Leaf litter & Flower Beetles +FS

[Tayloss]

Hi All,

Is anyone here that lives in the UK and can explain where to collect suitable leaf mulch from? I have some oak tree around, but I guess its getting to that time of year where the ivy is growing etc.. Has anyone used sycamore tree leaves, and had success?

Finally, has anyone used flake soil for flower beetles as this seem to be a suggested alternative?

Many Thanks,

Chris

 

[Goliathus]

If they are adequately decayed, I would think that sycamore leaves should be suitable.  Flake soil works very well for flower beetles.  You can easily rear most flower beetle larvae in flake soil alone.

 

[Tayloss]

Thanks for the reply.. I do feel there is a distinct lack of detailed information on beetle keeping on what to use regarding flake soil etc.. Now the weather is getting better, I think I may look at making some, although I don’t know at what level of darkness flower beetles need tho? It seem that the oak pellets method is the easiest?

 

[Goliathus]

I always do sawdust fermentation from mid-June to mid-Aug, when the weather is at its warmest. That way, my batches of fermented substrate can undergo much of the final maturation while the temperature is still rather warm, over Sept - Oct. My process takes around 4 or 5 weeks for the actual fermentation stage, then this is followed by a minimum period of at least three months (preferably longer) in which it sits in a well-ventilated plastic trash can so that it can fully mature. By that point, the sawdust has gone from light tan to very dark brown.  Here's a photo of what my sawdust (from BBQ grill pellets) looks like before and after fermentation - 

 

[Tayloss]

That’s amazing… certainly would love to have a go as I can see me keeping stags in the not too distance future!

How much do you make to last you? Seems like I need to wait a little longer before having a go?

Don’t want to be too cheeky, but what recipe do you follow?

thanks again!

 

[kevink]

there are some youtube videos made by people that use this site, basically, it's wetting the pellets, adding in some yeast, and bran then putting the material 

in a container. But don't take all my advice- I've been trying to make substrate using a composter and I don't think it's going very well- it seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

[Tayloss]

Seems that oak/beech pellets are going to be hard to come by for the moment as a few of the big suppliers have stated that the stock comes from Russia, so am going to have to grab some stock before they run out.. Seems quite expensive to buy the pre-made stuff, so that's why I was looking at making my own!