Hello from Spain

[Fede_3D]

Hello to all, I´m a joung breeder from Spain, It´s my hobby and not my job, but I love the beetles, I have around 200 dried specimens in my collection, and now I want to learn to breed my own beetles, I have in culture about 20 species of stick insects, so feel free to ask me anything on them.

 

To begin the last week I get two larvae of Oryctes nasicornis grypus, from the wild, and I began to make their soil, but all the info that I got from google is about Dynastidae, cetonidae, or even lucanidae, but nothing about Orictes sp, and this species is well speaded over the world; so, Can they eat any type of wood?, what should be the best mixture between wood and rotten leaves that I must provide to my beetles?

 

Best regards!, Fede_3D.

[Dynastes]

Good luck! Do not keep those grubs together.

Oryctes will eat rotten wood, leaves and compost like other Dynastinae. The exact percent is not that important, the important part is the 'quality' which is something you learn over time with use and relates almost as much to the source as the color or level of decay. Oak and beech wood are known to work for most larvae but many, many types of hardwood should be acceptable.

[Fede_3D]

Ok, thanks Orin, with "grub" you are refering to larvae, aren´t you?

Why they cannot live together?, I found those two in a 20cm square under an old tree, I think they could live together, but its ok, I will separate them.

 

How about the humidity??, I use to keep the enclosure closed but it get mosy and I open the box until I got new soil to clean up their enclosure.

Do they resist mold?, I´ve readed that some specie do, but I´m not sure if Oryctes sp. can resist or not. In Fasmids breeding is an annoyance if mold appears on terrarium or over the ova, so I also breed colembolos in my terrariums, can they help or may extress the larva?

 

Sorry for that bunch of questions but I´m learning.

 

Regards!!

[Dynastes]

Grub = beetle larvae

Many things can be found together in the wild that you wouldn't want to put together in captivity. How do you know they weren't coming to eat each other?

High humidity and very little ventilation is preferred. Mold that consumes leaves and wood is harmless but certain molds are harmful under some circumstances.

[hymenoptera]

Hi Fede

I like phasmids as well, do you keep any Australian species. I have about 7 species. But my main interest is beetles. Happy breeding...

[Fede_3D]

Orin: Thanks, I´m going to separate them inmediately. I saw some pictures with grubs together, but they may be other species (I think they were lucanidae).

 

hymenoptera: Hi!, yes only one, E.Tiaratum, and partenogenetic, in Spain few people keep males and they were having troubles to incubate eggs, so maybe we´ll lose all males, I only have partenogetic eggs and they seem that aren´t going to born.

 

I like all type of artropods but the best for me is the Beetle, concretly scarabaeidae, and lucanidae, I love both! ^^.

[hymenoptera]

Orin: Thanks, I´m going to separate them inmediately. I saw some pictures with grubs together, but they may be other species (I think they were lucanidae).

 

hymenoptera: Hi!, yes only one, E.Tiaratum, and partenogenetic, in Spain few people keep males and they were having troubles to incubate eggs, so maybe we´ll lose all males, I only have partenogetic eggs and they seem that aren´t going to born.

 

I like all type of artropods but the best for me is the Beetle, concretly scarabaeidae, and lucanidae, I love both! ^^.

Thought that might of been the case. Its a shame you dont have a male becasue colonies are much stronger with them. If only you source them from Australia we have heaps, more and more are keeping them and the prices are going down.