# Dermestid beetles



## Bigboy (Feb 16, 2009)

How many people here are interested in dermestid beetles, the kind that strip dead flesh from bone?


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## GiantVinegaroon (Feb 17, 2009)

seems like a ton.

i'm interested in finding dead ones and pinning them


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## Choobaine (Feb 20, 2009)

here's a picture I took today while feeding my colony on crickets and dog food: 







I'd love to know the species, but I don't have a key.

They swarm around the food, getting into every nook and cranny, hollowing it out until all that is left is a delicate shell. My colony is smaller than it used to be, it's at the 500 mark or so, I'm building it up again since I've had some interest in people buying from me. 

Also they can clean arthropods for you as well as verts, you just have to be careful and patient. 
I have some complete invertebrates I've hollowed out using dermestids. If you want I'll take some pics later, great fun to hold hollow bugs up to the light...


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## calum (Feb 20, 2009)

I find these little critters very interesting, the larvae eat EVERYTHING. I also feed the small ones to S'lings and smaller true spiders. they seem to work well. 

choobaine, your species might be _dermestes peruvianus_ if you found them in the british isles.. these seem to be te most common ones.


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## bhoeschcod (Feb 23, 2009)

I do!i love em got two types!


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## Choobaine (Feb 24, 2009)

Hmm I think I'll do a bit of research, I'm having my doubts about D. peruvianus... this site seems to be a good catalogue of dermestid species. Nice photographs too. I need to have a browse later, see if there's anything with ridged elytra and an absence (or at least it's veerrrrry sparse and hardly noticable) of setae on both larva and beetles...


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## Vulgaris (Feb 24, 2009)

Bugguide was very helpful when it came to identifying my larva. I simply posted a few images in ID request (including info of how large it was and what location i was in), and it got idenitified to species level by one of their experts

http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740

good luck!


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## gvfarns (Mar 3, 2009)

Pardon the ignorance on these animals, but is it correct to say that they eat dead bugs but don't bother live ones?  In other words, can you keep them in with your feeders to eat those that die of natural causes without worrying that they will attack the live feeders?

Seems like something I'd like to put in with my lateralis.  would they eat egg cases?


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## GiantVinegaroon (Mar 3, 2009)

gvfarns said:


> Pardon the ignorance on these animals, but is it correct to say that they eat dead bugs but don't bother live ones?  In other words, can you keep them in with your feeders to eat those that die of natural causes without worrying that they will attack the live feeders?
> 
> Seems like something I'd like to put in with my lateralis.  would they eat egg cases?


i dont think so.  i used to get 'em when i had to buy crickets for some of my now deceased herps.  they're probably great at eating dead bugs in the colony and old exuvia


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## Rochelle (Mar 3, 2009)

We keep colonies of dermestids in with our cricket feeders. They certainly DO catch and eat live crickets (pinheads up to 10 days). I have personally watched it happen. I would never in a zillion years risk feeding a larva to a small sling. They do a wonderful job of keeping the smell to a minimum in the cricket tanks, however.  We have also introduced them to a very large G.portentosa colony with good results thus far.


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## Vulgaris (Mar 3, 2009)

Yes I agree with Rochelle. I have witnessed these dermestid larvae actually eating into live crickets. The larvae seem to just grab on to the back of a cricket and ride around, and they start eating the cricket eventually. I have seen this at pet stores too. Seems to happen when the tank is REALLy over crowded

But they also like to eat the cricket food too


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## calum (Mar 3, 2009)

I have also witnessed this type of behaviour in dermestids. I have seen larvae attack smaller larvae if they haven't fed for a while.


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## gvfarns (Mar 3, 2009)

Rochelle said:


> We keep colonies of dermestids in with our cricket feeders. They certainly DO catch and eat live crickets (pinheads up to 10 days). I have personally watched it happen. I would never in a zillion years risk feeding a larva to a small sling. They do a wonderful job of keeping the smell to a minimum in the cricket tanks, however.  We have also introduced them to a very large G.portentosa colony with good results thus far.


