# The life of superworms(Zophobas morio)



## ex0tics

*The Life cycle and breeding of Zophobas Morio*






 
Superworms or _Zophobas morio_ are the Larval stage of one of the many darkling beetles and grow to approx. 2" long they are naturally large and aren't treated with hormones to delay pupation making more time for growth unlike the giant mealworm(_Tenebrio molitor._)​ 
*Comparison:*​ 
Superworm:








​ 
Mealworm:








​ 
The total life span for a superworm is a little over a year(?) from Ovum(egg) to the mature form of Zophobas morio, beetle - All but the Pupae feed, don't put food in with the larvae as mould may develop!​ 
*Ovum:*
*







*​ 

*Larvae(superworms):*






 

*Pupae or "Alien":*
Straight after morphing from the larvae stage:








Due to hatch, note the colouring:








*Deceased Pupae(dead):*






 

*Beetle:*
Just after emerging from pupae:






 
Once fully dried out the beetles colouration has darkened and should be a dark burgundy/black:






 

Unlike _Tenebrio molitor_(mealworm) Superworms are unable to pupate when in the physical presence of other worms so need to be sectioned from each other like so, here they can be seen in small fishing tackle boxes where I leave them to pupate. Make sure to pick your biggest worms preferably about 2" long as your success rate will increase greatly as smaller ones if they do pupate tend to die and turn black see previous images - I check on them after two weeks and from then on once every week and once pupated I transfer them(because occasionally the worms squeeze over the sections and eat the pupae.








Note: Once you want pupation to occur, place them in a dark place and don't feed them or give them substrate as I believe the stress forces them to pupate.​ 
Once pupation has occured you should have larvae if yours hasn't yet just keep checking weekly(try not disturb them to much you pretty much just leave them to it at this stage):






 
Once your beetles have emerged and have began to harden add them to your breeding tank containing; Wheat or Oat Bran(substrate), a piece of eggcrate for them to colonise as not to wander eating eggs and a small piece of plastic or very shallow dish to place sliced apple for moisture daily as not to aid the growth of mould in the substrate(Not only sliced apple can be used, various fruits and veg are used)






 

Once you have all your beetles together and have been mating, transfer the old substrate into a seperate RUB(or tank) or the other way around(move the beetles) Every two-four weeks the latter being if you have a small amount of beetles this is just to keep the baby superworms from eating away at the mature beetles. 






 
After a couple of weeks you may begin to see small worms and the churning of substrate but don't worry if not I'm sure they are present the key is patience they have a long life cycle but with anoth colonies these can be a sufficient and easy self-sustaining breeding project ..have fun!​ 


All information is of my own don't claim my work as your own and any pictures that don't belong to myself all credit to the rightful owners.

Cheers for reading,
Ex0tics/Austin


----------



## Juzza12

Great guide, i think this should be made a sticky. This is how i breed mine, with just a couple of minor differences. I'm suprised more people don't do it as it's so easy


----------



## ex0tics

Juzza12 said:


> Great guide, i think this should be made a sticky. This is how i breed mine, with just a couple of minor differences. I'm suprised more people don't do it as it's so easy


Cheers :2thumb:
Yeah it's very simplistic and easy! Not to mention the chances of escapees are next to none but breeding crickets is a different story all together:bash:

Austin


----------



## Patthecat12

Cheers for this I have had some Superworms in a tub for 3 months now and there not changing, then i read about them needing to be separate to change into 'aliens'
Will be putting in separate compartments V.soon.
Thanks again Patrick

P.s. I to think this should be made a sticky


----------



## ex0tics

Patthecat12 said:


> Cheers for this I have had some Superworms in a tub for 3 months now and there not changing, then i read about them needing to be separate to change into 'aliens'
> Will be putting in separate compartments V.soon.
> Thanks again Patrick
> 
> P.s. I to think this should be made a sticky


No problem mate :2thumb: and I did exactly the same when I started last year until I discussed it with a feeder insect supplier. Glad I could be of some help if you need more assistance just pm me 

Cheers,
Austin


----------



## ex0tics

Won't be checking this so often but if you got any questions or concerns drop me a PM 

Cheers,
Austin


----------



## -Austin

Thank you for the infomation:notworthy:

Sticky!

ps. found anothr austin on the RFUK forums:no1:


----------



## ex0tics

:up: just for anyone needing help!


----------



## steveoHull

defo sticky


----------



## Blaptica

To those who are using this method, how many mealworms (weight) are you producing per week for how many beetles (approximately) ?


----------



## ex0tics

steveoHull said:


> defo sticky


 cheers:2thumb:


----------



## ex0tics

Blaptica said:


> To those who are using this method, how many mealworms (weight) are you producing per week for how many beetles (approximately) ?


 I haven't used it in a while as my locust and roach breeding is satisfying everything at the moment, once I get started up again though I'll definitely give you some numbers if nobody else have yet : victory:


----------



## Blaptica

Maybe those people who suggest this should be sticky should try it first and see if it works (the breeding method) ?


