- Joined
- Nov 25, 2011
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- 4,226
I take care of several T's in my university's insectary and recently there has been a pretty major die off. Two G. rosea, one B. boehmi, and one A. chalcodes. I've removed all dead T's and have replaced the substrate of all the living T's every time one dies. I have no idea why they are still dying off because most have not been adults and I've been keeping them in standard T set ups. All T's were eating normally before dying. One thing I noticed with the boehmi was that it would curl its legs underneath it like it was going into a death curl, but when I touched the enclosure or disturbed it in any way, it would pop right back up like normal.
I have checked for nematodes and haven't seen any, so that can be checked off I think. Dehydration hasn't been an issue and all T's have died with full abdomens. The chalcodes had what looked like a scab above the spinnerets, but besides that all T's looked healthy and didn't have any marks. Could phorids still be a possibility?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated, especially since we have our biggest outreach event of the year coming up at the end of February and need a bunch of T's!
I have checked for nematodes and haven't seen any, so that can be checked off I think. Dehydration hasn't been an issue and all T's have died with full abdomens. The chalcodes had what looked like a scab above the spinnerets, but besides that all T's looked healthy and didn't have any marks. Could phorids still be a possibility?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated, especially since we have our biggest outreach event of the year coming up at the end of February and need a bunch of T's!