# Lesser Waxworms and Bean Weevils - The Culture Club



## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

i'm thinking of getting some of these for my guys to snack on,

Ron's given me an idea on culturing Bean Weevils, pondering people's experiences (i know Stu raised some concerns on frogs taking them)

As for the lesser waxworm, can't find anything on the culturing of them, other than them being in a beeswax 

cheers
Joe


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## frogman955 (Feb 7, 2010)

Here you are Joe.
Enjoy https://www.google.co.uk/#q=culturing+wax+moths+youtube&spell=1


Mike


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## exoticsandtropics (Mar 11, 2007)

Lessers are a god send, easy to culture. same as waxworms- you can get pre made media (Waxworm Culturing Media 500g) as getting the texture right can be a prob sometimes.

i personally keep all my cultures for at least 4 months before i look to use them. then you get a crap load of larva.


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

frogman955 said:


> Here you are Joe.
> Enjoy https://www.google.co.uk/#q=culturing+wax+moths+youtube&spell=1
> 
> 
> Mike


i'm terrible at google it appears lol

cheers Mike


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Yeah, some of my toadlets and young reeds were reluctant to take bean weevils at first, I don't think they liked the taste much. They took them in the end, though. An eco-point about both species of waxworm/moth: *do not* let the adults escape into the wild! They can cause devastating destruction in a hive, and our bees are under mega pressure as it is. Just sayin...


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

Just read about that ron, i'll be vigilant, good thing the cats and dogs are expert insect killers. thinking of making myself a little culture unit, instead of shelves, trays, just incase i run out of mite paper, can put tiny bit of water in, plus try and make a non-escape rim.


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## grizzlymonkyboy (Jan 15, 2011)

Meefloaf said:


> i'm thinking of getting some of these for my guys to snack on,
> 
> Ron's given me an idea on culturing Bean Weevils, pondering people's experiences (i know Stu raised some concerns on frogs taking them)
> 
> ...


i have been reading about this today as im also looking to start with some lesser waxworms I found this to cover a fair bit of info Waxworms

I have bean weevils, not many of my frogs like them but my small geckos love them


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

I use grain weevils rather than bean weevils. My frogs love them, and don't mime choking on them like they do with bean weevils. :lol2:

I've also started culturing lesser wax worms, again my (not pumilio or thumbnails) frogs love them, they slurp them up like spaghetti!!! : victory: I buy the media from Dartfrog, got a chunk of wax on order too.

Ade


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## morg (Jul 20, 2007)

As for the lesser waxworm, can't find anything on the culturing of them, other than them being in a beeswax 



I culture both lesser waxmoth, and at times the greater waxmoth.
When I started my first cultures around 15 year ago, culture details always stressed the need to use beeswax, but I never have, and all my cultures do just fine.
All I use is a mixture of wheatgerm, wheatbran, honey and glycerine:2thumb:


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

morg said:


> As for the lesser waxworm, can't find anything on the culturing of them, other than them being in a beeswax
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's very similar to a recipe I found in one of my older books. :2thumb:


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

Glenn's site is a wonder



phelsumaman said:


> ****Warning the Wax Moths & larvae are considered agricultural pests and very damaging to native bee colonies, so please be careful if you intend to use these as a feeder insect and do not release these outside your house****
> 
> 
> I posted in another thread last night regarding lesser wax moths & was asked for the recipe for the culture medium. I have two which work well, the first give the best results however the second is easier & will give you fewer worms/moths, which could be useful for those with small collections, and both recipes will work for either species of wax moth.
> ...


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## soundstounite (Sep 6, 2009)

Meefloaf said:


> Glenn's site is a wonder


Joe, Ben is a great mate of mine,he's been keeping day geckos for yonks,these methods will work, I know what he's like,he doesn't post much ,but the dude reads for England,he will have this wired mate. From the moment I started reading this I was going to link this for you,fair play in finding it yourself:notworthy: 

Stu
ps beanies are ok mate,just some frogs at some stages in their lives don't care for 'em, some don't care for them full stop.But still worth having kicking about,zilch work always worth having something different,my concerns are with younger frogs and impaction really, they are bulky things so just go easy and let the frogs dijestive tract get used to them


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

well, that was fun lol

got some melanonogaster in their homes, found this fun "HOW THE F**K DO YOU GET THEM IN THE CUP". so i decided to tap marc's culture into a tub which i tapped into my jungle cup lol, two of them done, however for Ron, yes, yes i do have flies crawling on my feet :flrt:

lesser waxworm, will need help regarding how to seperate these buggers, i put marc's culture into my cup as i had some moths and didnt want to lose them whilst rooting for worms.

bean weevils, again, best way to seperate them ?

going to do my springs and the hydei on sunday i reckon

p.s, mite paper has a nice warning eh


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

1) Buy a big brewers funnel http://www.biggerjugs.co.uk/funnel-plastic-p-133.html

2) Buy some of the little 75p each food pots from Asda.

