D. tityus Eggs!

Sorry if you mentioned this before but they are wild caught or captive bred? You mentioned they were 3 months old when you got them, so I assume they were captive bred. You are sure they had not laid any eggs in the previous 3 months?

How deep were your egg laying containers?

 
Theyre CB. They were still attempting to overwinter when I got them, and for about a month afterwards, so Im fairly sure they hadnt previously laid.

My egg laying containers are 8 of substrate, nice and moist, but not wet, compacted fairly hard on about the bottom inch or two, then lightly compacted for about 3 or 4 inches on top of that, then the rest is loose. I can find looser tunnels and pockets where theyve been burrowing, so I know theyre exploring plenty deep.

One of them laid a couple eggs in about 2 of uncompacted substrate (same material), but hasnt laid a single egg in the egg laying container.

 
Do you have any larval frass in the container? That can help convince the females that the substrate is suitable for laying.

 
I do not. I was woefully unaware of the usefulness of frass, so at my last sub change it all got tossed, not realizing I could use it for fermentation and now this. Ill have to collect some in a month or so.

 
So, I've got 2 females left, and both have previously laid between 2 and 5 eggs each total, so I know they've properly mated (besides having actually also witnessed it), but no eggs in the last 2 weeks. One of them was transferred to the same egg laying container that my first female laid 50 or so in, hoping that whatever favorable conditions the first female found would work for this one as well, but apparently not. I've introduced a good handful of frass to each egg-laying container, that the sub remains moist (but not wet), and am making sure that there is plenty of food (4 jellies per container) available at all times, with no success. These were the last 2 of my adults to become active after their "overwintering".

Any ideas? Not so much asking as to squeeze more eggs out of these females, but for future breeding.

 
How did you get them to come out of hibernation? It could be that a longer overwintering period can help females develop more eggs before becoming active. They generally become active in early-late June and are alive til august in the wild, and the entire fall/winter is spent underground/wherever they eclosed hibernating. So maybe try waiting longer before letting them warm up (this can be achieved by keeping them around 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit) and become active. This also means that they’ll become active at the same time, making it much easier to mate them.

 
Bugboy3092 said:
How did you get them to come out of hibernation? It could be that a longer overwintering period can help females develop more eggs before becoming active. They generally become active in early-late June and are alive til august in the wild, and the entire fall/winter is spent underground/wherever they eclosed hibernating. So maybe try waiting longer before letting them warm up (this can be achieved by keeping them around 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit) and become active. This also means that they’ll become active at the same time, making it much easier to mate them.
Click to expand...
The enclosure was simply kept at room temp until they decided to come out on their own. This is referred to by a ton of sources including Orin's ultimate guide as an acceptable way to shorten overwintering time. All of the adults came out of hibernation within a month of each other doing it this way. The female that came out the earliest is the only one that has given me any substantial amount of eggs.

 
On today's episode of I Truly Know Nothing About Beetles:

I checked my egg-laying containers after about a month, this will be these 2 females third months in the containers since confirmed mating (yielding little to no results), and finally found some eggs. Got 4 from one female, and 32 from the other. Unfortunately 4 of the 32 were already popped and deflated in the substrate, and 3 more of them had dark spots on them and popped while handling them gently. Still, I'll take another 29 total over the near-0 of the last couple months.

IMG_1432.jpg

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top