Impressive fast growing beetles

[lizardminion]

Stag and Rhinoceros beetles spend too long as grubs for my taste. Are there any other impressive beetles you guys think I'd like? By impressive, I mean they grow to an okay or good size, and they are colorful. (well, maybe just not dirt brown or black) If not colorful, they must have a feature to compensate for it.


P.S. Please don't suggest dung beetles...

 

[Malhavoc's]

Tiger beetles.

 

[Tarac]

Tiger beetles.

Tigers are super awesome. Very very aggressive little hunters and the most fun to catch because you really have to work. I love them. They're not hard as grubs but they are tiny. Fun to feed. Callosoma scrutator is fairly common and is beautiful and long-lived for a beetle. And it's common name is fun- it's called the Fiery Searcher, so "Harry Potter and the Fiery Searcher" lol. There are lots of nice beetles out there.

Try using a black light on a very white sheet at night, similar to how you attract moths. Also you can make pitfall traps that are baited with dung or fermenting fruit, they're very productive. Rainbow scarabs love my dog's poo. All three methods will get you different beetles. The impulse-trip way is to just drive around to any remote gas stations with bright lights and check around the building and parking lot. Most attendants will happily let you poke around if you just tell them what you are doing. I can't tell you how many times I have gone somewhere and told them what I was up to only to hear "Oh yeah, this place has lots of such and such a bug around, we get collectors here a lot!"

Then you get a fun little adventure too. Trying different gas stations that are near different types of ecosystems will get you different things too. Try hardwood forests, pine, dry areas, moist areas. All of them host their own selection of neat beetles. There are more species of beetle than anything else on earth, just explore a bit and maybe find a good guide on beetles in your region and I promise you will find something you like. Once you start, it's hard to stop though- caution, another addictive hobby! Also you'll start noticing beetles everywhere as your eyes become better at recognizing them from afar and know where to look. I find them at my place of work, when I'm out shopping, pretty much anywhere there is probably a beetle or two of interest. Texas is great for bugs I hear. Florida, where I am from, is definitely a bug heaven.

Dynastes are the best though even though you don't like the long grub phase. You should know that most metabolous insects spend the larger part of their lives as larvae though. Dynastes are very easy to rear which is why they are highly recommended aside from being the most impressive US beetle for size. Major males are super nice.

My advice- when you are picking a beetle type, find one that likes to use rotting wood mulch of generic varieties as a food source. It's very easy to find some old chunks of wood to pulverize and it doesn't smell horrific like many of the more picky fruit/dung/exotic wood eating species. Of all the beetles I have reared, Dynastes was the easiest to provide for. Also, their adult lives are not that short considering they are insects. Mine lasted for at least half the year as adults, mating and laying ova the whole time. When they die, you have some nice specimens to mount. The grubs are slow, but you will find that is not unusual for temperate beetles that often spend the first year's warm season eating and do not emerge as adults until the following spring.

---------- Post added 03-23-2012 at 02:02 PM ----------

P.S. Please don't suggest dung beetles...

Just noticed that P.S. oops.

Honestly, while fruit sounds more appealing than a big pile of crap the fruit is much much nastier in the end. You get horrible things all over it, it's smells very bad as it ferments, much worse than dung. Best to find something that eats easily obtained wood as a larvae or is predatory if you can provide enough prey. The rest are all stinky and messy, which is, I assume, why you want to avoid dung eating species. Fruit eating is the absolute worst. Even feeding adults fruit mixtures is labor intensive and gets smelly in just a day or two. Unbearable not long after that. And you get maggots everywhere, fruitflies infesting everything around. Just avoid fruit... did I say how bad it smells?

 

[lizardminion]

Honestly, while fruit sounds more appealing than a big pile of crap the fruit is much much nastier in the end. You get horrible things all over it, it's smells very bad as it ferments, much worse than dung. Best to find something that eats easily obtained wood as a larvae or is predatory if you can provide enough prey. The rest are all stinky and messy, which is, I assume, why you want to avoid dung eating species. Fruit eating is the absolute worst. Even feeding adults fruit mixtures is labor intensive and gets smelly in just a day or two. Unbearable not long after that. And you get maggots everywhere, fruitflies infesting everything around. Just avoid fruit... did I say how bad it smells?

Yeah, I just like the thought of keeping grubs in poo. "What's in that container?" "Oh, you know, it's just a pile a poo with larvae in it..." Wish me luck getting a girlfriend with that. Lol

Actually, I am giving dung beetles a second thought. Maybe I can keep the grubs in an enclosure outside...
I might research them for a little bit.

Now, how about scarabs or maybe other beetles?

