I breed my own feeder insects, to make sure they are good quality. I breed/ have bred the following species: Pantanal roach, shelfordella, wax worms, sun/flower beetle, super worms, crickets and desert locust.In the following is a quick description on how I set up each species.
Dubia: The dubia are kept in 50L tubs, without substrate. The tubs are full of egg trays, that both acts as cover and gives a lot of usable surface area for the dubia. The are kept between 24-30c depending on what time of the year as I don’t use a heat source for them. They are not picky eaters and will happily eat most types of fruit and vegetables. In summer they really enjoy eating the flowers of dandelion. Besides the fresh food, they always has access to dry food. I use a homemade dry food and contains stuff like bee pollen, spirulina, dried carrot, dried squash, dried sweet heart cabbage, corn flour, a bit of high quality koi pellets, calcium carbonate, nekton MSA and reptile vitamins.
Pantanal roach: These are the biggest roaches I breed and are mainly used for the flavirufus. They can’t climb the sides of the tub. As substrate they have compost soil, egg trays and cork pieces as hides. They are kept at 24-30c depending on the time of the year.Food is the same as for the dubia.
Shelfordella: These little roaches are fast, but can’t climb glass. They are often called red runner. It’s a small roach, about the size of a cricket, it’s soft until dubia and many of my smaller monitor lizards really enjoy these. As the other roaches they are bred in tubs with no heat source. The tub is filled with egg trays and as food they more or less eat the same as the other roaches, but they don’t seem to eat as much of the dry food. They enjoy temperature at around 30-34c and will in those temperatures breed rather fast.
Wax worms: Now these are completely different to breed then all the roaches, but not more difficult. I use 500ml buckets for them as I don’t use a lot. It’s important to have good ventilation in the top of the bucket. To start a fresh culture I will take 10-15 larvae and put them into a empty bucket with just a piece of egg tray. They will, if they are ready ( you can see it in the original bucket that they are starting to make a cocoon) go into or onto the piece of egg tray and make their cocoon. When the first moth comes out, I remove the piece of egg tray and add the wax worms medie, after that I simply place the piece of egg tray back. The medie is pretty easy to make, I personally like to use wheat bran mixed with honey, I do a 2:1 by weight, and normally add a spoonful or two of pollen.
Sun/flower beetle: these I don’t have super much experience with, but I have managed to get them breeding. Unlike the roaches, the beetles have a tub with a led light and a heat matt on the side( heat is only needed in winter ). As substrate they have leaf litter and coconut soil. The substrate is thick, about 10-15cm and slightly moist. As food they get different types of fruit.
Super worms: these can be a bit tricky, as the larvae normally don’t pupae when they are together. So for the amount I need, I just seperate them, and when turn into beetles I add them into a tub with similar substrate as the flower beetles. As for egg laying, I offer the beetles a piece of timber, just a 10cm long piece, but it has groves cut into it, about 5-8mm deep. The beetles with lay their eggs in these groves, and it can be removed or let them hatch inside the tub.As for food, they get different types of fruit, and some of the roach chow.
Crickets: crickets I keep in larger tubs, and have build them to be low maintenance. They are filled with egg trays and have two corners that are free, one for food and one for water. As for food they get the roach chow, and for water they have a cheap drink dispenser ( cheap ones for birds ), this way I can check up on them 1-2 times a week. They don’t have substrate but have a small heat matt in winter. For egg laying they have a cricket box with slightly moist sand covered with a metal mesh.
Locusts: the most time consuming feeder I have( I keep desert locust). Locusts need to be checked 2-3 times a day to at least offer new fresh food. They eat a lot. For housing them, I use a big tub with a lot of ventilation. They need a basking bulb and some visual light. Temps need to be 30-35c during the day. The desert locust is not a picky eater, and will happily eat a large variety of food items. I normally feed them sweet heart cabbage, romaine lettuce, clover, dandelion, different types of herbs.For nesting I use a cricket box filled with a sand coconut soil mix that I kept slightly moist. These locusts grow fast, from the day they hatch until they turn adult, is 27 days. In those 27 days they grow from being a tiny locust that measures around 0.5cm to an adult measuring 7cm.
