My Beetles have not been eating very well and I was trying to find out why, by using the search button, and there was some talk of mold being a problem. I was wondering what affect mold has on the beetles.
I do not have any mold on any of my heads. There looks to be alot of beetles and larve but they only come up when I spray the heads with water. My beetle house I keep about 40% humid and between 70 and 80 degrees. Any help would be appreciated.
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Have you checked your beetles for mites? I have only had my colony for a couple of months now and they are doing well. I'm no pro, but from what I had read mites can be a problem.
Are you possibly feeding them too much? I have dog food in the freezer for them to "snack" on between heads, but I leave time between heads to make sure the bugs are really hungry before I add another head. This ensures that the bugs are hungry and will go to town and eat good when the head is put in there.
Just a couple of suggestions.
The way it sounds is if I had mites I woud see them so I do not think that, that is what it is. No I do not leave time for them to get hungry. I have way too many heads to do to give them a vacation. I have only been doing this for 6 months and have been all over the charts for consistence, I have had deer heads done in 24 hours and now I have a bear head in for 2 and a hald weeks, and it still is not clean. I am far from getting this figured out.
I'm having the same problem they seem not to be eating very much all the sudden...I have my hunidty at 50 to 60 and temp from 80 to 90...I can't figure it out...i tried to starve them for a week that didn't work...
I don't have time to re-type relevant possible answers.
Type in "taxidermologist wave dermestid"
That was a lot of, I think good info by the taxidermologist.
Thank you guys for all your help.