The Waxworm & the P. larvae

From 8-17-14.

Checked the 500 mL containers that had the Diet 3 in them for propagation of the wax worm eggs. As of yet, none of the eggs have hatched from the wax paper. When was removed and observed under the dissecting scope it appears that all the eggs have either dried up or hatched because the eggs were ruptured. It is more likely that they have all dried up and died as no tiny wax worms were observed in the Diet 3 despite meticulous investigation. Additionally, the only thing that appears to be growing in the Diet 3 is fungus in one of the containers, as pictured below (white fluffy spots):

The container with the fungus was discarded and the other remains at 35C for the time being, but will also be thrown if fungus develops or no wax worms are seen in the next few days. In the future a new diet will be prepared. This diet was suggested per Ben M.'s extensive experience with raising wax worms. Protocol seen below (from Ben M.):

Wax worm food prep: Gerber protocol

This recipe should provide enough food to start one colony of ~250 eggs in a large container, but more food may be required as needed. For smaller glass jar colonies, this recipe will fill 3-4 jars with ~50-75 eggs in each.

Ingredients:

Two boxes=16oz Gerber(or equivalent) baby food(whole wheat or multigrain)

50g wheat bran or crushed bran flakes

120ml H20( use autoclaved DDh20 in bottles)

~170 ml Glycerin

100g Table sugar

800uL Amphoceterin B ( may be increased if needed for extra mold protection)

Steps

1.     Heat water and glycerin in flask on the hot plate with a mixing bar rotating

2.     Add the sugar to the hot liquid and continue to spin @ medium heat until all sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool(still warm tho) for handling.

a.     For additional contamination protection, the liquid portion (without the anti fungal) can be autoclaved on LIQUID 20 setting.

3.     Once cooled, add 800uL amphoceterin B to liquid

4.     Mix baby food and bran in a separate container

5.     Add liquid SLOWLY to the dry ingredients

a.     Stir Stir Stir

b.     Evenly distribute liquid to ensure total saturation

c.      Too much liquid at once will cause balls / chunks to form that are too dense for the w.w. to burrow through, and dry area of food that have no exposure to the glycerin/sugar/ anti-fungal mixture.

6.     The media should be the consistency of Wet sawdust, able to clump when you press it in your hands, but crumble away easily

The petri dish containing the lone wax worm was checked today as well. It is still alive and very active. Much of the petri dish was covered in a silky substance (as seen below). This wax worms has survived since its hatching on 8-16-14. An additional 1 mL of BAD was added to the petri plate. The plate was sealed with Parafilm and continued to incubate inside an anaerobic chamber at 35C.

Wax worms from 8-17-14 have pupated and emerged as wax moths. Folds of wax paper was added to each of the two containers and also hung from the caps as was performed last time (8-3-14). This time, the containers were transferred from 35C to 30C when it was seen that the wax moths survive much longer at that temperature. Note: wax worms seem to do better at 35C.

//EWW