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| SL11 |
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| Joined: Sep 17, 2007 |
| Posts: 90 |
| Location: Ontario, Canada |
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Post subject: my beetles keep dying..
Posted: Mar 17, 2008 - 04:01 PM
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| having trouble keeping my beetles alive, its been like 3 months or so, and i've yet to have any babies appear, as my beetles keep dying! i don't any apple or potatoe in there all time time but atleast 2-4 days of the week one is in there, and they are on oatmeal for bedding. |
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| LittleLouie |
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| Joined: Jan 21, 2006 |
| Posts: 1822 |
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Post subject: RE: my beetles keep dying..
Posted: Mar 17, 2008 - 07:57 PM
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About what temperatures are you keeping them at?
You mentioned them receiving a moisture source two-four days a week. Are you saying you put a moisture source in with them (for example) Mon and Tues, and the rest of the week they are without; or are you saying that you put something in for them on (another example) Mon and Thurs? Too long a spread of time without a water source could be your problem.
Are there any teeny tiny eensy weensy mites crawling around in the bin? Check the dust in the bottom of their container. Look carefully at it underneath a bright light. Is it moving for a reason other than you breathing on it, or a beetle or worm crawling through it? If so, they may be causing your problems. They don't seem to bother the worms, but I think they do keep eggs from hatching and keep beetles from being healthy. I accidentally introduced them to my colony when I fed them unwashed apple slices. |
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| SL11 |
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| Joined: Sep 17, 2007 |
| Posts: 90 |
| Location: Ontario, Canada |
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Post subject: RE: my beetles keep dying..
Posted: Mar 17, 2008 - 11:18 PM
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they stay at room temperature im just picking through my containers now so i'll have a close look at the beetles. and probably move my couple alive ones to a fresh container
to answer the moisture questions would be more like mon and thurs |
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| LittleLouie |
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| Joined: Jan 21, 2006 |
| Posts: 1822 |
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Post subject: RE: my beetles keep dying..
Posted: Mar 18, 2008 - 10:28 PM
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Room temperature should be fine as far as not dying off goes; if it's close to 70 though, it might take a long time for babies to grow.
A fresh piece of apple or potato every two - three days should be sufficient moisture for them.
Take a look at the dust in the bottom of the container, and see what it looks like.
If you decide to start over, don't throw out the bedding that you have. Put it somewhere warm, such as on top of the fridge, and check it in two weeks, and again in two more weeks. Look carefully underneath a bright light, through the finest part of the dust, because baby mealies are very tiny! If in four more weeks at temps in the eighties, your dust still has not grown any little wormies, I'm stumped as to what went wrong! |
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Whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, praiseworthy:
Think on these things!
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| SL11 |
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| Joined: Sep 17, 2007 |
| Posts: 90 |
| Location: Ontario, Canada |
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Post subject: RE: my beetles keep dying..
Posted: Mar 19, 2008 - 12:50 PM
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thanks louie  |
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| jwurm |
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| Joined: Feb 13, 2008 |
| Posts: 87 |
| Location: School in VT; Home in MA |
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Post subject: RE: my beetles keep dying..
Posted: Mar 28, 2008 - 08:50 AM
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| Quote: | | if it's close to 70 though, it might take a long time for babies to grow. |
Is that because 70 deg is too high? or too low? I'm taking a class on insects right now and I was taught that bugs only grow faster as the temp increases so I'm assuming too low |
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Wurm
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"I truly believe we developed language due to our deep inner need to complain."
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| LittleLouie |
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| Joined: Jan 21, 2006 |
| Posts: 1822 |
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Post subject: RE: my beetles keep dying..
Posted: Mar 29, 2008 - 10:57 PM
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Yes, it's too low. The warmer the temp, the faster they grow and reproduce. I haven't found the upper limit yet . . . but I haven't tried either  |
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Whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, praiseworthy:
Think on these things!
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| SL11 |
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| Joined: Sep 17, 2007 |
| Posts: 90 |
| Location: Ontario, Canada |
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Post subject: RE: my beetles keep dying..
Posted: Apr 01, 2008 - 02:41 PM
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| ok so i guess its been a couple weeks, nothing is coming from the old bedding, its frustrating! today i went and changed my beddings to natural wheat bran, instead of oatmeal, i've only had one beetle running around so no chance of babies surfacing in the bedding i changed out. i dumped it all! were starting fresh with wheat bran, moisture every other day and a desk lamp with a 60 watt normal bulb on the containers for a few hours a day ATEAST, its right beside my desk so i could very well just use it as my source of light too. so maybe the lil increase in temp given off from the light will help a bit, i have one beetle and about 11 aliens waiting to molt. we shall see how it goes!.. round 2 here we come :p |
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| LittleLouie |
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| Joined: Jan 21, 2006 |
| Posts: 1822 |
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Post subject: RE: my beetles keep dying..
Posted: Apr 03, 2008 - 12:38 AM
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| My friend kept her mealie colony warm by taping the mealie bin to the top of her computer monitor. That temp seemed to work well for her and her mealies |
_________________
Whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, praiseworthy:
Think on these things!
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