Breeding your own livefood

[geckomadgyal]

Like breeding crickets (which is straightforward), can you breed locusts too?

[jonnydotcom]

i have 2 wax worm colonys running at the mo, never thought about crikets or locusts

[Paul]

jonnydotcom said:

i have 2 wax worm colonys running at the mo, never thought about crikets or locusts

Any chance of explaing how you would set a wax worm colony up?
I'd be very interested myself in this.

[jonnydotcom]

pretty simple just get a old sweet tub (like the ones they use in sweet shops).
some wheatabix and some honey plus some cardboard and old pair off tights or piece of mesh.

put 6 bix in a bag and smash the hell out of it, you want it fine but not powdered.
put this in a bowl and slowly add the honey(try warming it up first as it makes it run better)

you want to get it to a nice crumble texture where it will form a ball if you press it in your hand but still crumble if you press it.

put the mix into the sweet tub so you have about 2" deep and then put the cardboard in this will give somewhere for the worms to pupate.

mesh the top to stop any escapes and put somewhere warm

forget about it for a month or two,

i will take a pic of one of mine to explain the cardboard a bit better.

[Paul]

A picture would be great. Curious question though. Would egg box bits (like the ones u get with hoppers and crickets) work or is there a specific way of setting up the card?

[geckomadgyal]

yeaaa that sounds way kl!! cant wait to see the picture. do you get a lot of waxies from it?

[jonnydotcom]

i aint got a pic of my set up yet but i have got the link to the place where i got the info from
www.exotic-pets.eu/waxworms.php

once i get the camera out i will post a pic

[Kimmy]

So do you place wax worms in there to begin with and let them breed?

[Paul]

Yes. The instructions say that you make the basic setup and add waxworms that you bought into the mix. They then do the work from there.

I'm very tempted to try doing so but need to find myself one of those Quality street jars or Roses jars that are available around christmas. I think they'd be brilliant for harvesting waxies.

[geckomadgyal]

I'm gonna give it a go at the weekend...I'll let you all know how it goes!!

[Paul]

I'll be setting one up soon I think. Just need to get some honey and some weetabix lol ;D

[jonnydotcom]

go to a news agents and ask them for the old sweet tubs thats what i use, as for honey and weetabix i used tesco's own weetabix and cheap honey.

[jonnydotcom]

oh yeah here's some pics of my setups



lids have loads of very small holes drilled in them for ventilation

[Paul]

thats a brilliant setup mate!

very inspired now to make my own. DO you just keep them at room temperature or something?

[Kimmy]

Also is there a smell accompanied with them? Sometimes the smell is atrocious, so I'm just wondering for when mine gets going, if it smells bad should I worry or is it normal? Silly question I know.