Day 5 - The Death Toll Mounts

August 26, 2013

Two more larva died and three molted. At first I thought these superworms were cloning themselves, but they had only molted.

The container of 70 worms that I purchased on Friday were all dead today. I went to Petco to get some more superworms. I opened eight containers and all I found were lots of smelly dead superworms. The manager was kind enough to go through all eight containers by hand and find all the living superworms and gave them to me for free.

When I got home, Charlie was thrilled to have his afternoon meal of superworms. I also added 12 new worms to fill up all 20 compartments in the tray.

I received some advice from a fellow, more experienced, superworm farmer. He won first place in his third grade science fair for his fully functioning superworm farm a few years ago. He must know what he is doing.

Am I as smart as a third grader??

If he can create a superworm farm, then so can I!

His advice - put the larvae in a dark place. It seems the larvae need to be really stressed out to pupate.

So, my 20 little larvae

• are isolated in their own little plastic 2" by 2" cells;
• have no source of food;
• have no source of water;
• are sitting in the dark.

If that does not drive them to pupate nothing will! Give me pupae or give me death, you little larvae!

The stress of superworm farming is maddening.

Day 3 - Massive die off

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Half of the larva in my superworm farm have died. They tuned black and were not curled up as they should be. Only one worm is starting to turn into a pupa. It is bloated and starting to curl into a hook shape. The rest  are just sitting around and not doing much.

Thanks Petco for a batch of really weak and sick superworms! The entire container of 75 that I bought on Friday are all dead. I will have buy some more superworms from Petco to feed Charlie and replace the dead larva with fresh ones for my farm.

Here is a 'snapshot' of the life cycle of superworms.....

And a close up of the larval stage, which Charlie loves to munch on!

The medium worms are about 1.5 inches long.

Another link to growing superworms...http://www.everythingreptile.org/super-worm-breeding.html.

Day 1 - Starting the Farm

Friday, August 23, 2013

Charlie, a sand-fire Bearded Dragon, has been a member of our family since he was only two inches long. He seems to have lost his appetite for Bearded Dragon pellets, and he lost a fair amount of weight last Spring. So we have started feeding him superworms, and he has started to gain weight.

Charlie chilling under the heat lamp

The problem is buying superworms. The ones from our local Petco are in pretty bad shape. Many are dead, or die soon after I bring them home. As a consequence, I have to go to Petco three times a week to buy them in smaller quantities. Charlie eats about 16-20 per day.

The solution is to become a superworm farmer! I found a great video on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex-jbQtClPM) on how to grow superworms. This blog will document my experiences as a superworm farmer.

Step 1 is to put the superworms into their own private cells and wait for them to pupate. After visiting Target and Ace I had to go to Michael's to find just the right container for the superworms to pupate.

There they are....20 little superworms wiggling around their cells.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures of the Superworm Farmer!