 

[catfishrod69]

Come on, why not dung beetles? Ihave always thought it would be cool to own these. I do agree with you though Rhinos and other large beetles spend most of their lives as larvae, and are too hard to take care of for me. But i do love them. I suggest something that isnt a beetle, but is kind of close. Assassins. Very very awesome, hardy, super easy to care for.

 

[Camden]

Tarac, I feed my millipedes fruit almost exclusively with the acceptance of some veggies and dog food, never had a problem with maggots or fruit flies, just clean it out when it starts to get nasty, don't know why it would be different with dung beetles.

 

[ZergFront]

Are Euchroma gigantea very slow in growth? That is a very impressive beetle but good luck getting them. I hardly ever see non-native beetles being sold in the US. I even tried finding tiger beetles with zero luck.

 

[Tarac]

Now, how about scarabs or maybe other beetles?

A lot of dung beetles are "scarabs" as in belonging to the Scarabidae. Phanaeus vindex is a good example that is very common and beautiful, major males even have a nice horn. They like dog waste for sure lol.

It doesn't really smell that bad actually but for those I'd say it's easier just to collect adults as they are emerging. If you want to breed you're gonna have to deal with some dung, but if you just want to have a few adults for pets they will eat the applesauce/banana/maple syrup mash.

---------- Post added 03-26-2012 at 08:05 AM ----------

Tarac, I feed my millipedes fruit almost exclusively with the acceptance of some veggies and dog food, never had a problem with maggots or fruit flies, just clean it out when it starts to get nasty, don't know why it would be different with dung beetles.

I think, and this has been unilateral with beetles for me, that it has to do with the feeding method. The beetles are like puppies and kittens learning to eat in that they walk right into the food, crawl all around in it and in the process spread residue all over their media so even if you change out the cap full of fruit mash every day it still gets a funny acetic acid type of odor and fruit flies are still attracted. The fruitflies would maybe not be a problem if I did the whole thing inside but since they're just local beetles and they appreciate our warmth and humidity I rear the beetles on my porch. But the odor- yuck. Perhaps it is much cooler where you are. Are you using whole slices of fruit? I use a mash, mostly to incorporate the maple syrup which has a lot of good nutrients for beetles that make their living of plant material. All the beetles I raise I feed this besides predators like Callosoma or any of the Cicindelidae.

---------- Post added 03-26-2012 at 08:10 AM ----------

Are Euchroma gigantea very slow in growth? That is a very impressive beetle but good luck getting them. I hardly ever see non-native beetles being sold in the US. I even tried finding tiger beetles with zero luck.

Pretty much all beetles spend a very long time as larvae compared to the adult life. It's standard operating procedure in the insect world. There are exceptions of course, but the it's not the norm.

Tiger beetles are easy to find if you go to the right habitats at the right times of year, usually early summer in my experience is most fruitful but that might vary be region, I'm not sure. They are found in salt marshes, around bogs, on the beach, in pine sandhills. They're cool because every where you go there is another species. Florida has about 25+ species I think. I even found some on a soy bean farm in Michigan with nothing around but acres and acres of soy. The tricky part is figuring out which one you have as many are only subtly different. Some are easy- we have some really nice almost all white species here that are striking. But some are not so different with only subtle characters like the length or spread of the lunula. Feisty and very fast, you have to be very good at following small insects with your eyes and have good aim with a net. You are really hunting them unlike many other beetles that you just trap or sweep net for.

---------- Post added 03-26-2012 at 08:25 AM ----------

Come on, why not dung beetles? Ihave always thought it would be cool to own these. I do agree with you though Rhinos and other large beetles spend most of their lives as larvae, and are too hard to take care of for me. But i do love them. I suggest something that isnt a beetle, but is kind of close. Assassins. Very very awesome, hardy, super easy to care for.

What's hard about Dynastes? This is what I do- collect a few pairs at gas stations. Get some good, crumbly hardwood. I used oak recently from stump that the city ground up after removing the dead tree. I just soaked the oak wood chips in water for a few days, then let it dry 90% or so. Then I take a rubbermaid container, probably about 40L size or so and fill 1/3rd full with the moist oak mulch. I then squash that layer down as hard as I possibly can, usually just step on it. Then you add another 1/3-1/2 volume of the container with the remaining oak mulch, firmed lightly but not nearly as firm as the bottom layer. You drop in the adults, give them a little dish with your preferred diet and let them go at it until they die. If you use a clearish container you can inspect the outside for tunnels with ova, they look a bit like a barley grain but are lighter and more perfectly oval.

Once the adults have died, remove the food and bodies. Put the lid on the container. Put it in the bottom of the closet and leave it for months, until the following spring. Then, if the media is badly broken down and much is eaten (as in if you had a very successful pairing and they produced a lot of offspring) you just carefully sort through and repeat the hard-packed bottom layer only this time you use the old media they were in to make the softer layer on top, so it's nice and partially decayed for them. They seem not to do well on completely new media. At this point you can mix a very small amount of crushed dog kibble in too, it will give you super sized adults compared even to wild examples. If it's not that bad you can just leave them in the media they are in for the duration.

