Temjeito
Arachnopeon
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2021
- Messages
- 46
I have (had) 5 blue death feigning beetles. I’ve had them for about 2 years and they’ve been housed with a desert hairy scorpion since July.
Last week, over the course of 2 days, I found 3 dead (yes, dead; not feigning). A fourth is still alive and seems fine. I haven’t seen the fifth in days. I believe all three confirmed dead are male and the remaining two are female.
The day before I found the first two dead (same time, next to each other), I fed them organic, triple-washed arugula and a peeled carrot. I’ve never fed them arugula before and that’s the only variable I can point to. Maybe pesticides? Some hormonal or pheromones insecticide that only affects males? Maybe arugula is toxic to beetles? I fed the same arugula and the rest of the carrot to my dubia roach colony at the same time (the day before the first deaths) I found one dead adult male, but otherwise they all seem fine. As does the remaining beetle. as does My desert hairy scorpion, who ate one of the roaches the day after the first two deaths.
Another data point is that the scorpion has been seeming stressed lately so I was about to relocate him. In fact, I did relocate him the day after the beetles started dying. that involved a fair amount of turmoil. But as I said that was *after the beetles started dying. Maybe the causes of death were not the same? Maybe disturbing the clay/sand led to an increased risk of impaction ? Stress?
Im broken-hearted about the beetles, and I wish I could pinpoint the cause of death, but my more pressing concern is feeding the roaches to my two juvenile tarantulas. If it was something toxic in the food, I don’t want it to pass to them thru the roaches. The fact the roaches seem fine makes me question that theory, but obviously biology differs. I really don’t want to euthanize hundreds of roaches and star the colony over, though that would obviously be the safest course.
I guess I’m just looking for thoughts about what the root cause might have been and opinions on what I should do about feeding the spooders.
thanks for coming to my depressing TED talk.
Last week, over the course of 2 days, I found 3 dead (yes, dead; not feigning). A fourth is still alive and seems fine. I haven’t seen the fifth in days. I believe all three confirmed dead are male and the remaining two are female.
The day before I found the first two dead (same time, next to each other), I fed them organic, triple-washed arugula and a peeled carrot. I’ve never fed them arugula before and that’s the only variable I can point to. Maybe pesticides? Some hormonal or pheromones insecticide that only affects males? Maybe arugula is toxic to beetles? I fed the same arugula and the rest of the carrot to my dubia roach colony at the same time (the day before the first deaths) I found one dead adult male, but otherwise they all seem fine. As does the remaining beetle. as does My desert hairy scorpion, who ate one of the roaches the day after the first two deaths.
Another data point is that the scorpion has been seeming stressed lately so I was about to relocate him. In fact, I did relocate him the day after the beetles started dying. that involved a fair amount of turmoil. But as I said that was *after the beetles started dying. Maybe the causes of death were not the same? Maybe disturbing the clay/sand led to an increased risk of impaction ? Stress?
Im broken-hearted about the beetles, and I wish I could pinpoint the cause of death, but my more pressing concern is feeding the roaches to my two juvenile tarantulas. If it was something toxic in the food, I don’t want it to pass to them thru the roaches. The fact the roaches seem fine makes me question that theory, but obviously biology differs. I really don’t want to euthanize hundreds of roaches and star the colony over, though that would obviously be the safest course.
I guess I’m just looking for thoughts about what the root cause might have been and opinions on what I should do about feeding the spooders.
thanks for coming to my depressing TED talk.