Aussie Finch Forum

I had an interesting excursion on Septerber 8 as a follow-up to one of my kids school projects - they had to observe the lifecycle of meal worms and as I'm the only known source in Los Banos they got them from me after I pointed out that the worms they'd sourced were Super Worms and would take 3-4 months to go thorough their cycle. Anyway there has been a shortage of both since I returned from Australia in August so I took the opportunity to go visit a worm-farm in nearby Calamba. Apparently the price of chicken starter crumbles has gone up so much that it has forced people out of the business and this guy was also hit by a disease that wiped out his colonies. The disease he described as ants so small you can't see them which were introduced in a batch of contaminated feed. I think he was describing a parasitic mite that probably infested the flour beetles that get into everything up here. So for those that are interested here is how they breed the beetles here:


The beetles are kept for 3-4 weeks on 2cm of chicken stater crumbles in fish-tanks topped with bird-wire to keep the rats out. For water they get slices of some fruit called "samote" but we'd use carrot - this is replaced when needed. As you can see from the photo the density is quite high and they must never run out of food or they will cannibalize any slow larvae, eggs or adults. After a month the beetles are removed to another tank and since they live for ~3 months you can get 3 breeding cycles from them.


The young larvae are then placed into tubs and placed over water to stop ants and rats getting to them. He actually breeds as large ciclid fish called a "flower horn" in his ponds so nothing goes to waste. As the worms grow they are sieved out and the media (chicken starter crumbles) replaced with increasing frequency as they mature. Moisture is suppled the same as the adults. The Superworms are mature after 3 month and go off to market. A tub of worms (~2000) wholesales for P600 (AUD$15) and then retails for P3000 (AUD$75).


Superworms unlike meal worms won't mature unless they are isolated from the competition of their siblings and so for the next generation of breeders he places a single mature superworm in Yakult bottle with a little chicken starter crumbles and a piece of samote. Within a month each worm pupates and depending on temperature will emerge as a beetle after another month and so the cycle continues. The bottles of pupae are also kept over the ponds.