Wax Worm Cultures

[Jayzie Greenfrog]

Hi, I regularly culture wax worms by taking the commercially available worms and allowing them to pupate and turn into moths. These moths readily mate and I collect the thousands of eggs produced and laid usually in the space where the lid of the container sits against each other. I have noticed that the young wax worms are very different from their parents. For example they spin webs which the parents do not seem to be able to do. The young wax worms are also very lively spinning shelters for themselves and taking food up into the shelter as well as making intricate walkways on webs which they string up across the container. I was wondering if anyone else had noticed these changes in their behavour and whether anyone knows why the offspring can spin web when the parent dont or cant.

[JeffreH]

Jay, I hate to see your post go unanswered so I'll give my brief experience. Hopefully someone else can chime in

I only reared a couple of cultures of these guys many years ago, but I recall them spinning as you describe in a very obnoxious manner. I was actually surprised at the amount of "silk" production of these larvae; especially compared to actual silkworms (Bombyx mori). All of my waxworms behaved exactly as you are describing for your F1 generation of larvae - although I purchased mine directly from a local breeder rather than a commercial source.

I'm actually half-tempted to message a commercial breeder about this inquiry, its interesting. I've heard of this happening before so you're not the only one... perhaps something with the shipping or refrigeration process does something? No idea, just speculating...

[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.