In the last four days I've had 6 (out of 22) of the carabus beetles I've rounded up ending up on their back, wildly kicking. They can't upright themselves, and immediately fall back over if they do.
I was originally worried about it being pesticides, and switched them onto some reptile substrate mixes. Not sure what their life cycle is either, like if they'd die sometime after laying eggs or not. In the last two days, I found four more like this. Tonight I saw the sixth happen.
While feeding tonight, one that woke up just kept acting really skittish. Running for a bit, stopping for a little, then running more. They're each on their own in a ~ 10*8in container with soil and a ton of hiding substrate (leaves, grass, sticks, etc) They'd normally go hide and stop running within a few seconds. She just kept going, for 3 hours. She was running like her life depended on it. I added more hiding spots (seriously, they had a ton previously, and I had already moved her to a darker area to keep her calm) She ended up kind of nudging herself under one of the hiding spots, and just..kept running. Not digging, running. I scooped her out and put her in a bin, and her health quickly started declining.
She would run until she flips over, then make absolutely no effort to upright herself. I would flip her back over, and she'd just do it again (without running into edges or objects)
After less than a minute of that, she started to clearly hobble. Then she seemed to lose more movement in her front legs, but kept kicking with full force on her back. So that'd continuously flip her. The only times she'd stop, it'd be to stretch out while kind of trembling? Her mandibles would be wide open, and a few times she'd make some weird clicking or gurgling noises. This all happened within 6 minutes, from full panic to twitching on her back.
Unfortunately, the one from four days ago didn't recover, so I've put this one and the other sick ones in the freezer.
When I first came across this, I was worried about it being pesticides. (The place they were collected had planned on putting down pesticides, but I collected them before that date..)
I've switched them off of their original substrate onto some reptile substrate mixes. The problems seemed to have continued despite that. (switched them 4 days ago, when I found the first beetle on it's back twitching)
The other beetles seem perfectly fine however. Most were collected at the same time, and there does not appear to be any correlation between which are and are not getting sick.
I'm starting to wonder if this is some kind of stress response? I have trouble believing the housing would really be off enough to cause this level though.
Any ideas what this could be? What should I do to keep the others healthy?
I was originally worried about it being pesticides, and switched them onto some reptile substrate mixes. Not sure what their life cycle is either, like if they'd die sometime after laying eggs or not. In the last two days, I found four more like this. Tonight I saw the sixth happen.
While feeding tonight, one that woke up just kept acting really skittish. Running for a bit, stopping for a little, then running more. They're each on their own in a ~ 10*8in container with soil and a ton of hiding substrate (leaves, grass, sticks, etc) They'd normally go hide and stop running within a few seconds. She just kept going, for 3 hours. She was running like her life depended on it. I added more hiding spots (seriously, they had a ton previously, and I had already moved her to a darker area to keep her calm) She ended up kind of nudging herself under one of the hiding spots, and just..kept running. Not digging, running. I scooped her out and put her in a bin, and her health quickly started declining.
She would run until she flips over, then make absolutely no effort to upright herself. I would flip her back over, and she'd just do it again (without running into edges or objects)
After less than a minute of that, she started to clearly hobble. Then she seemed to lose more movement in her front legs, but kept kicking with full force on her back. So that'd continuously flip her. The only times she'd stop, it'd be to stretch out while kind of trembling? Her mandibles would be wide open, and a few times she'd make some weird clicking or gurgling noises. This all happened within 6 minutes, from full panic to twitching on her back.
Unfortunately, the one from four days ago didn't recover, so I've put this one and the other sick ones in the freezer.
When I first came across this, I was worried about it being pesticides. (The place they were collected had planned on putting down pesticides, but I collected them before that date..)
I've switched them off of their original substrate onto some reptile substrate mixes. The problems seemed to have continued despite that. (switched them 4 days ago, when I found the first beetle on it's back twitching)
The other beetles seem perfectly fine however. Most were collected at the same time, and there does not appear to be any correlation between which are and are not getting sick.
I'm starting to wonder if this is some kind of stress response? I have trouble believing the housing would really be off enough to cause this level though.
Any ideas what this could be? What should I do to keep the others healthy?
