Mold on rotting wood in beetle larva enclosure

A

aspenentomology

Pupa
On July 25th in upstate New York I found a few medium sized scarab larvae in a tree hole. I collected them and brought them home. For a while, I just had them in the original substrate from the tree hole and rotting wood I already had. Recently however, I bought some organic topsoil which I mixed with their old substrate (after sterilizing it of course). In one of the three containers I have them divided in, I noticed mold growing on a few small chunks of rotting wood on the top of the enclosure. I mixed them up a bit to sort of break it up but checked it again today and there was a dark green spot on the of the wood pieces. I've never heard of rotten wood molding before. Is this a threat to the health of my larva and is there anything I should do about it?

 
I'm no expert like many of the others on this forum but I often get some white mold on the top of the surface of my substrate. I use a combination of old Oak leaves and fermented wood pellets that have been sterilized. I think whenever you have damp substrate, there is always a good chance of getting some mold. I was told as long the mold is just a little, it's probably fine. If you get a big outbreak of mold, then you may want to resterilize the substrate. I have not had any issues with the larvae that are in the containers with a small amount of mold on the surface. Just my limited experience but I'm sure there are others that can comment further.

 
If your getting mold the soil may be to damp or not enough ventalation, Id recommend picking the mold out and turning the soil to let it air out, if the problem comes back then sterilize the soil as Garin said

 
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The mold was getting kind of bad so I just microwaved it for 8 minutes. I added more ventilation holes to the containers and this time I'm waiting for the substrate to completely cool off before putting the lids on. Last time I sealed them up while it was still warm, which might have accelerated mold growth. If it grows back again I'll have to use the oven.

 
If the mold problem is getting bad you may want to add springtails after replacing the container, as they will eat fungus spores and fungus

 
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