I am in the process of getting some dermestid beetles and would like to know if they would be okay in my garage this summer. I do not have any room for them inside but was wondering if they would be okay in the garage. I have a ten gallon aquarium with a homemade screen cover that i made. I have no idea what to but on the bottom. Dirt, sand, I don't know. but it stays relatively warm in the ND summer. Usually around 65 to 90 degrees. I am going to buy a heat lamp to keep them warm on chilly days. Will the heat lamp work in the winter when it's usually around zero degrees. I am just wondering if my colony will survive the warm summers and cold winters or will I have to find a heated and air conditioned building? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank You.
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If you have a sufficient sized colony, they can create their own heat much like a bee hive. Small numbers will survive down to 40 degrees or so, but because they are invertebrates, their metabolism slows down so much that they eat almost nothing. Anywhere from 65 on up should be good. They do survive well in even 90 degree weather, you jst have to make sure you give them clean bedding and to remove frass on a regular basis to keep the mites down. If you use a heat lamp, make sure you do not dry out the colony too much - they do need a certain amount of moisture, just not too much.
You'll have to cope with me but what is frass? I'm getting about 500 beetles so that should be okay. Any more info will be appreciated. Thanks.
Once the tank gets above 80 degrees the beetles will start to fly and they can get out of the tank. If they get into your home or any other shop area they can eat a lot of different things. I would be more concerned with excessive heat than cold. of course you don't want them freezing either. You don't want them loose everywhere.
Easton, you should find almost every conceivable answer to running a dermestid colony in the Archives. I have run colonies for about 30 years now, and placed a lot of information in the archives of this site. Simply type in "Taxidermologist Dermestid" in the search page and sit down and read the 43 posts. Others placed much more information, and if you search only on "dermestid colony" it should lead to those posts that don't discuss dermestid infestations on specimens.
If it does not fit tightly, they will get out. Little buggers, I have heard of putting vasiline aroudn the upper edge of the aqarium to keep them from getting out by crawling, and when I had mine, I custome fit a piece of plex glass to fit the top and coated it in vasiline and they could not grab hold so no escapee's.
Temperatures should be kept at about the same as much as you can.
Around 80 degrees is the best, and Frass is a better way to say their poop. It also stinks after a while.
It is the complete residue after a skeleton is removed. It would include scales from snakes, feathers from birds, hair from mammals (as dermestids don't eat this material) and shed instar skins of the beetle larvae, tendons not completely eaten, cartilage pieces, chunks of fat that fall off and are not yet consumed, dead beetles and larvae, pupae casing, and then also "Poop"