I’m guessing my Morio worms (Super worms) were just really “ready to pop” when I bought them at the pet store a couple weeks ago. From my research, after a week of reconstituing themselves after life in a refrigerator and allowing them to gorge on oats and banana, I expected 2-3 weeks for them to begin pupating as I put them into their “isolation boxes” to prompt this process. Several worms “volunteered” by pupating while in the substrate, and many others have pupated after just 1 or 2 days in isolation. I’ve been able to collect over 20 pupas so far and move them into a new “Morio beetle” ranch, and have moved all the Morio worms into isolation boxes for pupation, leaving the original Morio worm ranch empty already, less than 2 weeks after establishing it! I’ll be putting it back into use soon once the Morio beetles are active and laying eggs.
The dubias seem to like their roach chow, and have been eating it voraciously along with lettuce, banana, and carrot scraps that I’ve been feeding them. I’ve found and removed 2 dead dubias in the past week, but the survivors are all eating and molting, so I’m assuming this is an acceptable loss. Still no mature males, but they are getting bigger and bigger with each molt.
The isopods seem to like the bark chunks I’ve added to each enclosure, and one or more is guaranteed to be found under the bark on all the ranches except the Dwarf Purples, which don’t even seem to be lured out of the substrate by the promise of bark. The mold in these enclosures has stopped growing rampant, and while still present in places, seems limited and acceptable.