3 Crawling Monsters You Need to Avoid in Breeding Superworms

During the past three years of breeding Superworms, I have learned to battle with three monsters. They are cunning. They use stealth. One uses an army.

Lizard

            Number one on the list is the house lizard. They are stealthy. They attack in the dead of the night. You will know that they are dipping into your Superworms when you see one or two as large as a Leopard Gecko hatchling. That means trouble. Lizards are good to have around the house because they eat insects. Insects like mosquitoes, house flies and small moths. If you have 10 to 20 of these around, imagine the savings that you will get of not having to buy insect killer spray. Sad to say, if you have 1 to 3 of these around your unprotected Superworms, they mean disaster. At first you will not notice what you are losing. Overtime you will see your basin that is usually full of Superworms dwindled to a few hundreds. A typical basin can hold a thousand Superworms. With the lizard monster around, you will be lucky to get 300 to 500 pieces.

Netted basins

     

My solution is to cover each basin with mosquito net. This is an added cost to your fix assets but this will ensure no entry of these monsters and you can recoup your investment over time.

mouse
Photo credit 

            The number two monster is the mouse or rat. One or two of these smart monsters mean that you will be on a never ending repair sessions with your mosquito nets. 

They can rip through the net. They eat your vegetables if not some of your Superworms as well.  Although, I do not have a proof that they do eat Superworms, I do see some beetles out of the basin when the mosquito net has been breached open by the mouse. The beetles may have clung on the mouse and when the mouse goes out, they get to ride out.

            My solution is to prepare a sumptuous dinner for them with squash, squash seeds, uncooked rice and used cooking oil laced with Zinc Phosphate. Three days after you will be engaged with a monster hunt. Sniffing, sniffing, sniffing and pinpoint where they rest in peace.

Ants

            Number three wanted monsters are the ants. You will be seeing one or two leisurely promenading on the shelf. You will see some on the floor, and others on the edges of the basins. The next time you will be seeing them in one line and they already have an army eating into a morphing worm. The scouts discover the individually kept worms. 

Not so lucky beetle eaten by ants

They somewhat wait until this turn into an alien and that is the time they attack, often times when the alien already resembles a beetle. They love young beetle because it is still soft. If not discovered, they can eat all your morphing worms.

trapped ants with chalk type insect killer

            My solution is to always keep the shelves and floor clean. Sweep off the dust and bedding particles from the shelves and floor. If you observe that there are many ants around, wipe the shelves with a cloth damped with an insect killer. I also use the chalk type insect killer.

            With these monsters controlled, you can be sure of a high and successful production ahead.  Happy breeding!

Leopard Gecko Breeding Essentials

Leopard Gecko by Brian Constantino

     Few months ago I fell in love again. This time with a cold blooded animal. Yikes! haha. My wife turns her back just by seeing these colorful reptiles. I love the color mutations. The Tangerines and Sunglows are my personal favorites. I began reading about these beautiful reptiles and got hold of back issue of Reptiles, February 2009. It had a comprehensive article about Leopard Geckos. It was written by Craig Stewart of The Urban Gecko. Let me share this to you. I hope this will really help in your breeding projects of these beautiful reptiles.

Breeding Essentials

By Craig Stewart

Reptiles

February 2009

ReptileChannel.com

Leopard geckos are easy to bred in captivity, but follow these seven essentials steps.

1. MATURE INDIVIDUALS ONLY.  These geckos usually reach maturity once the males weigh 40 grams and females are between 45 to 50 grams. Typically, these weights are reached in about one year. From my experience, waiting until the female reaches this weight helps ensure a productive and safe breeding cycle. In her prime, an average female produces five clutches per year.

2. OPPOSITES ATTRACT. Sexing leopard geckos is easy. Examine the gecko’s underside, and look just below the vent. If you see enlarged hemipenal bulges, then you have a male. Females can show some enlargement in this area, but it’s smooth without any depression. As an alternative, look for preanal pores located in a V-shaped pattern just above the vent. With males it is obvious. Some females have a slight V-shaped pattern, but it’s not as pronounced.

3. COOL STIMULATION. I put all of my breeder geckos through a cooling cycle to stimulate the breeding cycle. Before they enter the cooling period, it is crucial their digestive tracks are completely emptied. To ensure this, I stop offering food 10 to 14 days before cycling. Once the cycle starts, temperatures are lowered immediately to the high 70s to low 60s (degrees Fahrenheit). Only water is available during the cycling period, which lasts about four to eights weeks.

4. WARM THEM TO INTRODUCTIONS. Once the cycling period is over, I gradually return temperatures to normal levels (gradient from low 80s to 90 degrees) within the first week and reinstate a regular feeding program. As soon as the geckos have acclimatized, they become active and feed regularly. At this point, males can be introduced to females. A general rule of thumb is that each male can successfully breed up to 5 females, introduced individually or collectively.

5. ADD A NESTING BOX. Within six weeks females becomes larger, and their undersides show the outline of developing ova. At this time, I introduce a nesting box with a small entrance hole. This box measures about 10 inches long buy 6 inches wide by 2 inches tall. Inside is a hefty layer of moist vermiculite where the female can bury her eggs. The vermiculite prevents eggs from drying out.

6. INCUBATE AND REGULATE.  Leopard geckos always lay eggs in pairs. Remove them from the nesting box, and place them into an incubator. Although several methods of incubating eggs exist, I have had consistent success by placing eggs atop moist vermiculite in an airtight container.  You can control the geckos’ sex through the incubation temperature.  Produce males at 88 to 90 degrees, female at 80 to 82 degrees and mixed groups at 85 to 86 degrees.  During incubation, open containers twice a week to circulate fresh air and to remove condensation on the lid.

7. GIVE THEM A BREAK.  At the end of each breeding season, separate males and females. The females need a chance to recuperate.

1 Major Benefit of Breeding Superworms

Unused bedding

      One major benefits of breeding super worms come from its waste product. 
    For several years now, I have been a firm believer of the benefits of composting can give to a plant. That is why, I have have vermicomposting bins around the house. 

Composting Bin under a grafter Apple Mango 

 I started it with two kilos of African Night Crawlers (ANC). I placed in there grass cuttings, kitchen left overs, papers and what have you that can be degraded. However, I lacked one major component and that is animal manure.

Composting Bin under a grafted Apple Mango

Composting Bin under a grafted Apple Mango

Composting Bin

Composting Bin

The original ANC may have escaped because I am able to see any large size earthworms in the bin. So what I am doing is to throw whatever earthworms I see on my lawn into the bin.

Fruits

Froggy eating Super Worms

Froggy eating Super Worms

Froggy eating Super Worms

Froggy eating Super Worms

second batch of flowers

Second batch of flowers

Breeding super worms has its waste products. We have dead super worms, beetles skeletal, uneaten and dried vegetable pieces. There is also a big volume of used up bedding. 

Used bedding

Close up used bedding

Close up used bedding

The bedding as we know is a combination of rice bran, wheat bran, skim milk and fish meal. 

Close up of the used bedding

Close up of the used bedding

Fresh bedding is laid out from the start of the breeding cycle where the beetles lay their eggs. After a couple of weeks, the beetles are taken out and transferred to a fresh bedding. 

The bedding will stay there until the super worms grow out and until they are ready to be sold. 

I have been throwing these used bedding under these Yellow bell trees. I noticed that they are flowering very well and this is also at the same time.