Tips on Housing Large Number of Grubs

[PowerHobo]

Long story short: I got hatch times mixed up between D. granti and D. tityus, and now I have a lot of grubs a bit sooner than I had expected. I find myself with a whole lot of L1s, short on both substrate and containers.

Does anyone have any tips for housing large numbers (40+, potentially 160+) of L1 grubs? I've got all of my other grubs in deli cups filled pretty much to the brim with substrate, which leaves aeration holes on the lid, and containers unstackable, not to mention taking a lot of space and materials (I realize the latter is unavoidable).

 

[Ratmosphere]

You could get one of those huge industrial totes and let them cannibalize each other until they're a big L2-L3 and then separate them. That is, if you don't plan on selling them.

 

[Bugboy3092]

The best idea would probably to sell/ trade them and use that to get more materials for the rest of the ones you still have

 

[PowerHobo]

You could get one of those huge industrial totes and let them cannibalize each other until they're a big L2-L3 and then separate them. That is, if you don't plan on selling them.

Yeah, definitely trying to avoid cannibalism. Luckily only 1 has been eaten out of the 14 that hatched so far.

The best idea would probably to sell/ trade them and use that to get more materials for the rest of the ones you still have

That's definitely what I'd like... basically to make the hobby at least mostly self-sustaining. Just trying to wait out the winter so it isn't so risky to ship. Plus, most posts I see of people looking for them are looking for L2/L3, and these guys should be late L2 by then.

I walked by these small-parts cases at Home Depot and they seemed kind of perfect, though I realize they won't be sufficient for long. I was able to use my remaining substrate and a small amount borrowed from my other individual grub containers to put a minimum depth in each compartment, and at least stop them from eating each other for the time being.

 

[Bugboy3092]

Cold wouldn’t be to much of a problem for d Tityus since they are already in the cold right now, and if you cant make enough substrate, you can find it ( rotten leaves, dog food pellets, and rotten wood are all things they eat)

 

[PowerHobo]

if you cant make enough substrate, you can find it ( rotten leaves, dog food pellets, and rotten wood are all things they eat)

Unfortunately, Vegas doesn't have really anything at all in the way of rotten wood or leaves without driving 4-6 hours each way. Our local mountains are pretty much all pine, with very limited scrub oak (which I'm not even sure is acceptable), and it pretty much just dries out and never really gets to that point of rot due to how ungodly dry it always is here.

I've never had luck with supplementing dog food into substrate. The pellets seem to go completely untouched and just turn into balls of mold in a few days.

 

[AlexW]

Bugs in cyberspace trade: you send him larvae, he gives you substrate

 

[PowerHobo]

Bugs in cyberspace trade: you send him larvae, he gives you substrate

Actually, I have been thinking about checking to see if Peter would be interested in something similar. I'm just trying to wait until we're out of the coldest part of the year to do so. Shipping grubs to Oregon in the dead of winter seems ill-advised.