3) Cut a X in one pot lid.

4) Take the uncut lid from a 2nd pot and have it read.

5) Put some supplement dust into a pot, apply X cut lid.

6) Push funnel into X, until about 1 inch above bottom of pot.

7) Have the uncut lid at the ready.

9) Tap your culture so that there are no flies on the lid of it.

10) Open culture, tip it over the funnel, tap flied down into the funnel, tapping the funnel to make sure the flies go into the pot rather than climbing back up (on a wall, a shelf or whatever works).

11) Once you have enough flies in the pot, put the lid back on the culture (tapping funnel to keep flies from coming back up at the same time).

12) Quickly pull out the funnel, and replace the cut lid with the uncut one.

13) Shake pot gently to cover flies.

14) If feeding more than 1 viv, have more pots ready to tap small amounts from your main one into them, then recover 1st pot and feed from smaller quantity into viv. This helps a lot if you are quaranting as you can have ONE feeding pot per viv without risking cross infection between vivs.

Job done, and if you get more than 2 or 3 flies escaping you're doing it wrong. :lol2:

Mike saw me doing this at Christmas, and liked the method. : victory: It's easy, and it reduces the number of flies that escape massively. It also gives you a small easily handled pot to put into the viv and tip out, rather than trying to get a big one in there.

Ade


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

i've been succesful using a funnel and a pint glass to feed the froggies. the problem i had today was the wood wool and culture material was lose.


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Like Mike, I've switched to getting my wood wool from The Bag & Box Man in bulk. It's a lot to buy at once, but is good stuff and cheaper in the long term. : victory: Wood Wool [The Bag N Box Man Ltd, Adderbury, Banbury, United Kingdom]

Ade


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

For the bean weevils, I put folded kitchen towel on top of the beans; I find that the beetles tend to collect in the folds, and are easy to brush off into the viv from there. I'm not sure about a full-on waxworm culture, but when I buy one of those little tubs, I empty it into a clean cricket container with a loo roll tube: any moths tend to hide in that and are easy to shake out for my treefrogs, :2thumb:


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

Can anybody recommend the wheatabix method of lesser waxmoth culture from their own experience ? It sounds too simple. 

How easily is it to harvest the larvae ? Many, many years ago I remember buying one of the two species, and they were supplied as a mass of larvae in their old media and inside their silk webs. They were a pain to 'harvest', it was very time consuming.


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## morg (Jul 20, 2007)

Dragon Farm said:


> Can anybody recommend the wheatabix method of lesser waxmoth culture from their own experience ? It sounds too simple.
> 
> How easily is it to harvest the larvae ? Many, many years ago I remember buying one of the two species, and they were supplied as a mass of larvae in their old media and inside their silk webs. They were a pain to 'harvest', it was very time consuming.


 
I have used a mix of just wheat bran and honey in the past, nothing else, and this mix still worked fine, it just dried out a bit quickly, which is why I use a bit of glycerine in my cultures usually, to keep things moist.
So I could see the wheatabix method probably working, although Ive not tried it myself.

If you add a bit of scrunched up plenty kitchen paper to top of culture medium when tiny waxmoth larvae are seen, lots will head into the paper, so you can just remove paper, carefully open up and remove larvae needed.
Any that have already strarted to pupate, I put to 1 side ready to start a new culture


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

Thanks Morg. Thats very useful info. I will have to try and find out what the Portuguese is for glycerine !


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

I wouldn`t bother with the Lesser waxworms Mark.They are easy enough to culture but they are a real hassle to harvest.Getting them out of the sticky mix is a real pain.At leat with the regular sized ones you have a real chance.

Silkworms are good,although can be problematic at times.all of my animals seem to like them.


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

Thanks Colin. I am still looking for an easy to cuture, very productive insect for my baby/young lizards.


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

I don't have any trouble harvesting the lesser wax moth larvae at all. If you give one end of the tube a slight squeeze they exit out of the opposite end. lol Get a truly stubbon one, poke something pointy into the tube, job done. I get mine from Dartfrog and the media isn't particularly sticky. I have 3 more new ones sat in front of me now, along with a bag of media and a block of wax. It's kind of relaxing sitting by my vivs popping out larvae into a little tub whilst watching my frogs. Normal wax worms are far too large for dart frogs, as are silk worms. My tincs, leucs and auratus though will all happily slurp up lesser wax worms.: victory:

As to an easy to culture, very productive, insect. Bean weevils, grain weevils, meal worms. All very easy to culture.

