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What to do with darkling beetle?

Nurse Ratchet

Well-Known Member
Messages
304
Location
South Carolina
I have two matured super worms/darkling beetles. My tarantulas won't touch them, my gecko won't touch them. Even my toad slapped it away. I can't release it, and I can't just kill it. What the heck can I do with them ??
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Nurse Ratchet

Well-Known Member
Messages
304
Location
South Carolina
Possible...
They don't seem to need anything. I've been keeping the first one in an uninhibited (excluding some spring tails and isopods) vivarium for months. Still thriving.
 

Arachnoclown

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Tarantula Club Member
Messages
6,382
Location
The Oregon rain forest
Get a Theraphosa....;)

I separate the beetles from the superworms and feed them well on top of oatmeal. They will lay eggs and you'll end up with new worms. I put the beetles in a drawer with a mesh screen bottom so the eggs falls to a drawer below. I use a three drawer system.
Top drawer beetles with screen bottom. Middle drawer eggs and larva.
Bottom drawer feeders and young worms. You can make beetles by separating worms in a pill box and taking food away from them.
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octanejunkie

Well-Known Member
1,000+ Post Club
3 Year Member
Tarantula Club Member
Messages
4,163
Great, another project of raising feeders for pets that require less energy than the feeders LOL

@Arachnoclown we should create a thread specific to raising feeders, like crickets, roaches and mealworms. That might be sticky material... Thanks for your awesome post, dude!
 

Nurse Ratchet

Well-Known Member
Messages
304
Location
South Carolina
Why do you have garden toad for pet. You should have Pac Man frog.
I didn't realize he had made a home in a potted plant I brought inside over winter. Son found him hiding in a corner in the kitchen. I didn't have the heart to boot him outside in 20f weather without a burrow to return to, so I made him a vivarium.
I would love to release him back to my patio, but I'm not sure it's safe after 4 months in captivity, so now I have a toad...
 

Isaac

New Member
Messages
14
Location
Gun Barrel City
Get a Theraphosa....;)

I separate the beetles from the superworms and feed them well on top of oatmeal. They will lay eggs and you'll end up with new worms. I put the beetles in a drawer with a mesh screen bottom so the eggs falls to a drawer below. I use a three drawer system.
Top drawer beetles with screen bottom. Middle drawer eggs and larva.
Bottom drawer feeders and young worms. You can make beetles by separating worms in a pill box and taking food away from them.View attachment 65255View attachment 65256View attachment 65253View attachment 65254
That's pretty awesome, seems pretty clean too the way you have it set up
 

Steph1304

Member
Messages
58
Location
UK
Great, another project of raising feeders for pets that require less energy than the feeders LOL

@Arachnoclown we should create a thread specific to raising feeders, like crickets, roaches and mealworms. That might be sticky material... Thanks for your awesome post, dude!
Having a thread on that would be really useful!

I've already started moving my mature beetles into another enclosure which is set up similar to the one above, but I also want to ask about breeding locusts.

As you may remember I recently rehomed a large female LP, so I needed to buy locusts for her. Having read about locust care I drilled a hole in my utility cupboard and stuck a heat mat in the back and put all my feeder tanks in there. The crickets seem a lot happier and the locusts have done well too, but I was surprised when half of them moulted, sprouted wings and turned pink! I've gathered they do this when they are mature?

So I did a bit of googling and see that I'll need to put a deep pot of dry earth in their enclosure for them to lay their eggs in. Does anyone on here breed locusts, and if so how easy is it to do? Just checking before I start that I'm not going to need to buy another 10 tanks etc :)
 

ta122

Active Member
Messages
149
Location
US
Get a Theraphosa....;)

I separate the beetles from the superworms and feed them well on top of oatmeal. They will lay eggs and you'll end up with new worms. I put the beetles in a drawer with a mesh screen bottom so the eggs falls to a drawer below. I use a three drawer system.
Top drawer beetles with screen bottom. Middle drawer eggs and larva.
Bottom drawer feeders and young worms. You can make beetles by separating worms in a pill box and taking food away from them.View attachment 65255View attachment 65256View attachment 65253View attachment 65254
That's an excellent idea about the screened top drawer!! And here I've been wasting my time separating them. Thank you!
 

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