Beetles dying in droves.

[Slavkleos]

I've had these guys since May, why are they dying? They have access to food and water and ventilation and places to hide and space and the darkness. My worms won't pupate so I can't regenerate the beetle supply.

 

[Wolfram1]

what are those?
Mealworm beatles, Tenebrio molitor?
or something else?
is there any condensation?

 

[Brewser]

Dehydration may be a concern,

 

[Slavkleos]

Yes and no, there is no condensation. Summer just ended. I'd keep the lid partially off when it did mist up. Now it's on and they just die. They're kept in a cupboard ontop of the superbeetle container next to the superpupae container.

 

[Slavkleos]

How much do I need to give? I've moved the survivors into a smaller container. They're about 20, there used to be around 100. I put the bedding in the baby worm containers. They're were 2 decently sized mealworms in there even though I replaced the bedding 2 weeks ago.

 

[Kada]

Some thoughts:

Beetles will die, it's normal.

They probably laid eggs and it takes time for the larvae to grow big enough to see.

Make sure even the tiniest ones have access to moisture. This is an issue with say bran and mold, but they still need it.

Possibly the food is sprayed. I have seen countless mealworm operations crash because the SGS testing on the bran/grain base was wrong/fake and they got poisoned.

 

[Slavkleos]

The death rate spiked, some of them look dusty. Shat do you mean by sprayed food and sgs testing?