Dynastes Tityus Egg Hatching

[wharfboy]

Hello! I’ve just collected eggs from my Dynastes Tityus pair, and was wondering the best method to hatch them separately as to avoid cannibalism. I’ve now got them individually in 4 oz containers of moist oak flake, about 22 of them - a quick solution as I wasn’t expecting to find any today, just looking for the mother. I have them cradled in a layer of non-compacted soil as I was afraid I would crush them. Please correct me if I am wrong  - will adding a pinhole to the top for air be detrimental and dry them out? Should I move them all to a bigger container of soil all together anyways, is this totally wrong? Thank you for your help.

 

[the_cream_man]

@wharfboy Happy egg day!!

Personally when I last collected eggs I put about 10 eggs per 8 oz container and had great hatch rates with very little if any cannibalism.  There were one or two containers where I only counted 8 or 9 larvae so either the missing ones died or were cannibalized. 

From my experience the key with airholes is the size of the pin you use.  A thumbtack or needle is a fairly wide hole and can definitely dry out the substrate if you do to many holes.  I usually do 30 holes per 8oz container lid, making sure to insert the pin from the inside of the lid, so that the little plastic barb is facing away from the larvae and have NEVER had any issues with moisture (there are very dry winters where I live and I didn't re moisten the containers once).  In the spring once my apartment started warming up I checked a few and found all the grubs had hatched and now am in the process of moving them into separate containers so I can track their growth.

As for the soil compactness, I compacted the soil lightly and then made a small hole with the handle of a spoon where i put each egg and then lightly covered it with more substrate.  Since I put 10 eggs per container each egg was in it's own little pocket.  This kind of reflects how the female lays the eggs in the compacted layer at the bottom.

That's AWESOME you found so many!  I'm sure they'll do great!!

 

[Ratmosphere]

I like that you separated the eggs, I do the same myself.

As they grow you can increase the container size. The pinhole should not dry them out at all. Just always monitor how the substrate looks and make sure it's never too dry.