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Anybody kept Dichotomius carolinus?


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A Carolina dung beetle flew onto my porch last night! I was going to keep her but I couldn't find a lot of info on their care. I live next to a cow pasture, so I'm sure I could catch more now that I know they're in the area. I only found a couple of mentions when I searched the forum, so I'm hoping someone would have some insight. Should I basically follow the guidelines for rainbows but increase the size of the enclosure and depth of substrate to account for the large size?

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9 hours ago, Jimmy said:

Yes, I caught one the other day and it made a brood ball out of pony dung. I used dirt from my backyard about 9 inches deep and i fed them once a week a baseball sized amount of dung.

Thanks for the info! I think I'll try a pitfall trap to try and lure some over from the cow field. I've read about baiting with a malt mixture for dung beetles, so we'll see if it works.

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2 hours ago, pickle01 said:

Thanks for the info! I think I'll try a pitfall trap to try and lure some over from the cow field. I've read about baiting with a malt mixture for dung beetles, so we'll see if it works.

Have you ever seen any Humpback Dung Beetles (Deltochilum gibbosum) in your area? - 

https://bugguide.net/node/view/4533

I think this might be the largest dung beetle found in the US.  Although it's a dung beetle, it's apparently more of a carrion feeder.  There's some info about it in McMonigle (2012) p. 106.

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On 6/11/2021 at 12:36 PM, Goliathus said:

Have you ever seen any Humpback Dung Beetles (Deltochilum gibbosum) in your area? - 

https://bugguide.net/node/view/4533

I think this might be the largest dung beetle found in the US.  Although it's a dung beetle, it's apparently more of a carrion feeder.  There's some info about it in McMonigle (2012) p. 106.

I haven't but I'll definitely keep an eye out. There should be plenty of species since I live next to a farm with horses, cows, donkeys, and goats, and some woods with seemingly every other sort of creature. 

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