Confused Rice Flower Beetle Starter Culture
Size: 16 oz container with 20-30 adults
Confused Rice Flour Beetles, or Tribolium confusum are an easy to culture food source for poison dart frogs and other amphibians and reptiles that appreciate smaller food items. They are easy to maintain and can go months without any upkeep making them an ideal supplementary food source. They feed on and live in a media that consists mostly of flour. Being high in protein and fat, the rice flour beetles help contribute to a well rounded diet. Adult beetles live 5-12 months, and the females lay 100-500 eggs with the greatest production occurring within the first week of adulthood. The eggs hatch in a few days and the larva emerge which resemble meal worms, only much smaller. When threatened the adult rice flour beetles can emit an unpleasant tasting gas when threatened, making them unpalatable to some animals. so the larva are the preferred food item. It is important to leave as many adult beetles in the media as possible to ensure that your culture remains productive.
Directions: To feed out the larvae to your pets grab a sifter and sift through the media. Once all the media has evacuated the sifter you will be left with adult beetles and larvae. Set the sifter back into the media and allow the adults to crawl back into it from which they came. Now empty the remaining larvae into petri dishes and place into enclosures for feeding. Ideal temperatures are 73-82 with low humidity.