Pet weevils?

Milly

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 4, 2010
Messages
10
I love weevils - they're adorable and come in lots of different shapes and sizes. :) Unfortunately googling around for information on keeping them just comes up with a lot of pest control sites, which is obviously not what I'm looking for. Any information on actually keeping weevils that I've found is quite scarce and not helpful at all!

I know how notoriously destructive some weevils are, and I certainly don't want to accidentally decimate the local tree population or something. I was wondering if there's a species of weevil that would be particularly good for keeping in captivity, where to get them, proper conditions for raising them, and if anyone has had any experience with them.

Sorry for all the questions, I'm rather new to all this and don't know if it's even feasible to keep weevils, but I figured I'd ask.

Thanks!
 

Bas

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 27, 2017
Messages
1
I suggest the rice weevil if you can find some

Get some organic rice and stick it in a clear airtight plastic/glass box

Just remember the bigger the box the more of a pain in the ass they are to find so I suggest many small containers

Put the boxes in a dry dark place and wait about a month

search trough the containers by getting a container with a bigger bottom to spread out the rice so it only just covers the surface then pick up the container point the top of it at a light and look at the bottom if you see little black specs you now have some weaviles then you can keep them in the bigger container

I suggest you find some sort of predator for them so you don't get overrun by weaviles though
 

RTTB

Arachnoprince
Joined
Dec 4, 2016
Messages
1,771
Invertebrates magazine may have some articles on them. Look at the site in the back issues section.
 

Smokehound714

Arachnoking
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
3,091
Ophryastes and Apleurus are cool, I know Ophryastes larvae will eat turtle pellets, not sure about apleurus.

They're also unlikely to infest your products as they're flightless.
 

VolkswagenBug

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 26, 2017
Messages
500
Yeah, I like weevils as well. I never see them around here, though, and I can't find them for sale anywhere. :(
 

Weevil Lover

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Messages
1
I would like to ask, is it good to have pet acorn weevils? If so I would like to know how to care for them and where to get them.
 

All About Arthropods

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
181
Ooh, a post about one of my favorite types of beetles! :D I will likely be keeping a species of grain weevil soon, but for one am also curious to know if any Curculio sp. are being bred by anyone in the U.S. :)
 

Salmonsaladsandwich

Arachnolord
Joined
Jul 28, 2016
Messages
633
I would like to ask, is it good to have pet acorn weevils? If so I would like to know how to care for them and where to get them.
I've read of someone successfully raising acorn weevils by stuffing shredded acorn meat into a vial so they could observe the larvae. Obviously I imagine it would be much easier just to rear them in whole acorns. You can find them by searching for acorns with tiny holes where the female weevils drilled into them to lay eggs, or by putting acorns in water and collecting the ones that float, which are hollow and might contain weevil larvae.

Unrelated, here's a bamboo weevil, which despite its large size and interesting appearance is a pretty bad pest like so many other weevils.
 

coniontises

Arachnosquire
Joined
Feb 24, 2018
Messages
65
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