1,000 plus beetle jellies !!!!!

JKim

JKim

Mecynorrhina
KakaoTalk_20190710_183200540.jpg

Although I prefer the 16g wide jellies, but I couldn't find anyone who is willing to ship oversea who carries that. So, I had to purchase regular 16g jellies.

Now, I don't have to worry about feeding beetles for a while!!

1,000 plus beetle jellies from company D.O.S. has recently arrived on my hands.

 
Ratmosphere said:
Could you put them in a bathtub and lay in them?
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@Ratmosphere I don't get what you mean... Or is that a joke?

Garin said:
What was the price with shipping? If its ok to ask.
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@Garin I rather would keep the jelly price secret, as the seller got me with a special price. The shipping alone, however, costed $94 with surface mail (carried with ship).

aspenentomology said:
Is there any practical advantage to using beetle jellies other than convenience? They just seem unnecessarily wasteful in my opinion.
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@aspenentomology Some says this jelly is good for females to laying more and healthy eggs. Some says this extends the life span of adult beetles...

Honestly, I don't believe that... Sounds very fishy to me. How can you possibly proof it? ask beetles? "Did this jelly helped you in any way to laying more eggs?" LOL. If there is some sort of research, I would absolutely want to read it! It will be very interesting.

The convenience is the only thing "I" care regarding to have beetle jellies. I fed bananas when I didn't have beetle jellies. But when you are busy with your own life and if you have a lot of bananas in this and that containers, it is rather time-consuming job to discard and replace it. Also you have to worry about bananas rot and melt(?) into substrate, causing the substrate itself goes bad. To prevent all the time-consuming and inconveniences, I purchased beetle jellies for the first time since 2013.

Yes, as you said, I think convenience is all that matters, and that, sometimes, can be a major reason for lazy people like me :D

 
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Has anyone tested whether those claims are true? Also, not to rekindle the somewhat heated discussion that took place recently, but I remember reading in Orin's book that feeding fruit can result in intestinal blockages from beetles accidentally "swallowing" (I doubt that's the word he used, but you get the idea) chunks of it. Opinions on the author aside, have you found this to be true in your experience? 

And I do agree with you, replacing fruit is time consuming, especially with a large amount of animals in your care. I'd use beetle jelly myself but they seem to be more expensive and wasteful than just slicing up a banana, so I don't use them anymore. I've seen homemade recipes for beetle jelly on the internet before too, so I wonder if those have any merit.

 
aspenentomology said:
Has anyone tested whether those claims are true? Also, not to rekindle the somewhat heated discussion that took place recently, but I remember reading in Orin's book that feeding fruit can result in intestinal blockages from beetles accidentally "swallowing" (I doubt that's the word he used, but you get the idea) chunks of it. Opinions on the author aside, have you found this to be true in your experience? 

 And I do agree with you, replacing fruit is time consuming, especially with a large amount of animals in your care. I'd use beetle jelly myself but they seem to be more expensive and wasteful than just slicing up a banana, so I don't use them anymore. I've seen homemade recipes for beetle jelly on the internet before too, so I wonder if those have any merit.
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As I haven't read what Orin wrote, and I'm unsure what you mean by swallowing, but since you mentioned a "chunk," no beetles can eat a chunk, or a solid materials. So, I would say, no it's not going to block a thing. They cannot consume a solid materials. They feed on liquid materials of vegetable or fruits, tree saps, and/or beetle jellies (in care of humans). Have you seen a brush-like organs stretching out of mouth? it is usually red-brown colored. As far as I know, that is straw-like organs that "absorbs" liquid from food.

 
I got out the book and here's the exact quote: "The adult mouthparts are like paint brushes and are very different from the large, powerful jaws of the larvae. In the wild, there is not much fruit around and adults are normally seen feeding on the sap of wounded trees. Fruit solids that pass the jaws can lodge in the digestive system and cause premature death."

 
aspenentomology said:
I got out the book and here's the exact quote: "The adult mouthparts are like paint brushes and are very different from the large, powerful jaws of the larvae. In the wild, there is not much fruit around and adults are normally seen feeding on the sap of wounded trees. Fruit solids that pass the jaws can lodge in the digestive system and cause premature death."
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@aspenentomology The paint brush-like mouthparts can easily be noticed. Adult beetles actually do have moving jaws along with that brush-like part. It is tiny, and it is difficult to see from top or from front of the beetles. Adult beetles scratch off the small branch (without bark) with this jaws (as well as some other parts of their mouth and legs are used) to open up a wound and feed on the saps. Refer to the images attached below:

DSC01545.jpg

This is an image of Strategus aloeus male. The red outline is the jaw part that I mentioned above, which can open side way. This image shows jaws are closed in.

DSC01548.jpg

This is an image of another specimen of Strategus aloeus male. As you can see, the jaws are widely opened.

This is one of the mouthparts used to feed on fruits, tree saps, etc. These parts crush the fruits to squeeze liquid out.

 
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Have you ever tried making your own jelly and/or feeding liquid? 

Curious what the experiences have been in comparison to prepackaged jellies like these. 

 
Alex Shaffer said:
Have you ever tried making your own jelly and/or feeding liquid? 

Curious what the experiences have been in comparison to prepackaged jellies like these. 
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@Alex Shaffer I tried couple times about 10 years ago with gelatin, and also out of Jello, but didn't succeeded.

I couldn't imitate the beetle jellies commercially available. If you have used the beetle jellies, then you will know how it looks. It is solid jelly with juicy (wet) wall surrounding it. So it is actually wet jellies. However, if I make one with gelatin (or Jello), either the jelly is dry outside, not very wet inside, so the beetles can't consume a liquid out of it. Adding more water makes jelly too watery. I tried various ratios, but couldn't figure out the way to make it like the beetle jellies. I'm guessing there is different materials to include. Maybe an agar?

I was able to feed sugar+water to beetles fine, but I just end up not doing that much later. Because it is basically a "water," the container and setup becomes so messy.

 
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Yeah, i have a recipe i use already that has worked out well, and some liquid variants for sponge feeding. Might have to check out Aquarimax's for comparison...feel like there is so much more to tinker with. Projects for another day i suppose! 

 
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