----------



## ex0tics

Your welcome to try it.
It's what works to me and that's what matters in my opinion but if everyone else can make use of it why not :whistling2:


----------



## Blaptica

I did not mean to suggest the method you suggest was a bad one. Members here should be very grateful that you have put so much effort into helping them. But since you don't give any indication of how productive your method is, I am suprized at the suggestions to make it sticky before members try it themselves. When deciding whether to buy livefood or produce it yourself, you have to consider whether it is worth it for the amount of time and costs involved. If production is very low you might as well buy it instead.

I have been breeding morio worms continually for over 5 years and currently produce around 1.5-2 kilos a week. From my experience i would think that the humidity in the set up would be too low for good hatching and survival of the baby larvae and I would think that few of the eggs would survive predation by the adult beetles or other larvae. From the number of beetles in the picture you should be getting around 200g of larvae a week. Thats about 4 tubs worth in normal shop quantities. Is that anything like the quantity you get ?


----------



## Juzza12

I have read quite a few breeding guides on these worms and never once read that humidity improves hatch rates. In fact some say to avoid humidity because of mould. I asked for this to be made a sticky and i follow this method. Only differenes are that i have some bran in with the seperated worms, and that i rotate the beatles a lot less frequenly.


----------



## Blaptica

Well the problem really is that the humidity is not specified nor the temperature the worms should be kept at. Ventilation of course plays a major part in that and I can't recall that being mentioned either. Mould is a problem if you use cereals for the larvae to live in. I don't.

Please carry on keeping them this way if you want to. Juzza can you give some sort of idea of productivity using this method ?


----------



## ex0tics

Ok guys don't fight I made this because I wanted to, not to cause arguments or to send you in the wrong direction it was what worked for me 4 or so years ago as said previously I do not breed them anymore.

This isn't an overly indepth guide it's pretty basic, if I remember correctly I used to keep alot of apple slices and some other fruits like melon I think for moisture purposes though I think I used to lightly mist every couple of days not sure whether it was correct to do or not. I couldn't find a guide back then so just experimented also the picture containing the beetles isn't Superworm beetles, it's mealworm I believe and doesn't belong to me though I did ask the guy whether I could use it as I don't have photos of what I used to use. I used rubs with lids containing drilled holes.

Basic detail is used and it seems to have helped atleast one person thats anoth for me. If you don't find it adequate get my post edited or make another thread don't fight over it and I'm not asking for it to be stickied I don't think half of the threads I see stickied should be just I'm not going to argue about it.

I never mentioned temperatures, humidity one because I don't know them I just kept them at the room temperature at the time which was above average and this thread is not a breeding guide it's simply explaining the life cycle just with slightly more detail onto how things happen when I produced my own larvae for the 4 reptiles and aviary of birds I had and I was overran.

austin


----------



## Blaptica

Juzza12 said:


> I have read quite a few breeding guides on these worms and never once read that humidity improves hatch rates. In fact some say to avoid humidity because of mould. I asked for this to be made a sticky and i follow this method. Only differenes are that i have some bran in with the seperated worms, and that i rotate the beatles a lot less frequenly.


Well humidity is not an either/or thing. Its a sliding scale. Yes too humid is bad especially with the method has been described. But 70-80% humidity is best.

The problem with breeding insects is that small diferences in how you keep them can result in sucess or total failure. If Austin was keeing the colony with a lid on with only a few holes then probably the humidity was quite high. Especially if they were being sprayed. There is no need to keep a lid on the colony to keep the larvae or beetles in when they are kept. So somebody reading this guide might not have a lid on the box which in my experience at normal house humidties would result in very poor breeding results. It would be a shame if somebody gave up because they did not know they had to keep them humid.

I have seen the breeding set up of somebody who was the first in the US to breed them commercially, he was breeding 100's of kilos a week at one point. The beetles and larvae were kept very humid.


----------



## mrhoyo

Blaptica said:


> Well humidity is not an either/or thing. Its a sliding scale. Yes too humid is bad especially with the method has been described. But 70-80% humidity is best.
> 
> The problem with breeding insects is that small diferences in how you keep them can result in sucess or total failure. If Austin was keeing the colony with a lid on with only a few holes then probably the humidity was quite high. Especially if they were being sprayed. There is no need to keep a lid on the colony to keep the larvae or beetles in when they are kept. So somebody reading this guide might not have a lid on the box which in my experience at normal house humidties would result in very poor breeding results. It would be a shame if somebody gave up because they did not know they had to keep them humid.
> 
> I have seen the breeding set up of somebody who was the first in the US to breed them commercially, he was breeding 100's of kilos a week at one point. The beetles and larvae were kept very humid.


Could you explain how to raise the humidity and avoid mould? Thanks


----------



## Blaptica

*don't interupt the sorrow*

I use fine wood chips rather than cereals as the substrate. I only add enough food every two days that should be mostly eaten when I check them next. Each time I feed remove uneaten food from the trays. The wood chips start moist by mixing them with a little water. I keep the ventilation low to keep the humidity up.


----------

