Has anyone kept Giant water bugs?

[Mr. Mordax]

My striped male had new eggs on him less than a week after he shed his old casings.

BTW, Sorry I haven't updated lately. Four have molted to second instar, but several first instars die each day (I had 36 live juveniles last night). It looks like the 2I can take whole mealworms.

I'm emailing the grad student today to see if it's ok / safe / legal to sell them to people.

 

[dtknow]

Interesting stuff! When this next batch hatches I am going to try raising them in a large tub and see what happens.

 

[Mr. Mordax]

Arlo's thesis is now officially part of the public record. He's given me permission to sell bugs I rear myself, just not any of the ones that I got from him. Based on what I've read in his rearing appendix, I think shipping adults is much more reliable than the nymphs. The 90% mortality rate that I've had is similar to the results that he got.

I have around 30 nymphs that are still alive with a second brood on the way. Four have made it to second instar. Second and fifth instars seem to be the most suceptible to dying -- he wasn't sure on the second, and the fifth had problems molting to adult.

He also pointed out that tapwater worked better than deionized water for the final molt.

So, it looks like I may be able to send people some of these guys when they reach maturity -- but due to space constraints, I'll only rear one brood at a time. (Maybe I'll have a higher survival rate?) And the adults lived in his lab for up to 30 months.

 

[dtknow]

Shipping nymphs is possible, as demonstrated by Wade's success at getting them to me but I think it is probably best to offer maybe 3rd or fourth instar nymphs. I'm thinking on the nymphs...if they have such high mortality...its better that the dying ones get eaten by the others than just dying...if you get my drift.

 

[Mr. Mordax]

That's a good idea . . . Arlo mentioned in the appendix that some seem to just crawl on top of their bolts to die. Maybe the next time I see that I'll make use of the little bundle of protien.

He also said that the nymphs are fiercely territorial, so it should work pretty easily.

 

[Wade]

Welp, to answer your question Wade...it looks like they can breed whenever they want. One of my males is now carrying a full load of eggs.

In that case, it probably means that they just need a few months after the ultimate molt to start breeding...good to know! Unfortunately, I accidentally over sold my captive bred ones so now I just have my original breeders and a few nymphs ! Fortunately, there's two males with eggs on their backs right now, so soon there will be more.

As Iheartmantids just mentioned, once they start, they don't stop! Males will have eggs on their backs within a very short period after the previous brood hatches.

Wade

 

[dtknow]

My male with eggs.