My Spider Beetle Colonies

cfreidsma

cfreidsma

Pupa
Hi everyone
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Figured I should share how far my spider beetles have come from the 15 originals I got a few years ago.

I have two colonies this size right now.

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I have no clue how many individuals I have. I love the little goofs though.

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Here are some pictures of the corners of the tub. They like to pile into these spots.

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Would anyone be interested in buying any of these once the weather warms up? I was thinking of one of the tubs and splitting them into little clear containers, and selling those as starters for anyone wanting them.

You can't kill these things. Throw them in a tub with oatmeal or pretty much anything and they live forever. They're simply too cute to do that with though.

 
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Holy cow, that's a lot of beetles! I think they're adorable (I'm a sucker for goofy little round beetles) and would love to get a starter set whenever you start selling them.

 
Wow those are so cute! I'd totally buy a culture if you start to sell them, where'd you originally get them from? I haven't heard of them before!

 
It's been a while, and he never officially sold them on the store, but I got them from Peter.

I saw them on his youtube video, and simply fell in love with the little things.

 
Neat beetles! I'd be interested in a group as well. I'd kind of wanted some after reading about them either in Orin's beetle book or in an issue of Invertebrates Magazine, but I never knew if anyone actually kept them or not since they were never brought up.

 
It will be a little bit before I can sell them. Especially with how the weather is being. When I do separate one of the tubs, I will make sure to post them on here.

I haven't been able to find a whole lot about keeping them either. It seems like the only thing I can find is Peter's video, and my stuff. Kind of sad, these little beetles are very nice. I think I saw something once on a dart frog forum. Someone was asking about using them as feeders.

 
Updating everyone and letting them know that I am still planning on selling some of these. I split some beetles into starter colonies today. Took quite a while to. The goofy things play dead instantly, and they do it almost too well.

Once I get some more boxes to ship them in I will be ready to go. Assuming the weather doesn't act up again.

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Room temperature is fine for them. My room where I keep them stays around 80 degrees fahrenheit during the day.

I have just been giving them their food as the substrate. They do ok with oatmeal, but I think having some larger pelleted foods would provide better materials for the larva. Cat food, dog food, fish food, anything like that. The larva dig into them and stay there. Then pupate in these little pouches depending on what is available for them to make it out of. Assuming it is the larva pupating, I have found that they get against the bottom of the tank/container in soft pouches. I have never seen one of the larva though.

I also throw in some cuttlebone for extra calcium. I don't know if it is necessary or not, but won't hurt anything. There is most likely enough calcium for them in whatever they are eating. Some things for them to climb like egg cartons or paper towel rolls make nice additions. Whatever you add in, expect them to try and eat into it.

Water wise, I haven't been messing with giving them anything special. I supposed that it probably wouldn't hurt to experiment some, but just don't let the dry foods mold or get mites in them. It is a pain to clean or move these guys at all. Luckily they don't need it that much at all. If you bump the container they are in or anything, some of them will curl up and play dead. It's hard to tell if any of them are actually dead, or if they are just messing with me.

They can't climb anything very slick. Pretty much anything you would give to a mealworm colony would work with them.

 
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so you don't spray them with water at all and they just live off of the humidity in the room? It's crazy to think that these guys are so low maintenance.

 
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Pretty much.

They are probably the easiest thing to care for that you could ever get
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I am kind of curious about what they would do with a moist cotton ball or something like that now though.

 
I'm gonna jump in here to resurrect this thread with some info in case anyone is interested. I swapped my colony into a new container tonight, and I actually found some of the larvae! They are incredibly tiny, but they look identical to a regular beetle larva, just nearly microscopic. There are a few pupating against the plastic of the old container, and the pupae are also just miniature beetle larvae. They seem to make little cocoons out of bits of oatmeal. 

The beetles have also eaten out the bottoms and sides of the cork bark I have in their container. The ends in the oatmeal seem to have been used for pupating, but they've also hollowed out pieces in the body of the cork bark, and they pack themselves in there really thick! They're like little beetle apartments. They hide out in big clumps in the bark during the day and then at night they're all over the place. 

Every once in a while I offer a moist cotton ball but they seem to do just fine without it. The oatmeal and a bit of dog food seems to be all they need, and they love climbing the bark. 

 
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