# What do the giant worms turn into



## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

You know the giant worm morio things the livefood places sell

what bug do they turn into.. thanks


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## GlasgowGecko (Feb 23, 2008)

They are a species of darkling beetle, much like meal worms, so the beetles should be pretty similar morphologically. 

Andy


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## NBLADE (Apr 11, 2007)

sparkle said:


> You know the giant worm morio things the livefood places sell
> 
> what bug do they turn into.. thanks


 
they will eventually change into black beetles.


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

GlasgowGecko said:


> They are a species of darkling beetle, much like meal worms, so the beetles should be pretty similar morphologically.
> 
> Andy


 
thanks andy


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## ladybird (Sep 9, 2006)

King mealworm beetles (Zophobas morio)










They are 3cm long and 1cm wide


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

very very pretty little gothic beetle I likey.. I do not like the worms though


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## SWsarah (Aug 6, 2005)

In my tortoise enclosures i have them breeding in there. In the substrate i have my own moro worm culture. They are great as they eat left over food!!!


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## Salamanda (May 28, 2008)

I hate those worms  they make me cringe when I pick them up, they like to wrap around my fingers :bash:


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## RedGex (Dec 29, 2007)

I want to breed these.... is it true they need separating to metamorphose does anyone know.... or is just a low density population enough??


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## suez (Jul 8, 2007)

they definately need to be seperated.


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## Juzza12 (Jun 12, 2008)

I breed mine redgex and they have to be kept totally seperate


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

These are scary. They are dead strong and muscular and one bit me and drew blood :bash:


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## RedGex (Dec 29, 2007)

suez said:


> they definately need to be seperated.





Juzza12 said:


> I breed mine redgex and they have to be kept totally seperate


cheers guys, will have a go. What substrate works best?



LiamRatSnake said:


> These are scary. They are dead strong and muscular and one bit me and drew blood :bash:


 the worms or beetles.. :eek4:


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## Juzza12 (Jun 12, 2008)

I find wheat bran to be the best substrate although you could use crushed up weetabix. You need a fair bit of patience to breed them. Sorry to hijack your thread sparkle lol


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

Juzza12 said:


> I find wheat bran to be the best substrate although you could use crushed up weetabix. You need a fair bit of patience to breed them. Sorry to hijack your thread sparkle lol


 
id love to know how to breed them...

can you pop a concise wee care sheet thingy up...


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

RedGex said:


> cheers guys, will have a go. What substrate works best?
> 
> 
> the worms or beetles.. :eek4:


The worms. My brother in law kept attaching them to my elbows.... :'( They cling on lol


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

LiamRatSnake said:


> The worms. My brother in law kept attaching them to my elbows.... :'( They cling on lol


 
yeah they are mean as heck...


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## lycanlord20 (Jul 11, 2008)

this place has a good morio breeding plan, it worked for me anyway lol

Breeding Superworms


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## Dextersdad (Mar 28, 2008)

They turn into flying nuns.


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## animal addict (Jun 1, 2008)

yeah they are proper vicious little buggers - I make sure I watch mine eating them - paranoid incase they bite and eye or summit but clever beardies seem to know they have to go for the head and crunch down on them pretty quick - ewwww horrid beetlie things


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## lycanlord20 (Jul 11, 2008)

yeah I dislike the worms aswell there rather bitey haha
and ontop of that does anybody remember the horror stories like 5 years ago where ppl were claiming it was possible for them to eat there way out of your pet after being eaten, just so everyone knows it has never been proven and in my opinion is impossible lol


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

lycanlord20 said:


> yeah I dislike the worms aswell there rather bitey haha
> and ontop of that does anybody remember the horror stories like 5 years ago where ppl were claiming it was possible for them to eat there way out of your pet after being eaten, just so everyone knows it has never been proven and in my opinion is impossible lol


 
YUK!!

yeah i do remember people saying that/... no proofs ever been given but not a nice thought...


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## lycanlord20 (Jul 11, 2008)

yeah I never saw a shred of evidencen the whole theory was that they could survive in the stomache because of there chittin levels, but they always get digsted completely, infact the only time iv seen them come out partially digested is when the animals temps are too low, so I would say its impossible plus ontop of that most lizards crunch them thoroughly I mean come on you can hear the head pop lmao.

The worms are freaky though, I removed the head off of one once ( was for a leo who wouldnt take them cuz they wriggled too much )
and I cut too low so the head had 4 legs atached and It was walking around for hours lmao


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## Juzza12 (Jun 12, 2008)

sparkle said:


> id love to know how to breed them...
> 
> can you pop a concise wee care sheet thingy up...