Ade


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

Please don't take this the wrong way, but i am talking about feeding 500 plus baby lizards, who would happily eat 1 or 2 small waxworms a day. I could spend half the day 'squeezing tubes'.


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Dragon Farm said:


> Thanks Morg. Thats very useful info. I will have to try and find out what the Portuguese is for glycerine !


Glicerina, amazingly enough! : victory:


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

Then I wonder, do portuguese chemists stock it ! I have no idea what use it has other than for waxworms.


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

Keeping bellringers hands supple : victory:


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

Are you being serious ? Are you a secret campanologist ?


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Glycerol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

Dragon Farm said:


> Are you being serious ? Are you a secret campanologist ?


True, thats what I was told by the shop assistant in the chemists when I asked for some.


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

Bellringer's hands. Thats what you call a niche market.

I had a look at the wiki entry, and few of the uses seem to be things the general public might want it for. Wouldn't it be funny, if most of the glycerine in chemists, ended up being used for waxmoth culture ?


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Dragon Farm said:


> Please don't take this the wrong way, but i am talking about feeding 500 plus baby lizards, who would happily eat 1 or 2 small waxworms a day. I could spend half the day 'squeezing tubes'.


Not to worry, not taking your reply any way.

I just replied as an amphibian keeping hobbyist, in the amphibian section of a hobbyist forum. Rather than as a commercial reptile breeder.

I guess what I am trying to say is, you may get replies more specific to your personal needs somewhere that is aimed at commercial reptile breeders. Where here you're going to get replies from the perspective of folks who keep/breed amphibians as a hobby.:lol2:


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Dragon Farm said:


> Bellringer's hands. Thats what you call a niche market.
> 
> I had a look at the wiki entry, and few of the uses seem to be things the general public might want it for. Wouldn't it be funny, if most of the glycerine in chemists, ended up being used for waxmoth culture ?


I suspect it was used more in households when more people did their own food preserving.


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

Yes I know my situation is different to yours, and believe me sometimes I wish I could enjoy feeding frogs the way you do. I can see why its relaxing. I do have some amphibians. 

Thats why I said 'don't take it the wrong way'. Your advice is helpful and interesting. 

If I were to nitpick, I would say that this whole thread should be on the feeder section of the forum anyhow.


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

If you were to nitpick, this area of the forum, or any of the others, would quickly become useless.  The folks in here prefer to leave most of the rest of the forum alone.

Don't worry, I didn't take anything the wrong way. I just explained my point of view a little more. 

I'd still say try grain weevils. Just scale culture sizes up big time, and make sure you stagger making them so they don't all explode at once. lol

Ade


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

some people might find the idea that critters should purely be posted about in a 'feeder' section. however the reason its posted in here is so i dont have to deal with snake people telling me "nah you need to feed em on steroids and colourings so you get some mega rare morph so you can sell it, and why do you have your animal in an enclosure, it's all about stacks and stacks of tubs dude"

http://content.animalnewyork.com/wp-content/uploads/****-off-by-shikhei-goh.jpg


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## phelsumaman (Aug 14, 2008)

Meefloaf said:


> Glenn's site is a wonder


 
Thanks for reposting for me, I was going to write it out again :gasp:
This method works time & again, the volumes stated make loads of culture medium & can be frozen so that it lasts for longer


Ben


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## phelsumaman (Aug 14, 2008)

Dragon Farm said:


> Please don't take this the wrong way, but i am talking about feeding 500 plus baby lizards, who would happily eat 1 or 2 small waxworms a day. I could spend half the day 'squeezing tubes'.


Not sure about this? The best way to harvest these & the larger ones when culturing them is to take a piece of the culture medium & place it in an empty container somewhere farly warm (30c +), the worms will quickly leave the culture medium to look for somewhere cooler, no squeezing or picking through required. If you are really handy you could create something with a mesh bottom & have them fall into another container for feeding out.

Ben


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

:notworthy::notworthy::notworthy:


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

right guys, Lesser waxworms being going slow, had two moths appear and are no longer with us lol, checked the culture today, worried about these guys, are they mite's as you'll see at the top of the pot, they are trying to get out


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Meefloaf said:


> right guys, Lesser waxworms being going slow, had two moths appear and are no longer with us lol, checked the culture today, worried about these guys, are they mite's as you'll see at the top of the pot, they are trying to get out
> 
> image
> 
> ...


I'm guessing mites or springtails- hope for the latter!


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Ok, that got double-posted, but gives me the chance to ask the next question- are they hopping sometimes, or just crawling. if they hop once in a while, then springtails- if only crawl, probably mites.


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## Meefloaf (Mar 24, 2013)

they'll find it hard to hop or crawl in the cornish sewers ! yeah crawled, mites, ah well, lucky i had mite paper down, no sign in others, must've been in the culture


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