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Ranitomeya

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Everything posted by Ranitomeya

  1. You're going to have a hard time importing any sort of weevil into the US legally unless you're affiliated with a lab and have the time and money to get all of the proper permits. All weevils feed on some kind of living plant material or seeds, so they're automatically considered pests or potential pests.
  2. Why don't you just mail them to yourself?
  3. They're pretty common this time of the year where I frequently go to collect. They live in riparian habitats and require a clean water source. They feed on the fluids of other insects and are predatory on similarly-sized or smaller insects, but will also scavenge on recently dead and dying insects. They will cannibalize if not kept well-fed. They're pretty much like amphibious assassin bugs.
  4. Many adult Buprestidae feed on nectar and pollen or tree sap.
  5. If the mold is growing near or on the opening, it's probably too late for them as the mold is likely growing out from inside. If it's just growing on the surface of the casing due to stuck-on detritus, I you could gently remove the mold and what it's growing on with a damp Q-tip. To avoid this happening in the future, I suggest cleaning the oothecae before setting them aside for incubation.
  6. Ranitomeya

    Leaves?

    The only isopods I keep at this time are dwarf whites, and they're functioning as cleanup crews and small feeders. Thanks for the offer, but my dwarf whites don't go through many leaves and are doing fine with very infrequent additions of magnolia and oak leaves.
  7. Ranitomeya

    Leaves?

    The things we do in the name of science?
  8. If there are so many dead bodies that your current cleanup crew can't deal with it, I suggest doing some cleanup and removing the dead ones. Cleanup crews will help remove some of the dead bodies, but they'll only eat so much at a time.
  9. Ranitomeya

    Leaves?

    I have no idea. I'd recommend setting up secondary containers and testing food items. If they survive, reproduce, and the young successfully mature, you should be fine.
  10. Ranitomeya

    Leaves?

    Yes, dead leaves should still contain their toxins. Many plants will actually load additional compounds onto their old leaves before dropping them as a way of getting rid of waste products.
  11. Ranitomeya

    Leaves?

    Palm leaves decompose rather slowly--they're not great for feeding detrivores with, but they provide ample surface area for detrivores to breed in. I'm not sure about mango, mulberry, seagrape, and royal poinciana, but magnolia works just fine and avocado is poisonous to certain organisms like birds and fish and it may not be safe to use.
  12. Yes, an adult would have the ability to tackle a fully-grown Eublaberus, but it may feel intimidated by large prey and refuse it.
  13. I've found that baby powder will act as a decent barrier against ants for a while. It's a fine powder and they have difficult time walking over it without falling over and they'll actually avoid walking over it if possible. Chances are that you have one of the invasive ants--most likely Argentine Ants. The Argentine Ants here are never-ending, so I always have to make sure there's some baby powder on the floor along the edges of the room where they usually come in from. The ridiculous things have many queens for their colonies and the genetic bottleneck has ensured that they all have the same hydrocarbon profile which allows them to form super colonies. Treating just your home for them is like digging in dry sand--more will pour in from the periphery. I'd avoid the use of diatomaceous earth because that stuff never really goes away. Sure, it's not toxic, but unlike toxins, it doesn't break down. It'll get everywhere--including in your enclosures. Even a small amount will irritate your invertebrates.
  14. If you're unable to pin and position them freshly dead and before they've turned dry and brittle, you can put them into a closed container with some paper towel that's been moistened with water and a little detergent and place them in the refrigerator for a day or two. This will rehydrate them a bit and make it possible to manipulate their limbs without snapping their joints. Don't leave them too long or they may get moldy or start falling apart with decay. Don't be surprised if it smells less than appealing if the roach had died and gone through a bit of decomposition before drying.
  15. Mites usually come with infested grain-based foods, substrate containing mites, or from hitchhiking mites on either the animals you've purchased or from ones that have entered your enclosures from outside. Infested grain-based foods are usually the primary source of outbreaks.
  16. I work in a lab and help maintain their colony of Manduca sexta. They're kept at around 27 degrees Celsius and they take about a day to molt from their fourth instar to their fifth instar. If kept outside of the incubator where it's colder, they take a several days to molt.
  17. Some pesticides are systemic and are absorbed and distributed through a plant after applied as a spray.
  18. I go outside and pick lemons for their acidic juice when I have to clean tanks with stains that need dissolving.
  19. I don't know of any other non-climbing, non-burrowing roaches that are easily obtainable. Although there are larger species with adults that don't burrow or climb, the larger non-climbing species i know of have burrowing nymphs.
  20. Crickets are also non-climbing, so imagine how they were escaping before and then take into account what it would be like if they were able to climb and had a more compressed body plan that allows them to get through narrow gaps. If you plan on using any climbing roach species with small young, you will definitely need to make sure you've sealed every little gap--even the small gaps around the door that allow the doors to open properly. Many of the more colorful roaches that don't look like a typical cockroach do so because they tend to have some sort of chemical defense. Many animals will avoid them just because they have warning coloration--if they don't, they'll learn that they make distasteful prey and will refuse them.
  21. Lobster roaches climb quite well and can do so very quickly even on smooth surfaces. You would have a very difficult time keeping them from escaping an enclosure without some sort of slick barrier unless it's sealed tight and I would not recommend slick barriers in gecko enclosures since you'll cause them to fall or impede their ability to climb if you use something like an oil. You don't need to have climbing and flying roaches since the geckos would go after food they see moving around when lights are out--you just need non-burrowing roaches that are likely to wander around in the open when lights are out. Shelfordella lateralis would work well as feeders as they're active at night and will wander around in the open when it's dark, can't climb smooth surfaces unless it's softer plastic that they can dig their tarsi into, and do not burrow at all.
  22. They may have gotten too hot. 68 degrees Fahrenheit is not cold enough to kill them, but 90 degrees would not be very comfortable to substrate-dwelling nymphs such as those of dubia roaches where they'd normally be experiencing the cooler temperatures of living under substrate. Many thermometers are inaccurate from a few degrees to occasionally more than a dozen degrees. If that were the case, the terrarium may have gotten significantly warmer than you believed and cooked them. If heat was not the culprit, I would be tempted to say that they may have come into contact with chemicals such as pesticides or aerosolized cleaning or deodorizing substances.
  23. It's usually about surface area, not volume unless you have burrowing substrate-dwelling roaches. A bin stocked full of egg carton or other similar climbing surfaces maximizes the space available for the roaches to crawl around on and reduces crowding, but you'll have to determine how many is too many in a bin by how frequently you want or need to clean a bin at that point.
  24. The rate of ootheca production varies based on availability of food, quality of food, and temperature. It looks like mine produce oothecae once every week or two and the oothecae hatch around a dozen nymphs on average. The size of the oothecae vary and that affects how many nymphs are produced. A small colony will not be able to produce fast enough for one reasonably-sized lizard, let alone two. The nymphs don't grow as quickly as you'd think and the oothecae take a while to hatch as well.
  25. A layer of damp paper towels would work to aid in improving moisture levels, but if you avoid having excessive ventilation, you can keep the interior of the bin pretty humid with just a water dish with gravel.
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