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Prepare a suitable rearing container. Waxmoth cultures need good ventilation,
but the caterpillars can chew through paper or cloth. A solution would
be to cut a hole in the lid of the rearing container, then glue fine metal
screen over the hole. Waxmoth larvae (or waxworms) like to be crowded,
so the container shouldn't be very big.
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Mix up some culture medium. I use wheat bran, mixed with brewer's yeast
to boost the nutritional content, glycerin (also called glycerol-- can
be purchased at a pharmacy), and honey. The exact proportions aren't
too important, but the resulting medium should be moist but still crumbly.
The glycerin seems especially important for newly hatched larvae, because
I've experienced poor survival rates when I skip adding it. Excess medium
keeps well, as long as it is protected from stray larvae and other insects.
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Loosely wrap a small lump of medium with a bit of crumpled wax paper, and
put the package in the culture container. Add some large healthy waxworms
from the pet store. It's important to choose healthy caterpillars that
don't show any sign of black spots or darkening, because dead caterpillars
can spread disease and ruin a culture. They also smell bad! Keep
the culture warm, at 85°F. The caterpillars will burrow into
the medium to eat, then pupate. At this point, trap a sheet of paper toweling
under the lid of the culture container.
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After the moths emerge, they will mate and the females will lay their eggs
in the folds of the wax paper. The adult moths don't eat, so no special
feeding will be needed. Keep the culture in a dark place, to allow the
moths to be active and mate. After they lay eggs, the moths can be fed
to herps that like to hunt flying insects. The eggs will hatch in a few
days, and the young larvae will be seen crawling around the sides of the
container before burrowing into the medium. The paper napkin cover
inserted earlier will keep the tiny larvae from escaping through the screen.
They'll be too small to chew through paper at this stage.
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The adult moths will die after they breed, and can be removed. I seldom
bother to do that, because the larvae seem to eat the bodies anyway. Keep
adding little lumps of food as the medium gets consumed. If you see larvae
crawling around the sides of the container, it means they need more food.
The larvae can be harvested at this stage, using forceps to pick them out
of the medium. Compared to store-bought waxworms, cultured larvae are very
active and fast. The larvae actually heat up the medium, but they still
need to be kept warm. I keep them on top of my light fixtures.
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Move some large larvae to a new culture container or two, or transfer the
cocoons when the larvae pupate. This is much easier than moving the moths,
which can fly pretty well. Large larvae can be stored for a couple of months
at 60° F.
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WAXMOTH LINKS:
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Keeping and
breeding Wax Worms
Rearing
Waxworms 1
Rearing
Waxworms 2
Husbandry
Tips For Waxworms
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