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hmmm....using a SMALLER bean, like a Mung Bean, will produce a smaller beetle ? Who knew !?! Excellent experiment here.
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At first, most all frogs will make the 'sour' face when eating these feeders, but they WILL come to enjoy them - all species.
Just stick with it...try to make the frogs go hungry for a while before you insert the beetles into the feeder rotation.
Tsk Tsk Glenn....not feeding BB all these years despite this thread !
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wow..Canada was without bean beetles until just recently ?
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They were here for a while and seemed to vanish. They're back though! 8)
Glenn
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My culture is finally starting to produce (thanks Jay!). I need to start considering what cadence I setup new cultures for a rotation. It sounds like a culture takes 6 weeks to develop, then may produce multiple blooms, which would indicate a single culture could last 4 to 6 months? If so, I'm thinking a 2 to 4 week cadence on culture rotations would be best. At two weeks, I would have about 12 cultures around at a given time assuming a 6 month life cycle, which fits into my current fly culture box setups.
Curious as to others' experiences. I'm still raising melanogaster and hydei (black and gold), so I think the two week cadence would be enough as a fourth feeder (22 adult frogs). Thoughts or experiences?
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Best advice I can give is to not overthink culturing them. You can almost neglect them and they will always be there for you!
Remember, they like warm temps and dry. I used to keep mine above the light fixtures. You can actually touch the bottom of the culture cup and feel real warmth being generated from them. Weird.
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This thread needs a bump. I have decided to start culturing beetles as an alternate food source.
Scott - North Dallas
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A tip for harvesting the beetles is to take a lid from a deli cup and cut out the center leaving only about 1/8 inch around the outside. Then hot glue a 3/16 mesh screen over the opening.
When you want to harvest beetles remove the cover from the deli container they are in and replace with the mesh cover. Then turn the container upside down and shack out the beetles. This also helps remove all dead beetles and debris from the culture.
I like blue frogs!
Tom
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Try finding beans in the store now!
Do your pumilios eat bean beetles? or are they for something bigger?