So I guess putting them in with my lateralis would be only a moderate idea, not a good one, then?  I do hate dead roaches and exuvia, but I would also hate any of the roachlings to get munched.


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## Matt K (Mar 3, 2009)

I have three species living in various roach colonies without any issues (not all three seem to live together, its one or two at best in with any particular roach species).  They eat leftover roach food, any dead roach (my adults grow old and then "disappear") and seem to eat old molts, frass, cardboard, or anything else other than plastic or eggshell.  I have the most of them growing in my bin of B.dubia, and the smaller of them thrives in with the N.cinerea.  Another lives with about all my hisser types.  I had a fourth larger variety with a white underside but they seem to have disappeared... then there are the tiny tiny micro-mealworm beetles in with all the roach bins, and I have no idea what they feed on (can only guess).

So overall I would say its safe to have them in there...


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## bluefrogtat2 (Mar 4, 2009)

*agree*

i have them in with my chopardi and they keep the bottom clean and consume adults that happento die.they seen to congregate on the dog food dish.
andy


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## OldHag (Mar 4, 2009)

I used to have a huge colony of them. I would clean skulls for hunters.  Then, one dark snowy night, someone turned off the heat source and they all died..... there went my business... oh well, they stunk really bad anyway.


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## Bigboy (Mar 10, 2009)

My colony runs between 1000 and 2000 beetles and it has been driving me nuts.  They eat every scrap of meat I give them before I can get anything else.  Any good techniques for quickly drying out meat?  I ask because the colony goes up and down, up and down since I can't keep giving them a steady supply of small animals and skulls.


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## OldHag (Mar 10, 2009)

I would put in some cat food to keep them going in times of no meat. But that was rare occations..


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## Bigboy (Mar 11, 2009)

I just left some beef heart in the oven on 250 for about 2 and a half hours, I guess this is as good as any other way, the beetles sure don't seem to mind it.


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## bhoeschcod (Mar 11, 2009)

I only have 5 larvae


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## Bigboy (Mar 12, 2009)

bhoeschcod said:


> I only have 5 larvae


I started with fifty a year ago, they breed pretty fast.


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## bhoeschcod (Mar 17, 2009)

How fast?plus i found out i have two species black carpet beetle and larder beetle btw i now have 4 larvae and two beetles [black carpet beetles]


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## Bigboy (Mar 19, 2009)

Holy hell, I came back home after being away a week and they've demolished all that beef heart.  I must have given them 3/4lb!



bhoeschcod said:


> How fast?plus i found out i have two species black carpet beetle and larder beetle btw i now have 4 larvae and two beetles [black carpet beetles]


I keep _Dermestes maculatus_.  They reproduce very quickly but I would strongly recommend you try and start with around 50 minimum just to help you add a bit more genetic diversity to your colony.  I supplemented mine a few months back with 300 from an unrelated colony for that reason alone.  The more inbred you allow them to be, the slower the colony will turn over.  When your colony is hot the biggest problem isn't them breeding fast enough, its you finding them enough to eat.


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## Matt K (Mar 19, 2009)

I give mine fish food and dead roaches and they seem just fine.  Though yesterday I did put a dead lizard in there....


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## Bigboy (Mar 19, 2009)

The only problem I have with using dog food or other dry foods is that when I put actual meat in there they forget all about the dry stuff. Then it starts to get moldy and fouls up the tank.  I hardly have any problems with a "smell" since I stopped using anything but dried meat or skulls/skeletons to be prepped in the tank 10months ago.


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## calum (Mar 20, 2009)

yes, these little ****ers breed like wildfire. 

if your gunna feed them something like a lizard, you should dry it out first to prevent it stinking. I made the mistake of feeding my first colony wet/moist prey, and oh jesus, they stank like.. I dunno what else smells that bad.


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