Alder and beetles

[Ometeo]

What are the benefits of using oak vs alder in beetle culture?

Has anybody tried fermenting alder into flakesoil?

 

Just wondering.

[Peter Clausen]

I can't really say, but that oak is a hard hardwood and alder is a soft hardwood. I suspect both work pretty equally, but I have observed that all the great beetles seem to occur in areas where there is oak. It may have more to do with the level of decay in the wood, than what type of wood it is. Still, I'd always choose oak if given the choice. The nice thing about alder is that it is sold in huge bags for snake/animal bedding. It decays in time and when exposed to moisture, etc. In captivity a lot of beetles are supplemented with bits of protein based foods, so it is difficult to know exactly what creates big beetles. Orin's books lay this all out, as do a few other books, but I suspect additional experiments would at least be interesting.

[Ometeo]

Im attempting to ferment aspen at the moment, mixing it with oak wood mulch as well as leaf mulch, if anything else it should act as a filler and help out in creating larger amounts of flake soil for the ever growing collection.

[ftorres]

Hello All,

Alder will work as good as oak. I used it for many years when I raised beetles.