I have a problem with a colony of beetles I have had for a couple of months. They were all fine ,cleaning skulls up to antelope size and then I noticed all the worms were are gone,lots and lots adult beeltes but no more young,what happened ? I have check and no mites or any other bugs. Nice and warm-75 to 82- with small amount of humitiy.I have had been cleaning skulls for years now and this one has me stumped. Anyone with any answers. Thanks
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I had a similar experience with a colony I started eight months ago. I harvested them, a little at a time, from the field. It happened to me twice where I had a lot of larvea and then they just disappeared. I read on a university web page that the adults live approximately 90 days and it takes some time for the larvea to pupate but when they do you have all those adults laying four or five eggs a day. When the conditions are just right they hatch and the population explodes. I'm not going to pretend to have the answer to your situation but it sure sounds familiar. It happened to me twice so far and nature took its course and I had to spilt that colony into four separate tanks. It was just their cycle. I'm not a beetle expert, I'm not a professional taxidermist, I not keeping the temperature at a balmy 70-80, with a light spray of water from an atomizing bottle once a day. These beetles are resiliant. Life always finds a way to survive.
Your colony is about to explode....Feed 'em and watch 'em grow.
Also, do you have a nest built for them to lay eggs in? I noticed a large increase after I built a nest out of a 1/4" mesh wire fastened in a tube and filled it with cotton. If you do a search or talk to Raven, you can get more info. Lastly, if you are doing skulls with a low fat content like wildcat, compared to pig and bear, try adding something with a little fat.