L1/L2 Larvae Mortality?

T

Tylt33

L1
I've been experiencing larvae mortality at the L1/L2 stage of about 1 in 5, and am wondering how uncommon this is? Is this an exceptionally high rate? I've been using substrate from a variety of sources, keeping humidity in the soil high, etc. The only thing I can think of is that the temperatures have gotten too low (50s Fahrenheit). My dynastes hyllus have had an exceptionally high mortality rate. Just wondering what people typically see for mortality rates for dynastes.

 
I only have experience with USA species so I'm not sure about the exotic species (species outside of the USA). So I have only raised Dynastes granti and D tityus and generally the mortality rate is very low. More like 1 in 10 or less. However, every species is different and some species have higher mortality rates so I think you would need feedback from someone raising the same exact species as you. Just FYI, my larvae are generally kept around room temperature, so pretty consistently close to 70. However, I keep some at my office and the evenings and weekends are not heated or cooled. So in winter, it can get to about 60 low and summer, 80 high.

 
L1 and L2 are very weak for any species. No one know what is behind their death. There could be a water droplet concentrated in one area where the larva was. There could be a minor pest (enough to kill larvae), dried up, heated up, or whatever. It doesn't particularly have to be your responsible for their death. The death rates for Dynastes is actually very low. None of the Dynastes species are known to be "difficult" to rear or breed. Some larvae can be just weak.

Low temperature of 50 is not bad at all. Lower than 30˚F to 40-ish˚F or higher than 90˚F-100˚F is terrible. Larvae cannot survive the heat, but they can reasonably survive the coldness as they can hibernate, and stop feeding on. 1 out 5 seems okay -to-low and does not sounds too bad. I reared Dynastes grantii and D. tityus for several generations, and I don't really count one by one, but one time when I did, my D. grantii eggs all hatched successfully. I kept my eggs on wet floral foam one time to observe them properly, and they all hatched successfully, and all grown up to L2, L3. (Well, I ended up sending all the larvae to friends and friends when they were either L2 or L3, so I don't really know how they ended up). L3 are quite strong enough and unless something terrible happens, they rarely experience death. I reared many different species other than Dynastes, both in the US and South Korea, and all were good in my experiences. Neither I felt Dynastes grantii nor Dynastes tityus is a difficult species with high death rates in larval stages.

 
It seems likely that temps are the cause, 1/5 is definitely not a good ratio. While Dynastes tityus/grantii can withstand low temps, you have to remember that these are species that actually experience this in the wild. It’s like comparing alobates to zophobas, one is from North America and one is from south. However, zophobas die very quickly in the cold temps that alobates are used to, they’re just not meant to handle it because they don’t experience it. Larger exotics in general are more prone to death because of environmental changes (at least in Dynastes) and the temps should definitely get no lower than.... 70 is probably a good threshold, maybe 60 at the least, but I’d try to keep it around 75-80. If you get a death rate over 1/10, something is definitely wrong

 
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I've come to the conclusion that D. Hyllus must be more temp sensitive than any of the other species I'm raising. I've got a few species at zero or one mortality, and I'm not going to be surprised if I lose all of my d. Hyllus at this point.

Bugboy3092 said:
It seems likely that temps are the cause, 1/5 is definitely not a good ratio. While Dynastes tityus/grantii can withstand low temps, you have to remember that these are species that actually experience this in the wild. It’s like comparing alobates to zophobas, one is from North America and one is from south. However, zophobas die very quickly in the cold temps that alobates are used to, they’re just not meant to handle it because they don’t experience it. Larger exotics in general are more prone to death because of environmental changes (at least in Dynastes) and the temps should definitely get no lower than.... 70 is probably a good threshold, maybe 60 at the least, but I’d try to keep it around 75-80. If you get a death rate over 1/10, something is definitely wrong
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I agree, I've come to the conclusion that D. Hyllus must be more temp sensitive than any of the other species I'm raising. I've got a few species at zero or one mortality, and I'm not going to be surprised if I lose all of my d. Hyllus at this point, although I will try and warm them up.

 
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