I had the most success when I neglected them, honestly... To get them to change into pupae, they need to be in small little "cells". I used a tackle box. Once they turned into beetles, I put them in a bucket with food and egg cartons, closed the lid, and forgot about them for a month or two. There were full sized super worms in there when I found the bucket again, but I didn't bother counting them, so I'm not sure how successful it was. I just know I never got full sized worms when I paid close attention to them.
the worms do need to be seperated to change into a beetle.. one easy way is to go to a wal-mart, cvs etc.. and at the photo dept ask for a bunch of old film canisters. the canisters are small enough that you can set up as many as you need. you dont need a substrate for them to change into a beetle.. just make sure they dont get too dry. once you have a bunch of beetles.. set up 5 or 6 trays with bran in them... tranfer all of your beetles to tray 1 for a week... make sure you feed and water the beetles so they dont eat too many of the eggs. after a week transfer all of the beetles to tray 2.. repeat. if you do this with 50 - 100 beetles you can produce many many superworms. just make sure you are always making beetles to replace the ones that die off.. once you have your beetles in the 5th or 6th tray you should be ready to feed from tray 1.
I asked for old film canisters at Target and they just laughed at me. They seemed to think it was really funny.
If you have an elderly grandmother who takes a lot of pills, you can ask her to save her old pill bottles for you. I have more of them than I know what to do with; and I am not even raising supers anymore.
that would work also.. or.. get those little 1 or 2 ounce deli cups... or check a wal-mart or check you yellow pages for photo processing.. with out a doubt.. SOMEONE in your area still processes film and can give you the canisters... i have THOUSANDS of them... and the places i get them from are more than happy to give them away.
