# Live foods that can be cultured indoors?



## Addlement (Mar 16, 2014)

Hey everyone, I've been looking into culturing live foods for a long time, and have done so in the past (dubia roaches, crickets). Right now, I'm culturing mealworms, and they're fantastic-- I turn a shoe box with about an inch of oatmeal into over a thousand mealworms each month and FF on the cheerio's/yeast recipe.

What I was wondering is, is there any other feeder that's easy to culture -inside-? I've always wanted to do soldier flies or BB flies, but those have such a stench to them that they really need to be outdoors. Unfortunately, I'm in an apartment, and I do not want to smell compost and meat!  I was thinking about silkworms or hornworms, but they require quite a bit more work than what I'm used to (which is just throwing a critter in with some food and waiting). Superworms seem alright, though it's kind of disappointing to have to separate them to pupate and such. Waxworms apparently aren't too bad, but I've heard something about store-bought ones never being able to pupate, and that they -need- a lot of honey and wax in their diet? I would love to do those, but honey is really expensive where I live, and beeswax is nowhere to be found.

What are your ideas? Any other bugs I'm missing? I'd love to find something with a flying stage, so once I have larger mantises, I can watch them snatch things out of the air!


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## I_love_mantids (Mar 17, 2014)

the wax worms I buy pupate. My orchid loves the moths.


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## Addlement (Mar 19, 2014)

Interesting. Do you know if they absolutely need to eat honey? Do they need wax or a place to crawl to to pupate or anything?


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## Paradoxica (Mar 19, 2014)

I've been meaning to try culturing waxworms but haven't had a chance. It looks pretty simple and doesn't require much. Here's a guide from UKMF: http://www.ukmantisforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2008


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## I_love_mantids (Mar 19, 2014)

I just buy a container an I get a lot of moths. I'm not culturing them. It takes them long to pupate though.


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## Addlement (Mar 20, 2014)

Interesting, I definitely want to try that idea, though we don't appear to have Weetabix on this side of the pond. So, in your opinion, what would work best? I'm going to go kind of scientific, since this seems like something the hobby needs more knowledge on, and that's kind of what I nerd out on. I'll be setting up eight bins this week, though I'd easily add a couple more if someone has any ideas.

some with ground up cheerios (which are commonly used in FF cultures as they have some mysterious antimold property) and some honey, milled oats and some honey, some corn meal and honey, and some with ground up cheerios and no honey. I plan on having two colonies of each, one being kept at room temperature, ~72 degrees, and one kept near my Chameleon cage, so about 85 degrees. Waxworms are naturally occurring in beehives, which are kept at ~94 degrees. If the ones at 85 go through their life cycle much faster than the ones at room temperature, I'll try finding a way to keep them at beehive temperatures.

Are waxworm moths plenty large to feed, say, adult Indian Flowers and Orchids? I guess that might be important to know before I go through all that work...


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## Paradoxica (Mar 20, 2014)

Through some unbelievable coincidence my wife is sitting next to me eating Weetabix for breakfast! She bought them at Trader Joes, but they're pretty much just shredded wheat. Sounds like you've hot it a planned out really well. Waxmoths a a decent size(many times bigger than a bluebottle fly) I used to feed them to my idolo without a problem.


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## I_love_mantids (Mar 20, 2014)

they are big enough to feed orchids. Don't know about creos.


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## Addlement (Mar 20, 2014)

Paradoxica said:


> Through some unbelievable coincidence my wife is sitting next to me eating Weetabix for breakfast! She bought them at Trader Joes, but they're pretty much just shredded wheat. Sounds like you've hot it a planned out really well. Waxmoths a a decent size(many times bigger than a bluebottle fly) I used to feed them to my idolo without a problem.


I actually hadn't thought of that! I don't have a Trader Joe's, but I do have a Cost Plus, so I'll have to go see what they've got. I totally forgot about import stores. Thanks!


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