Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Boil water in a pot large enough to hold both glass jars and the mesh you'll use for lids. It is best to sterilize the jars before starting each new colony in order to kill mold and bacteria that could otherwise kill off the insects. Once the water is boiling, submerge the jars for 15 minutes to sterilize. Carefully remove the jars from the boiling water and invert them, allowing them to dry and cool.
Prepare the waxworm food. Combine the honey, glycerine and 3 tablespoons of water. Moisten the cereal with the combined liquids until you form a large, crumbly ball. If this diet doesn't provide the results you'd like, or the ingredients are difficult to obtain, see references for other waxworm diet options.
Place pieces of paper towels or corrugated cardboard in the large jar, along with the feed. Place your store-bought mature waxworms in the container, and carefully tape on a piece of mesh, forming a secure lid. Keep this jar in a warm, dark space. Waxworms thrive at 85 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The mature larvae will crawl into the pieces of paper towel to spin cocoons. Larvae in cocoons are called pupae.
Move the pupae in to a pint jar with a strip of dark paper. Secure a mesh lid with tape to the jar. When the moths emerge from the pupae, they will mate and the females will lay their eggs on the paper. Once the eggs are laid, transfer the egg paper to the larger jar to rear your new colony.
Harvest the mature larvae. The eggs will hatch in about 4 days and it will take 6 to 7 weeks for the larvae to mature. Once the mature larvae begin to spin cocoons, they can be harvested from those cocoons by agitating them in a diluted bleach solution. The bleach will dissolve the silk cocoons after approximately 20 minutes, after which you should rinse the waxworms and towel dry before storing.
Store the mature larvae in one of your sterilized pint jars with a mesh lid. The waxworms will survive for 2 to 3 months if kept at 60 degrees Fahrenheit and 60 percent humidity. In order to keep the colony going, reserve a few of the still-cocooned pupae in another pint jar with a dark piece of paper to allow for the next generation of moths to lay eggs.