Blue ironclad beetles death

[Two Crows]

I am devastated! Since June of this year I have had four Ironclad beetles,  and all of them, after about 4 to 6 weeks started walking in a weird way, then started falling over and eventually we’re  unable to turn back right side up. What am I doing wrong? I have sand from the Mojave Desert, I fed them ground cat food and some apple for moisture. I would like to get more beetles, but not before I know what I was doing wrong. Please help!

 

[Beetlesforlife3]

By blue ironclads you mean asbolus verrucosus aka blue deaths right?

 

[Two Crows]

Yes, asbolus verrucosus. People seem to call them all kinds of different names. But I mean the blue death feigning beetles. 

 

[Hisserdude]

Hmm, almost sounds like pesticide poisoning... were the apples organic or something? Often people will use organic produce for their inverts thinking it's safer, but the opposite is actually true, since they still use pesticides on organic produce, they're just organic pesticides. Additionally, while regular produce has usually been treated with pesticides as they grow, the shelf life of said pesticides is only a few months, and most fruits at least spend over a year in storage before finding their way to store shelves (it's an interesting process actually, you can look it up), so all pesticides have normally worn off said produce by the time you buy them. Whereas organic produce is never stored for very long and is instead sent straight to stores, so they are often still covered in pesticides when you get them.

 

[BensBeasts1]

Additionally if those plants are store bought they could have been treated with something.

 

[Two Crows]

That’s very interesting about the pesticides. But I don’t think that is the reason. I usually gave them the cores of the apples after I ate one. 
And the cacti in the terrarium are offspring of ones growing in my yard.  I thought that maybe the cat food was ground too fine and it disappeared in the sand? But it wasn’t uniformly ground. So, I’m still with no explanation.

 

[Anacimas]

Were any of the seeds in those apple cores cracked, ruptured, or otherwise abraded? As you know, apple seeds can readily release cyanogenic compounds. 

 

[Two Crows]

That’s very interesting about the pesticides. But I don’t think that is the reason. I usually gave them the cores of the apples after I ate one. 
And the cacti in the terrarium are offspring of ones growing in my yard.  I thought that maybe the cat food was ground too fine and it disappeared in the sand? But it wasn’t uniformly ground. So, I’m still with no explanation.

 

[Two Crows]

Yes that’s true, but they never got down to the seeds since I always left quite a lot of the apple on there. 

 

[Two Crows]

Could it be the sand? I got it from a clean place near Joshua tree, Mojave Desert. I think these beetles live more in the Sonoran desert. The sand I got has quite a lot of very fine particles in it. Maybe this got in their joints and created problems walking?

 

[BensBeasts1]

Def sounds like pesticides to me.

 

[Two Crows]

I just had the craziest idea. Could it be the rocks? Two rocks in the terrarium, which the beetles liked to climb on, are rather bright yellow/orange. Researching colors of rocks I found that something called carnotite gives rocks that color, and it is found scattered around the western US which is where I picked it up! And it is RADIOACTIVE! 

 

[BensBeasts1]

I doubt that that was how they died because its very unlikely, there are hundreds of rocks that are orange and yellow especially in western parts. I’m still going with pesticides from plants or foods. The same symptoms of the beetles have happened to a few of mine in the past, and they died due to pesticides.

 

[Two Crows]

I know it sounds crazy. But I have thought about all possibilities. Purina  Cat Chow and apples. There is no skin on the apples that I put in there, which is where the pesticides would be. The cacti are from my own yard and I don’t use pesticides. It’s a complete mystery. How did you determine yours died of pesticides?

Wish I could have those rocks tested!

 

[Two Crows]

The same symptoms of the beetles have happened to a few of mine in the past, and they died due to pesticides.

 

[BensBeasts1]

I heard reports of the symptoms meaning pesticides on other peoples experiences and realized symptoms were similar.

 

[BensBeasts1]

Also if it was carnotite you would have radiation poisoning within a week of constantly being exposed to it.

 

[Two Crows]

Maybe the time it takes radiation to affect the critters would depend on the strength of the exposure. 
Also: could it be that the symptoms of pesticide poisoning and radiation poisoning is similar in insects?

 

[Two Crows]

So, I was able to get a small Geiger counter and there was no indication of radioactivity from these rocks or anything else in the terrarium. At this point I have no idea at all what’s going on.