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Wax worms

Wax worms are another food item that are easy to culture. It is more involved than fruit flies, as there aren’t many pre-made wax worm foods available, so finding a recipe for wax worm medium on the Internet is usually the only way to get information. The worms should be used as a supplement to vary their regular diet. If one intends on using wax worms, you will most likely need to start with large worms, and get them to pupate and turn into moths to breed yourself. Wax worms small enough for Dendrobatids are not commonly available, and grow rapidly, so
buying them in appropriate sizes and quantities is usually problematic.

 Wax worms go through four stages: egg, larvae, pupa, and adult. At 29 degrees Celcius (85 degrees Farenheit) it will take the worm 5 to 6 weeks to go from larva to adult.  

Keeping and breeding wax worms

  1. Best way to start raising wax worms is to buy some.
  2. Prepare an escape proof container for them ie 3 to 5 gallon tank with screened lid (tape it on later).
  3. You will also need a substrate- get some bran and honey- mix it together dry.  If you can get some bees wax grate it into the mixture. Crumble the mixture into the tank.  The mix may still be a little sticky.
  4. Put the wax worms in the container with the bedding.
  5. Add a few crumpled balls of wax paper as well.
  6. Keep the wax worms at room temp. eventually the waxworms will begin to spin cocoons. They will remain in their cocoons for approx two weeks- then moths will emerge.
  7. The moths will mate and live for about a week or so- they will lay their eggs in the wax paper.
  8. A couple of weeks after the moths have died you will see lots of tiny worms. They grow fast if they are kept at room temp- so once they are half grown you may want to store them in the fridge in a container with small air holes and some of the honey and bran mix. If you leave them at room temp the cycle will begin again. :)
  9. You must secure the top.  The worms hatch small and will escape.

Caution:  Be careful with the cultures so you won't get moist inside. It will just take a few days until the whole culture is dead if this happens. I always pick out the worms one by one from the cultures and then put them into a small tupperware bowl that a use to feed from. If you have small cultures and put them inside the humid vivarium for just a few minutes it will get moist and kill the culture.