about 1-2 weeks ago he was about 13.9 grams but now hes 11.9 grams, hes pooping alot but why is he losing weight? is there anything im doing wrong, the enclosure is just garden soil with crushed rotten leaf litter with rotten wood bits and substrate is like 4 inches deep.

New beetle owner here! Currently looking for some Flake, I have a Green Rainbow Stag Beetle presently in the third-instar larvae (L3) stage. Anyone know where I can order flake online? I'm located in Texas.

Found close to Modimolle, South Africa.

Just saw him like this in the morning, I'm sure he was having the time of his life in there, bless the little guy.

https://preview.redd.it/a31i6y88j7ge1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=6b97bc14604057a28a856344d04f68867441e33f

So I was looking through my classmate's old labs and found this guy in a 3-month old sealed bag of dirt. To my surprise, he was SUPER alive and was moving quite a bit. I think he's a junebug grub, given that this is the Houston suburbs and that's the most common beetle (that i've seen), but i'm not really sure.

Does anyone have any tips for taking care of him? He's currently in a tupperware with dirt from the original bag about an inch deep and some decomposing leaves/twigs that I've boiled. Also, are grubs supposed to be completely emerged? I buried him back after taking these photos but I just wanna make sure.

Also, eta for how long I can expect to care for him for..? I go to college in late june/early july and I want to know if I can expect to see him fully grown or at least as a pupa by the time I leave.

Also sorry for the large/weird photo, this is my first time posting one alongside a question.

sure moisture/proper substrate pupation is a factor but is lack of protein/certain nutrients one of the chief causes?

-if not what other reasons? (it didn't happen now but in the past i bought a d.tityus female and she was very tiny)

-(not sure how she was raised) but what do you think happened?

i think i bought the wrong flake soil (its ok its my fault on my end did not research properly). But this time I need just fermented wood chips. but fermented wood chips with a little extra (heard people use flower, sugar. But some use wheat bran or something etc).

-i looked at online retailers but most of the soil i want is sold out.

do rhinos like d.tityus need protein? what additives/protein do you add. Bought some fermented flake soil. I have give or take a 2.4 gal

-what is the ratio? thx

Hello!

I have a small pair of jewel beetles and I can’t find much information on how to care for jewel beetles specifically.

I’m still new to keeping bugs and want to give them the best lives possible.

How often do I change their dirt, and can I keep them together or will they start killing each other? How often do I change their jellies? Is there anything else that I should know?

Thank you in advance!!

I have a decently sized terrarium (14x8) with a few dozen darkling beetles. I feed them fresh cut-up vegetables every couple of days and have been noticing a large amount of soil mites gathering on the vegetables. Will the soil mites harm my beetles? Will they not want to eat the food due to the mites? If so, how should I go about getting rid of them? Their tank has a lot of nooks and crannies in it so it might be harder to remove the mites. Please let me know!!

I am raising d.tityus grubs (wild caught) I simply used the remaining wood from a ground up stump at work that they were found in. however their substrate is running low (they are fine/well fed) but i need some soil soon.

I bought some flake soil (still in the mail). But frankly couldn't you just use wood/soil/substrate in the woods? (as long as the beetle you are caring for is in that ecological range?)

(don't get me wrong flake soil is more convenient/not everyone has time to gather soil from the woods or has a beetle species not native to their ecological area).

-however isn't online flake soil and rotten wood/soil you find in nature (more or less) the same?

It seems dehydrated or malnourished and not moving much but dosent eat when I give it food

my 6 derby’s beetles got fungal gnats so i baked their substrate to (hopefully) kill the gnats, but now that the gnats are in my reptile room i’m worried about them coming back quickly. i put their deli cups in this bigger container i have that i used to keep my colony of hissers in because it already has air holes but they are covered in mesh. hopefully this will keep the gnats away for awhile but i just want to make sure i’m not doing any unknown harm to my larva by keeping them this way. its well ventilated! the air holes just have a mesh covering and the deli cups have ventilation holes (the container is wet cause i washed it)

where can i find decorations/artificial plants to decorate my large terrarium for my japanese rhino with

should the wood be crushed into a fine powder or atleast solid bits so that the beetle larva can bite onto it?

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/259610216 Found this in North Jakarta

I’ve been wanting to keep beetles for a while and I want to know what type I should start with. I want something easy to take care of for beginners and able to be handled. I have anything from a decently small container up to a 10 gallon fish tank that I could get a conversion kit for so I could make it stand upright. I should also add that they would be kept in my bedroom which ranges from 64-70° (in the basement) depending on the season and the humidity stays decently low (I’d have to check my meter but I’m not down there rn but I know it’s like 50 and less), but I can get it higher inside the enclosure if I need, I would need something that can handle the conditions.

In San Luis, Argentina.