All of my super worms have pupated or died off at least a week ago at this point. Except one. In my last scouring of the super worm bin’s substrate for any final super worms to put into the pupating case, I removed the last stragglers, which were mostly small specimens that were avoided in previous harvests to allow them to grow some more before pupation. In fact, many more of these last stragglers died off rather than pupating, so I’m guessing they clearly weren’t very healthy or were just too small.
Except this one worm.
It was large and feisty, and had a healthy shine to it that most of the other stragglers lacked. Into the pupating chambers it went with the others.
Today the other of the two remaining super worms in pupa isolation died, leaving just this one super worm. Even though it had been in there for about two weeks without food or water, it was still sleek, shiny and feisty, and had even molted while in the chamber.
After a bit of thought, I went ahead and tossed this one super worm into the Morio beetle bin rather than keep it isolated. It thrashed about violently and tried to bite me as I moved it, proving its hardiness yet again. I set it on some cardboard near a piece of squash, but to my surprise it immediately scuttled off the cardboard and into the meal substrate, apparently not even idly interested in the moisture in the squash.
My hats off to you, o champion super worm. We’ll tangle again when I’m dealing with separating Morio beetle eggs from the substrate of your new home.