Larvae hanging out on top of soil.

H

HyprNekoStorm

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My Megasoma Sleeperi have been doing well and staying healthy. (I did have an outbreak of gnats but I took care of it.)

Recently, one of my larvae has come up to the top of the soil and has stayed there for a few days.

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I removed the lid to his container, because from what I have read his air might be getting used up. 

He is still moving around and is clearly alive.

Could there be another reason he is doing this?

Thanks.

 
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So the general consensus seems to be that a larvae surfacing is typically not a good sign and is indicative of an issue with the sub or the grub, but honestly I've got a single D tityus that does this every other week or so, and just hangs out at the top for a few days at a time then reburies itself. I don't do anything about it at all because honestly based on previous bad larvae experiences I had written this larva off as a lost cause, but it's been surviving with this behavior for 6+ months now. None of its 7 broodmates that I kept do this, and they're all sharing sub from the same batch.

Basically, shrug.

How often are you checking on them, and how moist is the sub? Do you turn the sub at all when you check on them?

 
PowerHobo said:
So the general consensus seems to be that a larvae surfacing is typically not a good sign and is indicative of an issue with the sub or the grub, but honestly I've got a single D tityus that does this every other week or so, and just hangs out at the top for a few days at a time then reburies itself. I don't do anything about it at all because honestly based on previous bad larvae experiences I had written this larva off as a lost cause, but it's been surviving with this behavior for 6+ months now. None of its 7 broodmates that I kept do this, and they're all sharing sub from the same batch.

Basically, shrug.

How often are you checking on them, and how moist is the sub? Do you turn the sub at all when you check on them?
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I check on them every day. Not much though, just a simple peek to spot any visible problems. The substrate is moist but not waterlogged. Yes, i move the substrate around.

 
I should rephrase: how often do you dig down to check on them if they're not on the surface? How often do you turn the sub?

 
PowerHobo said:
I should rephrase: how often do you dig down to check on them if they're not on the surface? How often do you turn the sub?
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Usually if they are not on the surface they are visible on the sides of the container, and if they are not visible I usually do not worry because they are visible so often. I don’t disturb the substrate much.

 
The big reason I ask is I'm fairly certain I stressed some larvae to death at first by disturbing them too often, and I saw a lot more surfacing when I was doing it. I'm actually pretty sure that I'm still disturbing them too often, and I only check on them once a month now.

 
PowerHobo said:
The big reason I ask is I'm fairly certain I stressed some larvae to death at first by disturbing them too often, and I saw a lot more surfacing when I was doing it. I'm actually pretty sure that I'm still disturbing them too often, and I only check on them once a month now.
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This is so true. I got my first beetles a few weeks ago and I'm obessed with checking them but soon realized they do larvae things and are not in danger of dying 24/7. Poking them was my worst habit to see if they kicking.

 
There can be many different kinds of reasons the larvae comes up to the surface of substrate:

(1) too much pest
(2) too much water, difficult to breath
(3) just came up while wanders around
(4) anorexia (eating disorder; refuse to feed on)

You don't have to open up the lid every once a while to let him breath, because beetles do not breath like humans do. They can't breath in and out continuously. They breath-out-and-breath-in after an once a while. A small hole or two of diameter of 1mm is ENOUGH. That is how I've been rearing my beetles for over a decade. NOT A PROBLEM. Anyone telling you that beetle larvae needs A LOT of large holes, has no clue how to insect body functions.

Leave larvae alone, and if the larvae did not end up going inside the substrate, there really is a problem either to the larvae or substrate. Try change substrate again or sterilize the substrate. Try place the larvae (inside container with substrate) into the refrigerator for 10-30 minutes in low coldness (high temperature; not too cold) and have it back out. It's not easy to figure out what they want until anything gets serious.

 
I had the same problem with my L.elaphus larvae, I had them in 5 inch wide, 6 inch tall jars and they were always resurfacing and one actually died from doing that, I transferred the larvae to 16oz deli cups and they never came back up to the surface, built cells and everything. The only thing different was the container, maybe you need a different container and see if that helps?

 
It can also be from too much poop, which may not be readily apparent from the top of your soil if you don't disturb it very much like you say. I had a D. tityus do this a couple of weeks ago until I totally swapped his substrate out. I'd say maybe a third was poop, but apparently this was too much for this one grub. I have not seen him come up again since I gave him new substrate, and he's back near his usual spot near the bottom, apparently satisfied.

Changing your substrate and checking for mites and such might fix surfacing issues, in addition to switching to something deeper. Good luck!

 
Hmmm, I’ve had many of my D. Granti larvae surface from time to time. Some do, and some don’t; no idea why they do it in the first place. I’ve had them for months now with this same behavior and they seem to be growing and developing just fine. It was concerning at first, but I realized they were just doing larva things lol.

 
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