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beetle die off?

Discussion in 'Skulls and Skeletons' started by rossco, Aug 27, 2008.

  1. Aug 27, 2008 #1
    rossco

    rossco Member

    251
    1
    Duluth/Cloquet Mn
    So this past spring I got a colony of beetles and set them up in an aquarium with a heat lamp and such. It was always like 80-95 degrees and 50% humidity. I built a freezer style enclosure for them the same as Chasintail gave the wiring diagram for. Basically a freezer with a fan and dryer vent for air circulation. I have the fan going none stop to keep air flowing. Today I dumped the aquarium over into the freezer after I had it in there for a few weeks to aclimate the bugs. When I dumped it there were very few movers and a lot of dead ones. What could be causing them to die like that?
     
  3. Aug 28, 2008 #2
    chasintail

    chasintail New Member

    296
    0
    Pennsylvania
    Of course initial things to consider....heat, humidity, outside contamination of some sort and food.
     

  5. Oct 13, 2008 #3
    BNS

    BNS New Member

    52
    1
    Take a few beetles to your local high school and under a microscope see if you have mites in your colony (usually from having too moist of conditions and poor air circulation).