Waxworms
Galleria mellonella
1. Habitat Layout & Temperature Gradient
Species: Galleria mellonella (Wax Moth Larvae) | Care Difficulty: 1/5 | Breeding Difficulty: 4/5
Critter Cabana & Gresham Pet Supply — Keeping Your Pet Healthy & Thriving
At a Glance
| Common Name | Waxworms, Waxies |
| Species | Galleria mellonella (Greater Wax Moth) |
| Primary Use | High-Fat Treat / Weight-Gain Supplement |
| Nutrition Profile | Extremely high fat, high moisture, zero chitin (very soft and digestible). Poor calcium ratio. |
| Lifespan | 2 to 4 weeks before turning into moths (if kept cool). |
| Climbing Ability | Yes. They can climb plastic and will spin silk webs to anchor themselves. |
| Flying Ability | No. (Unless they are allowed to pupate into adult moths). |
| Care Difficulty | 1/5 — Beginner (You do not feed or water them) |
| Breeding Difficulty | 4/5 — Hard (Requires creating a sticky "dough" of honey and glycerin) |
Why We Love Them: Waxworms are the ultimate "reptile candy." They are incredibly soft, juicy, and high in fat. They are the perfect tool for jump-starting the appetite of a sick reptile, or putting weight back onto a malnourished rescue animal. Because they have almost no hard exoskeleton (chitin), they are incredibly easy for small or sick reptiles to digest.
The Golden Rule of Waxworms
TREAT ONLY / HIGHLY ADDICTIVE: Waxworms are basically fast food. They consist of nearly 25% pure fat. If you feed them as a staple diet, your reptile will develop obesity and fatal fatty liver disease. Also, reptiles find them so delicious that they are highly addictive; if fed too often, reptiles like leopard geckos will go on hunger strikes and refuse to eat healthy foods like crickets or roaches. Feed them sparingly!
Nutrition & Gut-Loading
Waxworms are unique in the feeder world: you do not feed or gut-load them.
- The Larval Stage: The waxworms sold in stores are in their final larval stage. At this point in their life cycle, they have completely stopped eating and drinking. They survive purely off the massive fat reserves they built up as tiny caterpillars.
- Dusting (Mandatory): Because they are so high in fat and low in calcium, you must dust them heavily with calcium powder before feeding them to your reptile.
Housing & Storage (Short Term)
The goal of keeping waxworms is to put them in a state of semi-dormancy so they last as long as possible before turning into moths.
Enclosure & Environment
- Container: Keep them directly in the plastic deli cup they are sold in, which is usually filled with dry wood shavings or sawdust.
- Moisture: Keep them bone dry. If condensation builds up in the cup, take the lid off for a few hours. Moisture will cause them to turn black and die.
- Temperature: The ideal temperature is 55-60°F.
- Room temperature (70°F+) will cause them to rapidly spin cocoons and turn into moths within a week.
- A standard refrigerator (38°F) is often too cold and will kill them.
- The Solution: The best place to store them is in a wine cooler, or in the warmest part of your fridge (usually the butter tray on the door).
Maintenance
- Check the cup twice a week.
- Remove any dead waxworms immediately (they will turn black and smell bad).
- Remove any worms that have spun a tough, white silk cocoon.
Culturing & Breeding (Long Term)
Retail Note: We do not recommend breeding waxworms. In the wild, they are highly destructive pests that invade and destroy honey bee hives. Breeding them requires creating a sticky, messy culture medium made of boiled honey, glycerin, and wheat bran. It is far easier and cheaper to simply buy a cup when you want to give your pet a treat.
If a waxworm does pupate into a moth, do not release it outside. You can actually feed the adult moth to your reptile—many arboreal geckos and chameleons love chasing the fluttering moths!
What We Stock & Use in Our Stores
These are products we carry and recommend for this feeder. Ask any associate for help finding them in-store.
| Category | Product | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | Original Deli Cup | Keep them exactly how you bought them |
| Substrate | Dry Wood Shavings | To absorb moisture |
| Supplements | Zoo Med Repti Calcium (Without D3) | Dust the worms before feeding to balance their poor calcium |
Care sheet compiled by Critter Cabana & Gresham Pet Supply. For questions, ask any livestock specialist in-store.
Last updated: 2026-08-04
How We Keep Them at Critter Cabana & Gresham Pet Supply
- Oregon Winter Furnace Air vs. Molting Humidity: When Pacific Northwest furnaces kick on from October through April, indoor room humidity drops fast and dries out small enclosures from the top down. Rather than misting the spider or invert directly (which stresses terrestrial species and invites stagnant mold), we keep Waxworms at
Low (Keep bedding completely dry)by using a deep moisture-retaining substrate bed (ReptiSoil + Coco Fiber + Sphagnum Moss), overflowing the water dish slightly into one corner, and maintaining cross-ventilation. - Safe Room Heating in the Willamette Valley: If your house drops below 65°F on winter nights, never stick a heat pad on the bottom of a burrowing invertebrate tank—they dig down to escape heat and will cook themselves. Use a low-wattage side-mounted heat mat on a digital thermostat or warm the room ambiently to
55-60°F (Cool, but not freezing). - Stocked at Newberg & Gresham: At Critter Cabana (Newberg) and Gresham Pet Supply, we stock acrylic and glass invertebrate enclosures, cork bark flats and tubes, bioactive substrates, flightless fruit flies (D. melanogaster and D. hydei), pinhead to adult crickets, dubia roaches, and live Temperate White Springtail and Isopod cultures.
Common Questions (FAQ)
How do I keep my Waxworms warm and humid enough during an Oregon winter?
Target 55-60°F (Cool, but not freezing) and Low (Keep bedding completely dry). When Oregon winter furnaces dry out the air, use a deep 3–5 inch substrate mix of Zoo Med ReptiSoil and coco fiber, keep a shallow water dish filled, and dampen one corner of the substrate rather than misting the animal directly. Never put a heat mat underneath a burrowing invertebrate enclosure.
What size enclosure does a Waxworms need?
An adult Waxworms thrives in Plastic deli cup with wood shavings with secure ventilation. For terrestrial tarantulas and scorpions, floor space and deep substrate matter most (keep open fall height low so heavy-bodied species cannot rupture their abdomen); for arboreal species, prioritize vertical cork bark tubes and cross-ventilation.
Can I put isopods in a Waxworms bioactive enclosure?
Around molting tarantulas and scorpions, skip protein-hungry large isopods and stick to Temperate White Springtails (or gentle Dwarf White isopods in humid detritivore setups) so a soft, newly molted animal is never nibbled.
Where can I find Waxworms, cork bark, and feeder insects in Oregon?
We stock live invertebrates, tarantulas, jumping spiders, cork bark flats and tubes, bioactive substrates, and gut-loaded feeder insects at our two exotic animal stores: Critter Cabana in Newberg (514 E First St, 503-537-2887) and Gresham Pet Supply (2185 NW Burnside Rd, 503-665-7606).
