You can always get more than one emerge from a culture. How much of a mite problem do you have with a culture two months old?

 

Yes, I know that there is more than 1 emergence...however, the problem that I am addressing is waiting a month between each for a single culture...this doesn't have to be.

As for mites...I have never, ever had a problem with mites when it comes to bean beetles.

 

I came across this online while searching humidity requirements, cause mine always seem to fail to fully emerge on the second generation.
Might be useful.

BeanBeetles.org/A Handbook on Bean Beetles: Laboratory Methods

 

I have heard (and experienced) many people say that the second emergence isn't quite as large. I think that this is because when people are harvesting, they are removing as many beetles as possible and not leaving enough in to continue to fully repopulate. It may also have something to do with the fact that the beans have been previously "used" and not as much remains for the new larvae.

As for humidity...I prefer keeping things as simple as possible. I don't believe any of mine have taken any longer than 5 weeks at the most to start hatching out and the humidity in my home (I don't actually measure it often) has been noted in the teens (if my monitor is accurate...which I think it is).

 

I wish I could use BBs instead of FFs, so much easier, so much bigger, and so much ... not smelly.

Where do you seed the culture from? Do you have to have multiple cultures booming weekly already to get this to work?

 

Unfortunately, yes...you do have to have beetles available each week to get it started. If you know any froggers nearby, perhaps they could help you get it started, it doesn't take very many each week. I've also got a few cultures that I've started seeding weekly that I was going to offer in the classifieds, but they won't be ready for about two weeks.

 

I have 3 cultures going right now, but my last round of cultures petered out when the beans were mostly eaten, and the culture was only 6 weeks old, you could actually see through the beans they were so excavated.

So with my voracious strain, should i add new beans every time too? Also, the dust and poop stacks up in the bottom pretty bad after 6 weeks, should I transfer the beans and beetles out to a new container when it gets stinky?

 

If you were making cultures the "normal" way (setting it up with beans and waiting about a month for the "boom" to happen), it sounds to me like what you are experiencing is normal. When the boom happens, the beetles will be present for approximately 10 days and then they all die off. If you wait a month, the eggs that those beetles laid will hatch once again. If your beans have really been eaten to smithereens, perhaps you are starting them with too many beetles and not enough beans. Generally, my cultures consist of 1 cup of beans and probably somewhere between 25-40 beetles (although I don't sit and count them out). Below is an old pic from when I first started experimenting. The beans were seeded as I stated above and the picture was taken after 3 consecutive weeks of constantly hatching beetles. If you notice, there are a lot of holes in the beans...but they still kept coming after that.


As for the gunk left in the bottom...I once read a very good post by Ed who cut the middle out of a lid and replaced it with rug canvas (I believe). I made a similar version using plastic canvas (from JoAnn Fabrics) and a hot glue gun (pic below). This thing is amazing at removing live beetles, dead beetles, dust, broken pieces of beans, and yuck from the cultures! I never have build up happen now. It takes two minutes to make one and will eliminate all of those problems and keep your cultures clean and dry...no mold or terrible smelly problems whatsoever!

 

We recently found a ton of these in our kitchen. They were everywhere and we couldn't find out where they were coming from. After cleaning out the cabinets we found a container of bread crumbs that they made a colony out of. It was nasty.

 

Lol! I've never had problems with finding them colonized anywhere, but I had a serious "blonde" moment one day...

I had dozens of lids that I needed to clean. Put them in a bucket with some bleach water. A little later, I thought I'd mix them around to help things out...with a huge meat fork! Oh, wow! I ripped holes in who-really-knows how many before I realized what I was doing! Now...those things can get expensive, so I thought I'd just carefully check them and throw away the torn ones. Unfortunately, I didn't find all the ones with tiny, little holes...it took weeks and I had beetles escaping everywhere! The family was ready to throw me out!

 

This past week I discovered two BB cultures that had apparently chewed through the polyfiber in their culture lids - one had one hole eaten out and the other had four or five holes eaten out. None have made it to the kitchen that I have observed. Would it be more appropriate to use Aluminum Mesh Lids:Aluminum Mesh Lid - Small Pet Feeders. I think they'd hold back the BBs. Any input would be appreciated...

Thanks,
Bob

 

I had some wax worms chew out of there container and chew through bean beetle cultures. Started finding beans all.over the bug room. Started looking around and that's when I found the culprit. Ha

 

Its $27.50 for 50 pack

 

Bob...