Most of the time is spent not thinking about them at all. Don' dig around for them all the time, just let the box of wood mulch be. One day about a year to a year and a half later you will have a box full of Dynastes. They take little to no care at all once the parents are dead, the trick is just to resist the urge to poke around in the box looking for grubs. You must force yourself to forget them in a dark, quiet place. I actually consider Dynastes and other wood-feeding grubs (at least non-specialty wood) to be the easiest kind of beetle to raise because you just basically are putting them in a man made wood "stump" and letting them do their thing without interruption until you have adults.

 

[catfishrod69]

Well i do see how it is actually easier than i thought. I guess your right, just toss everything in, and forget about it. How often do you have to put dogfood in though? And what about water? I thought they would be alot like millipedes, and need high humidity, and always have mite infestations, and stuff molding.
[QUOTE/]
What's hard about Dynastes? This is what I do- collect a few pairs at gas stations. Get some good, crumbly hardwood. I used oak recently from stump that the city ground up after removing the dead tree. I just soaked the oak wood chips in water for a few days, then let it dry 90% or so. Then I take a rubbermaid container, probably about 40L size or so and fill 1/3rd full with the moist oak mulch. I then squash that layer down as hard as I possibly can, usually just step on it. Then you add another 1/3-1/2 volume of the container with the remaining oak mulch, firmed lightly but not nearly as firm as the bottom layer. You drop in the adults, give them a little dish with your preferred diet and let them go at it until they die. If you use a clearish container you can inspect the outside for tunnels with ova, they look a bit like a barley grain but are lighter and more perfectly oval.

Once the adults have died, remove the food and bodies. Put the lid on the container. Put it in the bottom of the closet and leave it for months, until the following spring. Then, if the media is badly broken down and much is eaten (as in if you had a very successful pairing and they produced a lot of offspring) you just carefully sort through and repeat the hard-packed bottom layer only this time you use the old media they were in to make the softer layer on top, so it's nice and partially decayed for them. They seem not to do well on completely new media. At this point you can mix a very small amount of crushed dog kibble in too, it will give you super sized adults compared even to wild examples. If it's not that bad you can just leave them in the media they are in for the duration.

Most of the time is spent not thinking about them at all. Don' dig around for them all the time, just let the box of wood mulch be. One day about a year to a year and a half later you will have a box full of Dynastes. They take little to no care at all once the parents are dead, the trick is just to resist the urge to poke around in the box looking for grubs. You must force yourself to forget them in a dark, quiet place. I actually consider Dynastes and other wood-feeding grubs (at least non-specialty wood) to be the easiest kind of beetle to raise because you just basically are putting them in a man made wood "stump" and letting them do their thing without interruption until you have adults.[/QUOTE]

 

[Tarac]

That's where the pre-soaked media comes in. Soak it for a few days, let it dry MOST of the way so it's still soft and moist like decaying wood outdoors would be. Two birds with one stone there- kills pests and also adds plenty of moisture. I have never had to add water. I keep the lid on it with small holes, helps with humidity I'm sure although I've honestly never checked since you can feel that the media is damp to the touch for the duration. As for dog food, just a piece or two per grub, I usually crush it coarsely. If you don't know the number, a small handful crushed and added to about 40L of media or so works OK. Too much will definitely encourage fungus and such although even that I haven't noticed having any ill effects. After all, they live in moldy fungus covered rotting wood with all those same associated organisms found locally. I think a lot of grubs are lost due to handling, digging around for them, etc. I remember reading somewhere not to touch them if you can avoid it although I don't remember where or what the explanation was so it could be just a rumor. I do avoid handling anyway, whether or not it is related to the success I can't confirm one way or the other.

They are bit like millipedes I suppose although here I find millipedes in drier habitats- pine/oak scrub and sandhills along the historical dune line from the last glaciation period. Dynastes are almost always near a mesic hardwood hammock so I would assume they like it wetter. I've never found a large millepede (like the Florida Ivory, for example) in an area as wet as you do Dynastes. Often in wet piles of leaves and rotting wood, but always on top of deep, well-drained sand. Dynastes, preferring wood from trees that like more moisture, is nearly always found around forests that have water access. Might be culturing them not quite wet enough? Compare your substrate to the interior of a rotting oak- should feel about the same softness and wetness.

 

[catfishrod69]

Thats some really cool stuff. Might have to invest in some of those someday. I tried keeping some Bess beetles i caught once, but they didnt last long. If i had them setup the way you explained for Dynastes, they probably would have lived. Thanks for all the info. John