Breeding Superworms (Zophobus morio) and How to culture super worms, Zophobus morio, with pictures i followed these two guides. I don't find them much more difficult than mealies. Some care sheets say the beetles need something damp to lay eggs in but i didn't use anything and i have a lot of babies


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## Pleco07 (Aug 15, 2007)

As said b4 you need loads of patients, which I havent got so i gave up and just buy in bulk. Their the only livefood ive had no success with (my fault tho)



lycanlord20 said:


> yeah I dislike the worms aswell there rather bitey haha
> and ontop of that does anybody remember the horror stories like 5 years ago where ppl were claiming it was possible for them to eat there way out of your pet after being eaten, just so everyone knows it has never been proven and in my opinion is impossible lol


No, neva been proven. It originated from an article of mealworms feeding on an already dead lizard carcass. The media twisted it - said the lizard ate the worms and they ate it inside out.


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## animal addict (Jun 1, 2008)

lycanlord20 said:


> The worms are freaky though, I removed the head off of one once ( was for a leo who wouldnt take them cuz they wriggled too much )
> and I cut too low so the head had 4 legs atached and It was walking around for hours lmao


that is gross


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## kaimarion (Dec 31, 2007)

Personally I love morios and I really don't think there is much of any chance at all of them drawing blood unless your skin is super thin.When they climb on you it does sometimes feel like they are biting you but its just there damn feet :lol2:.


I think morio worms are SUPER....like big gay Al SUPER.


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

lycanlord20 said:


> yeah I never saw a shred of evidencen the whole theory was that they could survive in the stomache because of there chittin levels, but they always get digsted completely, infact the only time iv seen them come out partially digested is when the animals temps are too low, so I would say its impossible plus ontop of that most lizards crunch them thoroughly I mean come on you can hear the head pop lmao.
> 
> The worms are freaky though, I removed the head off of one once ( was for a leo who wouldnt take them cuz they wriggled too much )
> and I cut too low so the head had 4 legs atached and It was walking around for hours lmao


Our exotics tutor still maintains that :bash: I told her she was silly.


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## LiamRatSnake (Jul 3, 2007)

kaimarion said:


> Personally I love morios and I really don't think there is much of any chance at all of them drawing blood unless your skin is super thin.When they climb on you it does sometimes feel like they are biting you but its just there damn feet :lol2:.
> 
> 
> I think morio worms are SUPER....like big gay Al SUPER.


Have you seen the mouths on these things? Lol. It was my elbow that bled though lol


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## Reptilover (Jan 15, 2007)

Just a word of advice to lizard owners, if u feed these worms first as ur feeding them with your hands make sure u squash the head and jaw area, it may seem cruel but do you realy want them biting the inside of ur beardies neck... They usually die when eaten but some stay alive!


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## luke123 (Apr 13, 2008)

Reptilover said:


> Just a word of advice to lizard owners, if u feed these worms first as ur feeding them with your hands make sure u squash the head and jaw area, it may seem cruel but do you realy want them biting the inside of ur beardies neck... They usually die when eaten but some stay alive!


 unless your beardie does not chew then it wont bite their necks, and im sure every beardie chews


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## Juzza12 (Jun 12, 2008)

Reptilover said:


> Just a word of advice to lizard owners, if u feed these worms first as ur feeding them with your hands make sure u squash the head and jaw area, it may seem cruel but do you realy want them biting the inside of ur beardies neck... They usually die when eaten but some stay alive!


My three eat them so fast they don't have a chance to bite back lol


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## RedGex (Dec 29, 2007)

So what do people keep their morios in to pupate?! Will a waxie pot do? can just see a row of morio pots on my mantlepiece :lol2:


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## Juzza12 (Jun 12, 2008)

RedGex said:


> So what do people keep their morios in to pupate?! Will a waxie pot do? can just see a row of morio pots on my mantlepiece :lol2:


I bought some potting trays, they each have 20 seperate sections and i use 3 trays, you could use a fishing tackle box. Anything that has seperate sections preferably with smooth plastic sides. I had some in wax worm pots at first but all the wheat bran fell out of the bottom lol. You could get loads of plastic party cups to put them in


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## Pleco07 (Aug 15, 2007)

RedGex said:


> So what do people keep their morios in to pupate?! Will a waxie pot do? can just see a row of morio pots on my mantlepiece :lol2:


£ Shop, you can buy trays that look like fishing tackle boxes, with many seperate compartments


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## RedGex (Dec 29, 2007)

You guys are are genius!! Shud having fishing tackle stuff kicking around...


