Parasites on beetle larvae
- Thread starter Reyes
- Start date
Goliathus
Pachnoda
Grain mites (specifically, the hypopus stage). Not parasites - just using the larva as transportation. A major nuisance though, and generally indicative of substrate that's become overly saturated with nutrient pollution. Are you using any supplemental feeding? That's nearly always the cause of mite outbreaks.
Goliathus
Pachnoda
The sub-microscopic "sticky" types of mites (the phoretic, hypopus larvae of grain mites) - they have sucker plates that keep them firmly attached to the larvae. In this case, what's needed is very mild water pressure to dislodge them, so get a standard trigger spray bottle with an adjustable nozzle, set it to "medium" spray intensity (not stream), and then start blasting away at the mites at rather close range until you've cleaned the majority of them off (no need to try to get 100% of them - just most of them). This method can be used on L2 and L3 larvae of most medium-to-large beetle species without causing them any long-term stress. After being cleaned and placed in fresh substrate, they're going to quickly forget about the "treatment", and resume feeding. If a mite-infested larva has recently molted however, hold off on doing mite removal until they have had time to grow and become "inflated" again.
Oak
Goliathus
You can do what Goliathus said above OR you can put them in dry flake soil for some time. That is how Daniel Ambuehl did it.