I agree with Ed. There must have been another reason for the holes. Are you sure you didn't stir them with a meat fork at some point? (Just kidding!) Perhaps at some point you have reused lids and had to scrub them which led to the weakening and eventual holes? I have experienced receiving brand new lids that had very thin material which doesn't hold up for a very long term.


It has also been my experience that it seems that they cannot escape from a solid deli lid that has had very small (paper-clip size) holes melted into it.


Nick...


That ad is very misleading. But, I believe Dizzle is right...if you look further down this page http://www.smallpetfeeders.com/87-plastic-containers-lids there is another ad with a small difference in wording for 50 lids @ $27.50.

 

And shipping on the 15 remaining individual lids is over $11.....wth? Kind of robbery right there.

 

By the way Wendy, nice development and explination of culture technique.

Ed

 

Thank you, Ed! I'm extremely flattered!

 

Maybe mixing adzuki with the mung/blackeye peas would generate similar results? The larvae take longer to develop on adzuki beans.

 

can you give us a hint where to get those beans???

 

You can find blk eyed beans at Walmart

 

can someone please tell me were I can a culture or two??

 

I've never used bean Beatles but I would like to. How do you get them out of the culture to feed them to the frogs?
Buddy

 

I stick a toilet paper roll inside and they climb all over it and then take it out and tap into a dusting container.

 

frogsintn...
sending pm

Buddy...
To get them out of the culture quickly and easily, I made some of these...

It's simply a fruit fly cup lid with the center cut out and some plastic canvas (readily available at craft stores) hot glued in the center. I wasn't sure how long they would hold up, so I made a lot of them only to find out that they are extremely durable. (So, now I've got quite a few and it'll take me forever to go through them!)

Simply remove the culture container lid, snap this one on, turn upside down, and shake into your collection container. It works great at removing tons of beetles at a time and keeps the cultures clean and dry by also removing all of the bean dust and pieces that tend to build up over time and cause molding.

 

Thanks appreciate it.
Buddy

 

For those of us working with a small starter of bean beetles.

The adults can survive in the fridge for at least a week-probably longer. I have a few that I pulled out last weekend-I take them out and blow on them every few days and they still will slowly twitch back to life(they are in the veggie crisper at the bottom where it is warmer).

I plan on adding these back in when the ones in my cultures die.

So far my azureus juvies are not too keen on them, however.

 

I use coffee filters folded into a cone, like in a ff culture. They get down inside of it so, when I want to feed, I pull one out and turn it upside down over the feeding cup and they pour out. I like Wendy's idea better though

 

This is the first time I have heard of this. What kind of beatles are they, and where can I get them??

 

Here:

BeanBeetles.org/A Handbook on Bean Beetles: Laboratory Methods

As for where to get them, talk to your local froggers or search in the Marketplace area of the forum.

 

Edit: never mind found what I was looking for.
Buddy

 

I've had a few people here and there ask me about how to get "continuous" cultures started from a regular culture. Since it takes so long to reply and make sure I haven't forgot anything when I write back, I'm gonna put it here for everyone and save myself some typing.

(Cut and paste...if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.)

To get a regular culture of beetles spread out to the point that they're emerging throughout the month takes a little while. The only way that I have figured out to do it is this...

MONTH 1
---On the first day of hatching, take some beetles and immediately start a new culture.
---On about the seventh day after hatching, take some more beetles and throw them in the culture that you started above.

Now, this culture will have hatchings starting at about 1 month and another starting at about 1 month and 1 week. So...it has been stretched out a little farther.

MONTH 2
When the hatchings from this culture begin, do the same thing just adding one more step...
---On the first day of hatching, take some beetles and immediately start a new culture.
---On about the seventh day after hatching, take some more beetles and throw them in the culture that you started above.
---On about the 14th day after hatching, throw in some more beetles.

Now, this culture will have hatchings starting at about 1 month, another starting at about 1 month and 1 week, and yet another at about 1 month and 2 weeks. So...it has been stretched out yet farther. It now covers three weeks of emerging beetles.

Just continue this process 1 more month so that you're adding new beetles every week for 4 weeks (an entire month). Then...finally....vwha-la! You've got a culture that will continue to produce all month long. Actually, it will continuously produce until all of the beans are totally spent. At least two months...but I've had many go on producing (far fewer amounts) for many months.

Granted, it is a long process...but once you get it going it's well worth it!