Think its feasable to raise superworms for a good profit?

[Smertrios]

I read about superworms and thought to myself "I have to try that"! I bought a breeding kit with the intent of learning some details of breeding this creature. Profit at least the way I am thinking about profit means I would need at least a $3 gross profit per 1000 and need to be selling 100,000+ per day.

The pros to superworms are that they don't need to be cooled to prevent them from pupating, they are soft bodied and they are a fair sized live food at 2-1/2 to 3" for the larvae. The biggest con is that they can not be cooled because they will die and thus require a little maintainance to keep them alive.

Setup costs for an operation capable of producing 100,000 per day would be nearly $55,000 and take a good amount of square footage (floorspace included in startup costs). Labor won't be bad the daily routine would consist of starting another 100,000 superworms and watering the others.

Just day dreaming I guess personally I like what I do now for cash but it could last years, a lifetime or come to a screeching halt by tomorrow =P Always looking for alternate/more income...

 

[Fish on Fire]

It would be better to just breed some really nice flowerhorns. Much better money as well.

 

[wataugachicken]

my superworm story - i found an injured robin in my yard, and put it in a small box overnight until i could call a nature center/rescue the next day. i happened to have some superworms in the fridge for the fish, so i put them in there so the robin could eat them if it wanted to. the next morning i checked on the bird. it was dead and all the worms had crawled out of their container and were eating it. ugh.

 

[Smertrios]

My guess is that the bird died and the superworms were attracted to it as a source of moisture as they are extreme drinkers... why more than 1? I guess its possible they killed if your bird was in really bad condition. This is kind of off topic to your bird but uneaten mealworms have a reputation for killing spiders by putting holes in them that don't heal (spiders can't heal I guess). Someone on the internet that keeps spiders told me that... they still feed mealworms but if the spiders are not eating them the mealworms are removed. My info says your superworms should have been dead in the fridge anyway you sure they were not those gross hormone grown mealworms that are sold as "giant mealworms"? (cold kills superworms) The hormone grown mealworms are not susposeto be good as pet food food but are meant for fishing!

Are superworms meat eaters? I assumed that since they are raised on grains and veggies that they were plant eaters only.

 

[santoury]

They are scavengers and definitely will munch some meat, as most insects will.

Has anybody had a superworm pupate? I haven't seen that...

 

[Smertrios]

Here is a pic of 24 pupae of the superworm... When they first pupate they are much more white then they appear in the pictures. After a couple days the bodies are more yellow and the eyes darken like in the pic.

 

[Smertrios]

Here is a pic of those beetles 2 days after most emerged as adults. They start out light brown or white in color but all have turned black or a deep red color now at 6 days (no current pic of them).

 

[Smertrios]

I made a huge mistake initially... I was looking at the quantity of worms and not their size when determining startup costs and the space needed to raise them. Once I took into consideration that young larvae can be raised with much greater density per square foot the startup cost was slashed... Also contacted a manufacturer of 28" x 30" x 2.5" trays that are used to help prevent water damage from washing machines to see if I can get the $13 per price down a bit (local retail store price). The trays look like a suitable container...

For feeding the larvae and beetles I need to get a good price on wheat bran and potatoes. Not sure how important potatoes are to the nutrition of the beetles and larvae *but* if they are just a water source I may be able to use a product similar to "cricket crystals". The crystals ability to hold onto mass quantities of water without drowning the larvae/beetles makes itan appealing replacement for potatoes.

There are a few warnings when raising insects using this polymer called "cricket crystals" tho. Basically dont let the dry product get eaten because it will expand in the stomach of what eats it causing eventual mal-nurishment if not death... I think the "danger" is a no-brainer =) Just watching a small pouch of the polymer turning a gallon of water into a chunky jello like substance tells me of the potential damage it could cause if used improperly.

 

[prophets]

Noble idea.

I only managed to get about 500 or so superworms from a batch of 1000.
I put aside around 150 from the initial 1000 to mature into beetles...only about 100 of them did become beetles.

Sucks that I only have about 30 beetles left...for some reason they started to eat each other, despite having putting in plenty of apple slices, carrots and potatoe wedges which was changed every 2 days.

The worse thing is when the larvaes (SW) start to die off..or rather get eaten by the other worms..they stink as hell.

After that fiasco..I figure it'd be a lot easier to just buy 2000 of them at a pop to feed the aro's. But your plan is good idea..just a lot of work/money to be invested.

Good luck on this project if you do it.

 

[Smertrios]

So far my small scale test using a breeding kit is going well... Every 3 weeks I have been moving the beetles to a new container.

First container (0-3 week old adults) resulted in maybe 12 larvae I was negligent about keeping the bedding moist that may be the cause.

Second container (3-6 week old adults) resulted in a surface that moves with life. There must be a hundred visible on the surface and I would assume just as many under the surface if not more.

The first container had me worried I really expected alot more young larvae. I invested in a plant water mister to keep the bedding moist that may also have contributed to the higher succcess rate for the second container. Another thing that may increase the yield would be to do as suggested by many websites and move the beetles every 2 weeks rather than 3.