Hi I am a new member from Florida here to learn more etc....

[LarvaHunter]

I have been keeping 3 Phileurus valgus, 1 Phileurus truncatus and a Strategus splendens. I also went in the woods and busted open some soft decayed oak and have 6 large larva. I was feeding them ground up decayed oak that was heat treated and moistened mixed with some treated dirt as well. I bought some of the hardwood Japan that has mycelium in it for more nitrogen and it breaks the ground wood down super fast. Does anyone here know more on this subject? I am planning to sterilize and inoculate ground new oak in jars with .5 micron barrier for clean air. Any information would be great. I caught the beetles on a white sheet and modified stinger bug zapper straight bulb no cages white uv light, I think it works better than normal black lights that entomologists use.

 

[a.ojala]

Welcome...

What specie of larvae did you find in the oak? If you don't know, post a pic and we can help you out

watch out with that Japanese product sometimes that's stuffs starts up again after you think it has done its job and can kill anything living in it.

 

[Oak]

welcome to the forum, what's the japanese product called? If you used it and was succesful with larva not dying, i would be interested on trying them. Yeast for now, seems to be working good so far.

 

[Greatwun]

Welcome! What part of FL? Orlando here. I've seen lots of strategus around here as well.

 

[LarvaHunter]

The larva that I found in the oak, I do not know what species it is, I will see If I can get one of my cameras working.

The Japanese product is called kinshi bottles. I think it is oyster mushroom mycellium but not sure since it is not fruiting, all I know is that it is the best for the beetle larva that eats hardwood and it is proven to make the larva grow faster from the high nitrogen. It ages the wood the fastest. The people in Japan know what they are doing. Since I switched the larva to the Kinshi bottle mycellium wood, I notice that they love it extremely as they are eating faster and growing faster,

Orin I bought your book , The ultimate guide to breeding beetles, it is ok, I want to know why your book does not show the kinshi bottles or aging wood fast with the mushroom mycellium as it is the best ( at least in Asian experts opinions) it is how they do it because it is scientifically proven that the mushrooms mycellium is high in nitrogen which increases growth. I personally always do things the most efficient and best way, and oyster mushroom mycellium grown on a ground hardwood seems incomparable to the mixtures in your book. Your mixture is the good but when the larva got the kinshi it was like night and day. Does anyone else agree that mycellium wood is by far the very best for larva? I am in Orlando. Is it hard to get a permit to own the awesome beetles Japanese get? Anthony

 

[Oak]

how did you get the kinshi bottles?

Also, kinshi can be good on some stag species, but not all.

If you feed dynastes with kinshi, chances are they might die.

 

[hardshell]

The larva that I found in the oak, I do not know what species it is, I will see If I can get one of my cameras working.

The Japanese product is called kinshi bottles. I think it is oyster mushroom mycellium but not sure since it is not fruiting, all I know is that it is the best for the beetle larva that eats hardwood and it is proven to make the larva grow faster from the high nitrogen. It ages the wood the fastest. The people in Japan know what they are doing. Since I switched the larva to the Kinshi bottle mycellium wood, I notice that they love it extremely as they are eating faster and growing faster,

Orin I bought your book , The ultimate guide to breeding beetles, it is ok, I want to know why your book does not show the kinshi bottles or aging wood fast with the mushroom mycellium as it is the best ( at least in Asian experts opinions) it is how they do it because it is scientifically proven that the mushrooms mycellium is high in nitrogen which increases growth. I personally always do things the most efficient and best way, and oyster mushroom mycellium grown on a ground hardwood seems incomparable to the mixtures in your book. Your mixture is the good but when the larva got the kinshi it was like night and day. Does anyone else agree that mycellium wood is by far the very best for larva? I am in Orlando. Is it hard to get a permit to own the awesome beetles Japanese get? Anthony

i think you need to own a museum to own exotic bugs...

 

[LarvaHunter]

Oak,

I got the kinshi from Japan on EBay, I also bought beetle jelly,the beetles loved the Jelly but all of them smeared it all in the wood so I went back to peaches, Has anyone else have this problem? I did not know kinshi was not good for certain species, Awesome, first day and I am already learning!

 

[Oak]

I think most beetles smear into any kind of fruits or jellies to be honest lol

and wow, never knew there were kinshi bottles in ebay

 

[LarvaHunter]

I can't find the guy again yet but he was selling beetle jelly and it was one of his other items for sale. I am going to attempt to make it. Apparently there are 2 types of kinshi according to a Japanese guy on insect geeks, it was an older post. It is hard to do research on the exact compositions when I can't translate my book from China on breeding beetles the pictures are great though. I have looked on different sites but they are in Japanese.