Trouble with Wax worms

[Fishinqueen]

I raise mealworms and wax worms. I started out with 1000 or each, took care of them, watched them change, the beetles did fine, had more mealworms. The moths on the otherhand died. I don't know what I did wrong. I put them in a plastic container with a lid and air holes, I fed them a whole grain/honey recipe I found online, they seemed to like it. I occasionally put in slices of apple. I also put empty toilet paper rolls in with them. Once they turned to moths they lived for a little while and then just died. Many of them never came out of their cacoons. I kept them inside the house so that they were in a stable temperature. Anybody have any ideas about what I might have done wrong or what I could do differently with them next time? When I started I had a feeling the wax worms were going to be trouble. .

[azslabber]

Moths don't live very long.From what I have read.The beetles either after they have laid thier eggs.

[Fishinqueen]

Yeah they were supposed to die but I was hoping they would lay eggs first! lol The moths never laid eggs. The beetles did though.

[bassbull]

Hello I've been raising wax worms for about 3 years now.They can be real tuff at times.But if things go right you can have thousands of the little devils real quick.When the wax worm pupa turns brown it will turn into a moth in about 2 weeks.Depending on weather your WW have been stunted our not they will make a cacoon our turn strait to this brown pupa you talk about.If the moths are hatching and breeding you should have young WW in about 2 weeks. STEP # 1 You should have a big pickle jar for this. In this jar you should not have anything but about 20 wax worms some paper towel on the bottom of it. DON'T PUT FOOD WITH THEM YET IT WILL SPOIL AND KILL EVERYTHING REAL QUICK!!! The wax worms will crawl into this and cacoon our just pupate into the brown stage. When you see the first moth hatch this is when you will need a bigger container to hold the moths during breeding time.I use a big plastic type tub with the top cut out and very fine mesh screen replaceing this for air movement.In this lrg container you will put your food at one end.About 2 deep and anout 8 inches across.Then put in some wax paper crumpled up in the middle.Then take your jar with the one moth and the other brown pupa (spelling SORRY) and slide it into the other container,the moth our mouths don't seem to mind much but don't take to long to do it either.This breeding thing takes up to 8 to 12 days depending how the other moths hatch out.When they are all dead reopen the tub and you can clean the dead moths out if you want but not needed. You should start to see small WW in another 2 to 3 weeks if not sooner.For food don't put any scrap type food.APPLES AND SUCH. I use just cheap honey nut cheerios and caro suryp,honey,bees wax,a touch of water,brewers yeast and glycerin. After they start hatching and get to about 1/4 in in size I move them into about 6 small heavy duty plastic pails with the lids reworked also. The one thing that hurts me raising them up here in WI is the cold weather. You have to keep them in a very warm place that is also dark. The temp should be at least the upper 80 to 95 degrees our its all for nothing.You put black plastic garbage bags around them to keep the container in the dark. This a quick run down of the process,good luck Bass Bull PM ME WITH ANY ??

[Fishinqueen]

Thats probably where I went wrong, I was leaving them outside and my boyfriend told me it was too hot for them so I took them inside in the ac. Plus they were not kept in the dark. The rest of what you said was pretty close to what you said. Thank you so much I will try this with my next batch.

[wvsportsman]

Fishinqueen, Welcome to the site.

[Fishinqueen]

Thank you

[John Brower]

I just read your info and thanks very much. I tried raising them and bombed out but i see i made
several mistakes.

Thanks again
john b.

[bluegrass]

I remember when I was a kid we had a plywood box we stored feed in for cattle. My grandfather,from whom I got this fishing 'bug' from, was out one day and went with me to the barn. His eyes got as big as silver dollars when I raised that lid and there were hundreds of mealworms in that box. Between that and the pile of compost from a cleaned out barn, I always had enough mealworms and night crawlers.
Oh the good ol' days.
Lance