a wetter mix some on a drier to see which one i like most, 

im mainly doing this because everything loves waxworms and my anoles love the moths


----------



## Frilled13

Thanks dude, this is seriously helpful stuff, i could never get it right before.


----------



## Frilled13

someone should sticky this.


----------



## Sambee

*UPDATE*

Ok so I decided to move the tub into my leo's viv on the hot side and I've covered the tub with a fake plant so my leo can't see them.

I thought I'd check on the waxies today and to my surprise, I found 2 moths!

Here are the pics 


























Woo hoo!

EDIT: And I just realised I started the culture exactly a month ago! How strange!


----------



## Brat

I did his about a year ago... A much larger jar will be needed though.
I used corrugated card as the waxies liked to go in the little holes. I had hundreds of waxies in the tub, but they're so so tiny when first hatched and are little escape artists so I put the tub in a bigger tub of water to drown any escapees.


----------



## Pliskens_Chains

this thread has been great.
i started one after reading this and i also have 2 moths and some crysalis', whether anything will come from it i dont know but its a start.
thanks.


----------



## Brat

Here are a few pics of my old colony..















































And a few I picked out to show size...


----------



## ladybird

Bump! Why isn't this stickied?


----------



## Barney_M

i forgot about a tub of waxworms i bought and no i have all moths with no effort whatsoever! haha


----------



## Vase

I noticed glycerine in the ingriedients list. What's that used for?


----------



## JotnJosie

great advice this would be a brilliant sticky


----------



## .Justin

I am going to give this a go this week. How many waxies roughly should do to start with?


----------



## luke86

do they have to be warm







and how big do the moths go


----------

