Fed darkling beetles an orange and they all died?

[wodesorel]

I am so past mad right now! It took me two months to get that many going. I had finally reached a number where I was going to stop pupating for a while.

I gave them one chunk of orange last night, peeled. It was the same orange I gave to the crickets, mealworms, and my millipedes. Everything else is fine. 95% of the darkling beetles are dead and the rest are showing signs of dying.

I don't get it?? Any ideas? I've never offered them oranges before, but it's on the safe food lists for them!

 

[bobcochran]

Not sure what darling beetles are, but if they're adult beetles of zoophoba (king meal worms) neither the worms nor beetles can tolerate any form of citrus fruit.

 

[wodesorel]

Yes, that's what they are! Grr, stupid internet.

 

[MSMorgan]

Uh, oh. I've been giving my beetles old cuties. I'd better get them out of the bin. They're still alive with no ill effects, but........

 

[wodesorel]

Welp, in the end every single beetle dropped dead. Starting fresh with a new batch of pupae, and STILL waiting for little worms to start popping up in the bins! I know it'll be worth it if I can get them them going, but my gosh is this taking forever....


In the meantime, can anyone direct me to a correct list of food items for these guys? I don't want to go through this again and I'd like to be giving them something more than wheat, oat, apple and carrot.

 

[kinyonga]

Maybe this will help...
http://lhsfoss.org/fossweb/teachers/materials/plantanimal/tenebriobeetles.html

I used to have superworm beetles compete the whole cycle in my turtle/tortoise cages. They ate everything the turtles/tortoises ate which was basically what I feed/gutload crickets, superworms, etc with. I would imagine that would work for mealworms too.

 

[wodesorel]

I'll stick with the basics then. Thank you! Funny that the mealworms and beetles got the orange as well and were completely fine.

 

[bobcochran]

I had some problem with mine back in the 90s and talked to the supplier, he said he's the one whO discovered them and started importing them yada,yada,yada. But he did say not to feed them citrus and when I quit doing it, I had success raising the larvae and beetles. Everything else that is a good gut load was fine.