Wax Worm Cultures

[Jayzie Greenfrog]

Hi Jeff, thanks for speculating it is apreciated. I am relatively new to frogs but have had my gecko's since the early 1990's. I remember that back then even bought wax worms would often spin cocoons to pupate but the actual silk production was very low compared to that produced by the F1 generation now. I dont know when the bought ones stopped making silk, I was just curious as these guys are so different from there parents! Thanks for trying to find the answer.

[Jayzie Greenfrog]

Hi, As no-one else chimed in I'm not sure anyone is interested but as an update I investigated further the reasons why the F1 etc produce silk when the adults don't: Aparently the commercial producers of wax worms freeze the worms for a short time and this destroys the spinneretts! I'm not sure anymore how long or at what stage they do this as once I had discovered the reason I promptly forgot and was only reminded when I spotted the message I had previously left. If anyone is interested I am sure I could find the site again which details how to replicate this effect at home. At the moment as I am producing them for moths I find the silk production more interesting than a nusence. If I were to feed my wax worm to my geko's then I might prefer the silk production to be reduced.