Dermestid beetles

Bigboy · Feb 16, 2009

How many people here are interested in dermestid beetles, the kind that strip dead flesh from bone?

GiantVinegaroon · Feb 17, 2009

seems like a ton.

i'm interested in finding dead ones and pinning them

Choobaine · Feb 20, 2009

here's a picture I took today while feeding my colony on crickets and dog food:

I'd love to know the species, but I don't have a key.

They swarm around the food, getting into every nook and cranny, hollowing it out until all that is left is a delicate shell. My colony is smaller than it used to be, it's at the 500 mark or so, I'm building it up again since I've had some interest in people buying from me.

Also they can clean arthropods for you as well as verts, you just have to be careful and patient.
I have some complete invertebrates I've hollowed out using dermestids. If you want I'll take some pics later, great fun to hold hollow bugs up to the light...

calum · Feb 20, 2009

I find these little critters very interesting, the larvae eat EVERYTHING. I also feed the small ones to S'lings and smaller true spiders. they seem to work well.

choobaine, your species might be dermestes peruvianus if you found them in the british isles.. these seem to be te most common ones.

bhoeschcod · Feb 23, 2009

I do!i love em got two types!

Choobaine · Feb 24, 2009

Hmm I think I'll do a bit of research, I'm having my doubts about D. peruvianus... this site seems to be a good catalogue of dermestid species. Nice photographs too. I need to have a browse later, see if there's anything with ridged elytra and an absence (or at least it's veerrrrry sparse and hardly noticable) of setae on both larva and beetles...

Vulgaris · Feb 24, 2009

Bugguide was very helpful when it came to identifying my larva. I simply posted a few images in ID request (including info of how large it was and what location i was in), and it got idenitified to species level by one of their experts

http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740

good luck!

gvfarns · Mar 3, 2009

Pardon the ignorance on these animals, but is it correct to say that they eat dead bugs but don't bother live ones? In other words, can you keep them in with your feeders to eat those that die of natural causes without worrying that they will attack the live feeders?

Seems like something I'd like to put in with my lateralis. would they eat egg cases?

GiantVinegaroon · Mar 3, 2009

gvfarns said:
Pardon the ignorance on these animals, but is it correct to say that they eat dead bugs but don't bother live ones? In other words, can you keep them in with your feeders to eat those that die of natural causes without worrying that they will attack the live feeders?

Seems like something I'd like to put in with my lateralis. would they eat egg cases?

i dont think so. i used to get 'em when i had to buy crickets for some of my now deceased herps. they're probably great at eating dead bugs in the colony and old exuvia

Rochelle · Mar 3, 2009

We keep colonies of dermestids in with our cricket feeders. They certainly DO catch and eat live crickets (pinheads up to 10 days). I have personally watched it happen. I would never in a zillion years risk feeding a larva to a small sling. They do a wonderful job of keeping the smell to a minimum in the cricket tanks, however.

We have also introduced them to a very large G.portentosa colony with good results thus far.

Vulgaris · Mar 3, 2009

Yes I agree with Rochelle. I have witnessed these dermestid larvae actually eating into live crickets. The larvae seem to just grab on to the back of a cricket and ride around, and they start eating the cricket eventually. I have seen this at pet stores too. Seems to happen when the tank is REALLy over crowded

But they also like to eat the cricket food too

calum · Mar 3, 2009

I have also witnessed this type of behaviour in dermestids. I have seen larvae attack smaller larvae if they haven't fed for a while.

gvfarns · Mar 3, 2009

Rochelle said:
We keep colonies of dermestids in with our cricket feeders. They certainly DO catch and eat live crickets (pinheads up to 10 days). I have personally watched it happen. I would never in a zillion years risk feeding a larva to a small sling. They do a wonderful job of keeping the smell to a minimum in the cricket tanks, however. We have also introduced them to a very large G.portentosa colony with good results thus far.

So I guess putting them in with my lateralis would be only a moderate idea, not a good one, then? I do hate dead roaches and exuvia, but I would also hate any of the roachlings to get munched.

Matt K · Mar 3, 2009

I have three species living in various roach colonies without any issues (not all three seem to live together, its one or two at best in with any particular roach species). They eat leftover roach food, any dead roach (my adults grow old and then "disappear") and seem to eat old molts, frass, cardboard, or anything else other than plastic or eggshell. I have the most of them growing in my bin of B.dubia, and the smaller of them thrives in with the N.cinerea. Another lives with about all my hisser types. I had a fourth larger variety with a white underside but they seem to have disappeared... then there are the tiny tiny micro-mealworm beetles in with all the roach bins, and I have no idea what they feed on (can only guess).

So overall I would say its safe to have them in there...

bluefrogtat2 · Mar 4, 2009

agree

i have them in with my chopardi and they keep the bottom clean and consume adults that happento die.they seen to congregate on the dog food dish.
andy

OldHag · Mar 4, 2009

I used to have a huge colony of them. I would clean skulls for hunters. Then, one dark snowy night, someone turned off the heat source and they all died..... there went my business... oh well, they stunk really bad anyway.

Bigboy · Mar 10, 2009

My colony runs between 1000 and 2000 beetles and it has been driving me nuts. They eat every scrap of meat I give them before I can get anything else. Any good techniques for quickly drying out meat? I ask because the colony goes up and down, up and down since I can't keep giving them a steady supply of small animals and skulls.

OldHag · Mar 10, 2009

I would put in some cat food to keep them going in times of no meat. But that was rare occations..

Bigboy · Mar 11, 2009

I just left some beef heart in the oven on 250 for about 2 and a half hours, I guess this is as good as any other way, the beetles sure don't seem to mind it.

bhoeschcod · Mar 11, 2009

I only have 5 larvae

Dermestid beetles

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnobaron

Arachnoprince

Arachnobaron

Arachnobaron

Arachnosquire

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnosquire

Arachnoprince

Arachnoprince

Arachnoangel

Arachnoangel

ArachnoHag

Arachnoprince

ArachnoHag

Arachnoprince

Arachnobaron