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## NBLADE (Apr 11, 2007)

RedGex said:


> I want to breed these.... is it true they need separating to metamorphose does anyone know.... or is just a low density population enough??





suez said:


> they definately need to be seperated.


 

i've bred them by seperating them, and not seperating them, seperating had better results although not seperating still worked well for me. 








RedGex said:


> So what do people keep their morios in to pupate?! Will a waxie pot do? can just see a row of morio pots on my mantlepiece :lol2:


 
when i did seperate them, i used film pots, you can go to boots, jessops etc and ask if they have any they can give you, and i ended up with around 500 at one point,


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## Juzza12 (Jun 12, 2008)

Once you've seperated them check them every few days. You'll start to see them curling up and they'll stop moving, about a week after that you should have aliens. Take them out and whack another worm in, just keep the aliens together in a tub. Any worms that stop moving and are straight will be dead so just bin them and replace. Stick the beetles in a storage tub with some bran etc, some egg carton and leave them to it. I give mine fresh veg everyday


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## RedGex (Dec 29, 2007)

One more question.... how do you know when they are ready to separate? Or do you just separate bigguns?!


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## Juzza12 (Jun 12, 2008)

Use the biggest ones first. May be best to start off with 250g of worms


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## Scally Samurai (Sep 27, 2008)

why is it they only change when they are on their own? are they shy or something?


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## RedGex (Dec 29, 2007)

Scally Samurai said:


> why is it they only change when they are on their own? are they shy or something?


I think its so they don't get eaten by other morios....? Just a guess though!


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

When you say seperate them, do you mean take the pupae out from the worms? You have to do that with meal worms otherwise some get eaten!


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## RedGex (Dec 29, 2007)

Grond said:


> When you say seperate them, do you mean take the pupae out from the worms? You have to do that with meal worms otherwise some get eaten!


Nope the worms need 'housing' individually for them to pupate!


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

How bizzare! Can't really see commercial breeders doing that?? It would take ages on a large scale.


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## RedGex (Dec 29, 2007)

Grond said:


> How bizzare! Can't really see commercial breeders doing that?? It would take ages on a large scale.


Never thought of that..... although someone said earlier in thread hes bred them without separating? Would explain how expensive they are though. 

All I know is I have had one random pupa, ever! Will try separating snd see how it goes.


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## Juzza12 (Jun 12, 2008)

I've never had a single alien when they've been in a tub together. Since I've seperated them to breed i have about 50 beetles and 26 aliens. I started to think last week that it wasn't working, then i looked closely and could see the wheat bran moving lol. I've got a roach colony, and breed meal worms too so in a couple of months all i'll have to buy is earth worms and the odd tub of wax worms


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## RedGex (Dec 29, 2007)

Cool, we breed mealies, tried waxies and failed miserably, have a jar of manky honey/wheat stuff and no waxies lol, crix far too smelly and hard work, locusts - another failure!
So relying on mealies and morios now! 
Oh and have Pachnoda grub beetles, but no baby grubs yet......
And Dubia! Forgot them...!


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## lycanlord20 (Jul 11, 2008)

Grond said:


> How bizzare! Can't really see commercial breeders doing that?? It would take ages on a large scale.


Im sure that a large scale supplier of morios could find some form of solution for sepaerating worm from pupa some kind of siv funel tube to cannaster system that sounds stupidly comlicated haha


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## zune_lai (Feb 6, 2008)

Its amazing that such insects can turn into something totally different!


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## The Roach Hut (Mar 29, 2008)

*re*



RedGex said:


> I want to breed these.... is it true they need separating to metamorphose does anyone know.... or is just a low density population enough??


 yes they need exactly the same to breed as meal worm but in order to get them to pupate u need to stress them by sepertaing them and putting them into seperate containers until they get to the alien stage


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

Yeah, we breed mealies(easy), crickets(easy but needs abit of effort) and locusts(harder). Don't use morios or waxies enough to bother although my interest is piqued with the morios now!

Only thing I've ever had a problem with is.......Fruit Flies!

First recipe for the culture included yeast. Maggots hatched, culture fermented to vinegar and pickled them. Second attempt was using a box with very small pin holes for air and the maggots crawled over all the holes and asphyxiated themselves! Third time got it right! And they're supposed to be easy!


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