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.
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| 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.
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Netted basins
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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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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