Phil Kuhns
L2
First of all, I am very new to raising beetles (never done it before). Below I will provide the details to how I created my D. Tityus grub-raising set up. I would then like to hear from those of you who have had expirience raising tityus what you think and if there is anything else I could do to increase my chances of keeping my 5 L2 grubs alive and healthy.
Substrate prep: I collected a 5 gal bucket full of very rotten rardwood out of my woods and, bit by bit, microwaved all of it for 2 minutes in an attempt to kill anything harmfull. I then baked a bunch of dead leaves and crushed them up until I had mostly filled a 1 gal ziplock bag. I then filled a 1 gal ziplock with rotten wood, and another one with compost cow manure. I mixed those two bags along with my bag of leaves and poured that mix into a 5 gallon aquarium filling it up about 5 inches deep.
Lid: I made my own lid for the aquarium out of duct tape, window screen, copper wire, and plastic wrap. I designed it to open and close but the only concern is that the uneven wire frame prevents the container from being sealed, leaving gaps. However, I think it is ok because the inside walls seem to have alot of moisture on them.
Other than spend 2 hours scraping out the sillicon in the aquarium, that is basically all I did in preparation. The 5, small grubs are now inside and seem to be doing well, but I would like some feedback from those with more experience than myself. I have attached some pics of the fully loaded aquarium. (do the pieces of leaves look too big? most of it got pretty powdery when I was crushing them, but alot of it was also about 1/4 inch sized pieces.)
Substrate prep: I collected a 5 gal bucket full of very rotten rardwood out of my woods and, bit by bit, microwaved all of it for 2 minutes in an attempt to kill anything harmfull. I then baked a bunch of dead leaves and crushed them up until I had mostly filled a 1 gal ziplock bag. I then filled a 1 gal ziplock with rotten wood, and another one with compost cow manure. I mixed those two bags along with my bag of leaves and poured that mix into a 5 gallon aquarium filling it up about 5 inches deep.
Lid: I made my own lid for the aquarium out of duct tape, window screen, copper wire, and plastic wrap. I designed it to open and close but the only concern is that the uneven wire frame prevents the container from being sealed, leaving gaps. However, I think it is ok because the inside walls seem to have alot of moisture on them.
Other than spend 2 hours scraping out the sillicon in the aquarium, that is basically all I did in preparation. The 5, small grubs are now inside and seem to be doing well, but I would like some feedback from those with more experience than myself. I have attached some pics of the fully loaded aquarium. (do the pieces of leaves look too big? most of it got pretty powdery when I was crushing them, but alot of it was also about 1/4 inch sized pieces.)
