While I don't breed them on large scale, my methods could be scaled. I once told someone about how to breed them (for his single chameleon) and he ended up with thousands of worms he took to local shops to sell.
I keep worms that are to be fed to my animals on wheat bran (very cheap). To that, I throw in vegetables (carrot, summer squash, zucchini, sweet potato, etc.). Make sure it stays pretty dry or the bran will mold. The container I use is a Rubbermaid tub... I cut out most of the top and bond in aluminum screen for good air circulation. You need to replace the bran every other month or so (you will see it start to get pretty thin).
When I feed the worms to my geckos, sometimes they escape and hide, and morph to beetles. I collect them and dump them into a similar container. The more the merrier! For a substrate in that one, I use soil, peat (several inches deep) and occasionally mix in some of the wheat bran. The important part is to have somewhere for the beetles to lay their eggs... pieces bark or nearly rotten wood works best. Throw in the same mix of veggies as before, once or twice a week, removing uneaten dry pieces. I actually spray a very fine spray into that container once a day (through the screen). If you need more beetles, place worms in individual containers that are light tight (film canisters with a small air hole in the top work very well). Keep them warm. No food. In a few weeks they should morph to beetles. When you start getting worms in the breeder container, they will be very small!
Jon Isaksson wrote:
Hello,
Does anyone one this list breed zoophobas, who could explain how to get beyond the small scale breeding?
Currently I keep them in a mixture of sawdust and soil, and remove larvaes every now and then to allow them to become beetles. That stage works fine but I dont seem to get enough breeding and "production" of larvae, so I just wondered if I should keep them on different medium?
Jon
--------------------------- Jon Isaksson Manchester UK
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Doug Johnston http://pages.sbcglobal.net/scubadug
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