Desert Tarantula and Blue Death Feigning Beetle

[Storm1028]

Hello,
I saw a video on YouTube where a guy kept a scorpion in excavator clay substrate with three blue death feigning beetles present as clean up crews. It made me wonder if it would work on desert tarantulas like Monocentropus. Are the beetles capable of hurting the T? Here is a picture of the desert inclosure I have for my M. Balfouri. Don't mind the potting soil, I was experimenting with succulent plants.

 

[basin79]

Surely the T would just eat the beetles?

Also I wouldn't trust beetles with a moulting T.

 

[Moakmeister]

I don't think a tarantula would like the company of a blue death feigning beetle as much as the desert hairy scorpion would. When the scorpion encounters one of these beetles, the two animals act really weird for a few seconds, with the scorpion kinda touching it and the beetle doing some weird groveling thing, and then they both start living together. So it's not just the scorpion tolerating the beetle, the two animals actually make the decision to share food and live with each other. So any other animal the beetle comes across would just regard the beetle the same as any other animal. The tarantula wouldn't want a beetle in its enclosure.

 

[Storm1028]

I see. Then it's best that I drop the idea of putting them together.

 

[user 666]

A better choice for clean up crew would be isopods - but they require higher humidity, underbrush to hide in, etc.

 

[Moakmeister]

A better choice for clean up crew would be isopods - but they require higher humidity, underbrush to hide in, etc.

Yeah but you don't need to use isopods in anything BUT humid enclosures.